Oakland Athletics' Las Vegas relocation approved by MLB owners

[TMC]

https://sports.yahoo.com/report-las-...145233760.html

MLB owners on Thursday morning reportedly voted unanimously to approve the Athletics' relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas.

Oakland mayor ‘disappointed' by A's Las Vegas relocation approval

Oakland mayor Sheng Thao said she is "disappointed" by the Athletics' relocation vote being approved by MLB owners.

Manfred admits he wanted A's to stay in Oakland before relocation efforts

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he preferred to keep the Athletics in Oakland before the team's relocation efforts began.

MLB Owners Approve A’s Move to Las Vegas From Oakland

Major League Baseball owners have unanimously approved the move of the A’s to Las Vegas from Oakland, after a vote on Thursday at their meetings in Arlington, Texas. A MLB representative confirmed the vote. The fourth move for the vagabond franchise isn’t slated to occur formally until 2028, when a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat ballpark is …

Oakland A’s set to move to Vegas after MLB owners approve relocation

The Oakland A’s are set to leave their home of 55 years after MLB owners reportedly approved the team’s move to Las Vegas. The owner of the A’s, John Fisher, needed the consent of 75% of the owners of the league 30 teams but the vote was reportedly unanimous in his favor, and was endorsed by MLS commissioner Rob Manfred. Fisher has long sought a move away from Oakland after failing to get local government support for a new stadium in the city.

Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas unanimously approved by MLB owners

The Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas was unanimously approved Thursday by Major League Baseball team owners, cementing the sport’s first relocation since 2005.

MLB owners unanimously vote to approve Athletics' move to Las Vegas

After numerous attempts to move, Athletics owner John Fisher is finally getting his wish.

Viva Las Vegas: MLB owners unanimously approve A's move from Oakland

The Athletics franchise will be the first in major league history to have been based in four cities, and it is the first time an MLB franchise will move since 2005.

[Hawkee]

When it comes to sports teams it seems that Las Vegas is now becoming the sports capital in Nevada as well as America because I think a lot of sports teams seem to think that Las Vegas and Nevada in general is a better city and state for sports teams to make money. Look at the Oakland Raiders who are now the Las Vegas Raiders and the Oakland Raiders moved to Las Vegas because the Las Vegas move meant more money and in hockey you have Las Vegas Golden Knights and when you get the general picture I think people think of Las Vegas is now a popular sports city in the world. But in the other Nevada cities like Reno and Carson City they lack sports teams. But I think the Las Vegas A's will gain new fans in their new home state but once this happens I think the other California baseball teams will move to other cities like the San Diego Padres will most likely move to Sacramento and rename themselves Sacramento Padres. I remember when the Minnesota Twins were gonna move out of Minnesota to Carolina and become the Carolina Twins but the deal fell through. But it seems that when it comes to sports teams nowadays Las Vegas is now the stomping ground to introduce new sports teams

[TMC]

The A's Officially SCREW Their Fans

Discussing the Oakland A's Stadium situation moving to Las Vegas.

The MLB owners unanimously approved the A's leaving Oakland and SiriusXM's Damon Amendolara (D.A.) goes scorched Earth on why John Fisher is a con man. Most of the national media doesn't care enough to consider Fisher refused to invest in the team and the stadium, thereby guaranteeing empty seats. He then pointed at the lack of attendance and ballpark weaponizing it against the city of Oakland and A's fans. Meantime, there's no guarantees in Vegas, which will be the smallest in MLB. The gameplan is sloppy in the relocation, and Fisher never put a good faith foot forward towards the Bay Area. Subscribe for more videos from D.A., who is sure to continue exposing Fisher for the con man he is.

Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle joins us to talk about the owners approving the Oakland Athletics’s move to Las Vegas and how Vegas will react to their new team.

John Fisher has gotten the other MLB owners to vote for his relocation to Vegas and the national media has completely mishandled this story. Damon Amendolara has been one of the only voices outside the Bay Area to call out the con that's happening. He explains why so many of his colleagues have blamed Oakland instead of digging deeper to find the truth: That John Fisher should be held solely responsible for screwing the fans.

Scott Van Pelt decries Oakland A’s move to Las Vegas: ‘Ownership has done all it can do to make this positively awful’

Scott Van Pelt shared lament for Oakland A's fans facing a lame duck season after the team's move to Las Vegas became official.

John Fisher’s A’s flee Oakland under cover of MLB dishonesty, owners’ disgrace

By Ann Killion
Updated Nov 16, 2023 2:14 p.m.

No, it’s what happened before the sun rose over the East Bay hills on Thursday morning, when baseball’s billionaires club voted unanimously to hijack the A’s out of Oakland.

To move the Oakland Athletics out of the city the team has called home for 56 seasons, starting back when the current “owner” was just a small, spoiled child with a silver spoon in his mouth. To leave one of the most diverse markets still occupied by its increasingly un-diverse product. To abandon a city with a deep-rooted and beautiful history in the game.

A unanimous vote to relocate a team that Fisher has methodically disemboweled to what will be the smallest market in MLB, in the smallest ballpark, before a population with virtually no interest in the team’s arrival. A vote to ignore the problematic timeline and disregard the thousands of questions left about tangible details and viability.

A unanimous vote. By the “stewards” of the game.

The vote, which took place about 6 a.m. West Coast time, signals the dawn of an even darker age; the reddest of all the red flags that have been thrown at baseball. This unanimous vote is a sign of obvious collusion among owners, and another indicator that this corporate monopoly should not be exempt from this country’s antitrust laws.

The owners waived their own chance at a massive relocation fee, accepted and parroted lies from Fisher and his minions, ignored the reality of the situation, all to protect one of their own. The most dysfunctional of their own. A man who has deliberately ruined his own franchise.

Which sends a pretty clear message. The people who run baseball do not care about you, the fan. They do not care about the integrity of the game. They do not care about the viability of a historic franchise. They care only about circling their gold-plated wagons and taking another sip of Macallan single malt, while stuffing public tax dollars in their pockets.

Shame on the San Francisco Giants, who have paid glowing lip service to their crosstown rival while just waiting for this day to have the entire market to themselves. Their vote was always going to be a self-serving yes, but the Dodgers, Angels, Padres and Diamondbacks? The three Southern California teams ceded a huge territory to the Giants; those four teams will be adding another competitor to an already crowded 320-mile radius.

Shame, particularly, on the Padres, who voted to move the A’s just two days after the death of their owner, Peter Seidler. He was remembered as a wonderful booster for his city, an owner who refused to accept a small-market mentality that his team couldn’t compete, a man who knew baseball was entertainment. In other words, the anti-Fisher.

This years-long process has been filled with lies and obfuscations and buffoonery, and that didn’t stop at the owners meeting in Arlington, Texas, this week. Rob Manfred has been untruthful and demeaning during the process, from insisting that Oakland wasn’t serious about Howard Terminal to mocking the fans’ reverse boycott and publicly degrading Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao.

Manfred continued spreading untruths on Thursday, saying there “was not a viable path in Oakland.” There was always a viable path in Oakland: the Coliseum site. It was Fisher who chose the least viable option.

The biggest lie of all was, as usual, told by Fisher. In a laughable attempt at being human, the man who never addressed fans — and spoke to select media only after Vegas politicians approved his deal — spoke to three A’s fans in the hotel lobby in Arlington, complaining, “It’s been a lot worse for me than it’s been for you.”

Get out your tiny violin for the man whose net worth is $2.6 billion, who lined his pockets with revenue sharing money, who never even tried to put a competitive team on the field the last couple of years and whose pursuit of a new venue lacked credibility. He made an awkward appearance at the podium Thursday and released a statement saying, in part: “We made sincere efforts to keep our team in Oakland.”

Not true. He spent a dozen futile years trying to get to San Jose or Fremont, before his laughable foray to Laney College and subsequent full-court press on an absurdly complex development at Howard Terminal before abruptly pulling the plug in April.

But, as good colluders do, his fellow billionaires believe Fisher’s lies, and they’ve been amplified by Manfred. Dodgers chairman Mark Walter told the Chronicle, “The Oakland thing isn’t sustainable. They couldn’t get approval. They tried. This wasn’t some head fake … wasn’t a quick decision.”

That surely must come as a surprise to Thao, who was blindsided by the news the A’s were dropping out of negotiations even as she and her staff were securing financing and believed they were close to a binding deal.

On Thursday, Thao expressed disappointment in the vote but said, “We do not see this as the end of the road. We all know there is a long way to go before shovels in the ground and that there are a number of unresolved issues surrounding this move.”

That’s code for “John Fisher could still screw this up.” That’s the last remaining hope, because he taints everything he does. There is a chance that Schools Over Stadiums could get on the Nevada ballot, and the apathy that Las Vegans feel toward this project could go to a vote. There appears to be a weariness among Vegas citizens over their lives being exploited by billionaires and upended for sports. The vote came amid reports about how Formula One wildly overestimated the appetite for this weekend’s big race in Las Vegas, having to drastically slash prices for an event designed for the wealthy that has prevented the average person from getting around town.

Las Vegas already got one dysfunctional former Oakland sports owner in the Raiders’ Mark Davis. Now, rather than getting a shiny new expansion team to call their own — like their wildly popular NHL Golden Knights — they will get the worst owner in all of professional sports.

Oakland will hold out hope for an expansion team. After the A’s left Kansas City in 1968, the Royals arrived in 1969. There is no hope for a similarly quick timeline now, and the relationship between Oakland and MLB lacks any trust or goodwill. That animosity will only grow during what is sure to be a disastrous 2024 season — Oakland fan groups have called for a full boycott of the lame-duck season. Manfred raised the possibility of the A’s staying at the Coliseum beyond 2024, but one only hopes Oakland refuses to let the A’s squat at the Coliseum and forces Fisher to wander the wilderness while his tiny ballpark is built.

In 2016 Manfred said, “If we were to leave Oakland, I think 10 years from now, we would be more likely than not looking backward, saying we made a mistake.”

Seven years later, Manfred was celebrating only the second move of a franchise in the past 50 years. But most of the baseball world outside the billionaire owners club believes this is, indeed, a mistake.

Manfred had one last lie to tell, when asked whether he thinks Fisher is a good owner.

“Over the long haul, yes, I think he has been a good owner,” Manfred said.

Dishonest. Disreputable. Disgusting.

[TMC]

MLB owners approve team that they will soon hate

A’s brass get the OK to move to Vegas, which their comrades will soon regret

By Sam Fels
Published Thursday 12:15PM

It has been said by many more talented and knowledgeable people than me that the biggest problem with MLB owners is all they see is the next dollar, not the five farther down the line they could have, much less the next win. Oh sure, there are exceptions. Philadelphia’s John Middleton seems to get it. The recently departed Peter Seidler in San Diego did too. Other than that, they might be hard to find. Pretty much everyone else is eying whose grandmother or puppy they can run over to squeeze extra profit they’ll never actually notice from whatever’s on the other side.

So there was never any chance the owners were going to vote down John Fisher’s complete head-up-his ass, boondoggled moving of the A’s from Oakland to Vegas. There will come a time when any of these f*ckwits and failsons will want to hold their own city hostage, or even move like this, or have some proposal that will choke whatever morsel of soul is left in baseball, and they’ll need the approval of their fellow conniving giblets to do so. They long ago obliterated the looking glass of being stewards of the National Pastime, so much so that it isn’t the National Pastime anymore.

But even if you can ignore how big of an astronomic asshat Fisher may be, and if you can ignore the fact that Oakland was offering up more public money to build a stadium to keep the A’s in Oakland where they belong, and if you can ignore that the Howard Terminal proposal actually had the real estate grab/scam that all owners want that Fisher won’t get in Vegas, and if you can somehow ignore the way that Fisher has driven this team into the ground, and if you can ignore how one of the league’s most passionate fanbases was simply disregarded and discarded — and that’s so much to ignore that you should never be asked to do so — moving an MLB team to Vegas is a terrible idea! And MLB owners will hate it quite soon!

MLB owners just voted to allow a team to be moved to what will be the league’s smallest market, for a team to play in the league’s smallest stadium. They could spend three seasons as vagabonds with no home other than their own Triple-A stadium or as unwanted guests in other people’s stadiums before they even get there. The entire plan hinges on thousands of people, 81 times a year, deciding they want to fly to Vegas in the middle of summer to watch their team three times. Or that enough people will travel to Sin City regularly enough to sell out a three-game series if everyone just would rather trudge to this edifice of idiocy and greed in the heat just once. This is the plan.

By 2023 numbers, if the A’s sold every single ticket to their 30,000-seat stadium in a sauna for most of the year, they would finish 17th in attendance. They will not sell every single ticket.

Which means this team that the owners just voted to allow to embark on this pirate ship to oblivion and heat death will soon be propping up this team with revenue-sharing money. They’ll be paying for it. In fact, they already are. And perhaps that was Fisher’s plan all along, concluding to himself where no one could see that he’s far too stupid and incapable of monetizing anything around a ballpark and thus would have turned any ballpark village into a testament to his own imbecility.

Even if TV deals are a thing by the time the A’s crawl out to the desert already in desperate need of water — it’s likely by then the league may have taken over everyone’s by then as is their wont — they will not be getting much of a deal to service the 40th-largest TV market in the US.

This is a vote to make for a basket case of a franchise the day it starts in Vegas, and maybe even negative three years. It’s obvious to say that the A’s are already a basket case, though Fisher basically made them that way. But what would have worked better? The tiniest ballpark in the tiniest market in a climate inhospitable for getting to the park or sitting outside? Or a gleaming new park right downtown that included far more of a footprint for Fisher and revenue streams in the nation’s 10th biggest market, in one of the wealthiest areas in the country? Isn’t it just possible, with all of that, that the A’s might have become the big market team that the Bay Area suggests they should be? Well, not under Fisher’s ditch-focused guidance, but under someone with a few neurons that fire at the same time? Did anyone think the Giants were a big market team before they moved into their palace in downtown San Francisco?

Fisher isn’t going to start spending big when they get to Vegas. Not drawing 15,000-20,000 per game as they assuredly will. Not with anything else lining his pockets, as he might have gotten with his sought-after “ballpark village” at Howard Terminal. All he’ll have is the team he hates and a ballpark that can’t get him enough. But of course, his plan is assuredly to sell it the minute the stadium is complete and make it someone else’s problem. Or he’ll just continue gobbling up revenue-sharing money while he pays for nine guys who had been holding a dice stick just an hour before the first pitch to take the field.

MLB owners will be bailing this team out from Day 1. And owners hate revenue sharing, which is why they try to take it out on the players every time the CBA expires. More than a few will openly wonder why they’re sending money to a team that doesn’t use it to try to be competitive in a market that they just chose to allow him to be in. They just voted to have another Pirates, another Reds, another Marlins. You can be sure that owners in New York, Boston, Chicago, L.A., and San Francisco will be wondering why they just did what they did very soon.

While the A’s franchise is expected to rise in value with suite sales, advertising and ticket revenue from Las Vegas casinos and resorts, MLB owners inserted a binding protection provision in the contract before approving the deal. If Fisher decides to sell the franchise soon after moving to Las Vegas to make an immediate profit, he will be heavily taxed on the sale, which will be split among his fellow MLB owners, according to another owner who spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity.

Chapters:

• 0:00 Rob Manfred, MLB Commissioner opening comments
• 10:00 John Fisher, A's Owner, Statement Only
• 15:07 Rob Manfred, MLB Commissioner Q&A

Bud Selig and the Oakland A's New Stadium: A Lack of Leadership and Courage

DANIEL PETRI
JUNE 13, 2011

Two years ago, while the Oakland Athletics ownership team of Lewis Wolff and John Fisher failed to gain approval for a brand new stadium in Fremont, CA, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig took the bold and aggressive step of creating a committee with the purpose of finding a place for the Oakland A's to build their new stadium.

At the time Selig announced this new task force, he stated that this would be the way to bring the A's into the 21st century with a state-of-the-art ballpark to replace the old and depressing Overstock.com Coliseum (known by many A's fans as "the Mausoleum").

Two years later, and the A's are still stuck in the 20th century; no decision has been made regarding a new stadium. The decision for Selig and his committee, in the eyes of many, was whether the A's could find a viable alternative in the city of Oakland, or if it would be best for the A's to move about 40 miles south down to San Jose.

A's owners Fisher and Wolff have argued that they exhausted all leads within Oakland and that there are no viable places to build a stadium—they want a park in San Jose. The City of Oakland has pushed to keep the A's in town, but only under new mayor Jean Quan. Previous administrations had mostly rejected pleas from the A's to build a stadium. The City of San Jose has openly lobbied for the A's to move there with Mayor Chuck Reed leading the campaign.

Despite the superficially obvious solution (the A's move to San Jose), there remains a significant obstacle—the San Francisco Giants were given territorial rights over Santa Clara County (where San Jose is located) and they are not giving up their rights. This defending of territory by the Giants has created a bitter taste in the mouths of A's fans because the Giants only own Santa Clara County because A's ownership allowed the Giants to take control of the area (which was originally shared between the two clubs) because they desired to create a stadium down there in the 1980's.

Obviously, the Giants never moved to San Jose, but that hasn't prevented them from blocking a potential A's move.

Adding to the growing bitterness of the A's fans, is a news report that surfaced in The Modesto Bee. Supermarket mogul Bob Piccinini attempted to purchase the A's in the early 2000s; however, he argues his attempts were blocked by the San Francisco Giants, who—he claims—urged Selig and MLB not to allow his purchase of the club.

Piccinini hinted at collusion between the Giants and MLB to essentially run the A's out of the Bay Area.

Piccinini backs his claim with statements from Giants executives who he knew, in addition to Selig's comments that allowing the A's to move to Oakland was a "mistake." There is, however, no hard evidence to prove such a claim.

A's fans can be angry and frustrated with many people: Oakland A's owners Wolff and Fisher, the City of Oakland or the Giants. In reality, however, the real blame lies at the feet of Commissioner Bud Selig. The most powerful man in baseball has shown no real leadership or initiative with regards to getting the Oakland A's a new stadium.

Two years to "study" the issue of where the A's can build a stadium is gross incompetence. Either the City of Oakland has a viable place to house the A's new ballpark, or it doesn't. If it does not, then the only other cities large enough to support a stadium are Fremont and San Jose. A plan in Fremont fell through, so that leaves San Jose.

The Giants' territorial rights, while a stumbling point, are not a serious problem. Rights can be negotiated away for a fee, the Commissioner can override the rights if he wanted to or the rights can be overridden by a vote by the league owners. Yet, Selig had taken no visible action to try and remedy this issue.

The A's and their fans deserve closure. For MLB to continue to twiddle their thumbs and to claim that they are still investigating is not good enough. There are two good scenarios that both involve a ballpark, and one bad one.

The bad scenario is limbo, the state the A's are in right now. Uncertainty over the location of the team has driven away fans and corporate sponsors. It hinders the team's ability to attract free agents and to keep their own homegrown talent.

If there is a place to build a stadium in Oakland, Selig should tell the team and tell their fans. If there is not, then Selig needs to take a stand and tell the Giants to work out a deal or he will remove their territorial rights.

The waiting game produces conspiracy theories like that the Giants, Selig and MLB are attempting to drive the A's out of the Bay Area, or that the A's are set to be wiped out of baseball via contraction.

It is time for baseball to make a decision. The A's, their fans and the cities of Oakland and San Jose deserve it.

Details on the tax if John Fisher decides to sell the team

From Bob Nightengale's latest column:

• Major League Baseball owners, who agreed to allow A’s owner John Fisher to move his franchise from Oakland to Las Vegas, voted to approve the deal under one intriguing caveat.
  
• There’s a provision in the agreement called a 10-year flip tax, MLB executives told USA TODAY Sports, to prevent Fisher from using the relocation simply to increase the value of his team and immediately sell.
  
• MLB gave Fisher about a $300 million break by not charging him a relocation fee, but if he turns around and tries to sell the team, he’s going to have to pay a stiff penalty.
  
• The agreement, an executive told USA TODAY Sports, requires Fisher to retain the team until at least 2028 when they are scheduled to open in Las Vegas.
  
• If Fisher sells before 2028, he will be taxed 20% of the purchase price, which will be split among owners.
  
• If Fisher sells in 2029, he will be taxed 10%.
  
• If he sells in 2030-2033, he will be taxed a decreasing amount each year.
  
• He will be unable to sell the team without being taxed until 2034.
  
• So if Fisher was thinking about pulling a fast one, there will be a price to pay.

[TMC]

A brief history of the Philadelphia, Kansas City, Oakland, and (preemptive) Las Vegas Athletics and the franchise's up-and-down history.

In this video I talk about how the 2023 Oakland Athletics became one of the worst teams MLB has ever seen and arguably the most pathetic franchise in all of sports…

The Oakland A's are moving to Las Vegas. It doesn't have to be that way.

The Oakland Alameda Coliseum has hosted the NFL and MLB of over 64 years, and is the last dual use stadium in existence in the US. How it has survived is a sad tale of failure. Today you will learn about America's worst ball park.

What happened to the sports teams of Oakland?

Hello and welcome to my channel! In this video, we go over how the Oakland Athletics are coming to an END forever...

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

Now that MLB Owners have spoken, the blame game has begun. While many National observers see empty seats and pile on Oakland and Athletics fans, people in the know locally and in the trenches say that they have it all wrong. One thing is for sure, the A's loyal Fan Base is not quitting or going away quietly. Will their determination and resolve be worth it in the end?

In a contrast of styles, the Oakland A's to Vegas saga took another turn. In the wake of Commissioner Manfred and Athletics Owner John Fisher addressing the media regarding the potential move, some are directing most of the blame on the "never quit" Oakland A's fans. Wayne digs in to this and also explains how MLB is trying to stave off a Fisher "pump and dump" sale with a Tax Levy that ought to give him plenty of pause. All that and more on this episode of "Locked On A's."

Radio veteran and lifelong Athletic Supporter, "Locked On A's" host Wayne Coy discusses all things A's baseball; past, present and future. From Philly to KC to The Town. From Lefty & Eddie to Catfish & Reggie to Rickey & Eck to Miguel & Giambi to Chappy & Oly to Esty & Zack; Celebrate the Green & Gold and the A's enduring legacy with Wayne every day with "Locked On A's" the daily podcast about the Oakland Athletics, part of the Locked On Podcast Network.

Be sure to subscribe to "Locked On A's" and come back every weekday to spend time with one of the biggest A's fans you'll ever meet. Thanks for making "Locked On A's" your first listen every day, and please tell your friends!

The Oakland Coliseum, soon to be deserted by the Oakland Athletics, sits within an underdeveloped and overly industrial corridor within the city. Kevin Jenkins, the councilman who represents the area, would like to tell you a little about his district.

“We lack a major grocery store,” he said.

People need places to dine, places to shop, and places to gather.

“They need,” Jenkins said, “somewhere they can go for entertainment and have great memories for their families here in their hometown.”

What they do not need turns out to be exactly what they have: a 120-acre site, vacated by the last of three major sports teams to play there, ripe for development — and controlled by the guy who is moving the A’s to Las Vegas.

John Fisher, who owns the A’s, also owns a 50% stake in the Coliseum property. The city owns the other half.

“We need to develop that site,” Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao told me. “I hope he doesn’t hold it hostage.”

[TMC]

The Oakland Athletics are officially packing their bags to Las Vegas, Nevada. After decades of disrespect, greed, and deception, John Fisher and the A's give the final blow to the incredible fans of Oakland.

A complete timeline of how everything fell apart for a once dominant and prized franchise, into losing their home and countless fans along the way.

Major League Baseball owners, who agreed to allow A’s owner John Fisher to move his franchise from Oakland to Las Vegas, voted to approve the deal under one intriguing caveat.

There’s a provision in the agreement called a 10-year flip tax, MLB executives told USA TODAY Sports, to prevent Fisher from using the relocation simply to increase the value of his team and immediately sell.

If Fisher sells before 2028, he will be taxed 20% of the purchase price, which will be split among owners.

If Fisher sells in 2029, he will be taxed 10%.

If he sells in 2030-2033, he will be taxed a decreasing amount each year.

He will be unable to sell the team without being taxed until 2034.

[KurtfromPitts]

One thing I hope the A's NEVER do is change their colors. Too many MLB teams wear red, blue and black. Besides, the A's green-and-gold jerseys are what attracted me to sports team logos and uniforms in the first place.

[Yong Fang]

I lived in Las Vegas thirty years ago and now the city is about twice the size it was then, so I am sure things have changed. But, and it is probably still true, not many people are from Las Vegas and probably those that are, are younger than thirty. Most everyone else is from California or back east, and they have their own teams and their own “hometowns”. Hell, there used to be and might still be bars that were dedicated to one team or one city.

Like I said, things have probably changed but when I was there, most people were in the service and hospitality industry who worked every weekend of their lives and could never afford an NFL ticket. How much is a ticket? Probably several hundred dollars, to watch the Raiders. Ok. I did fly over that billion dollar palace at night coming into Los Angeles a few weeks ago (shout out to the dude in the window seat for showing it to me!)

I guess now there are enough wealthy people who can afford an NFL game. MLB I am sure is also very expensive. I just wonder how many fans are going to cheer for the A’s or will just go when their “hometown” team is in town.

[1960'sTVfan]

The owner of the A's is corrupt scum and so is the MLB commissioner. Having said that, the city of Oakland is not blameless because it has a history of inept politicians with regards to the sports teams there. Back in the 1970's Oakland lost their NHL team the Golden Seals when the team relocated to Cleveland. This A's situation is another example of ineptitude. For years there has been talk of building a new stadium for the A's in Oakland but that's all it's been is talk, nothing has gotten done and time has now run out. Vegas seems to be the new glamour city for sports teams so I'm not surprised the A's are wanting to go there. The Oakland Raiders moved to Vegas so the A's might as well follow. It's a disgusting situation for Oakland but that's the way it is.

The other thing is, the Oakland Coliseum isn't really that old, opened in 1966 I believe, if it only had been properly maintained and upgraded over the years this need for a new stadium wouldn't even be necessary, what a waste and such a shame.

[Duster76]

If I were living in Oakland I would feel a sense of deliverance that the hapless taxpayer isn't subsidizing the A's. Let the A's buy the land and construct their own ballpark. Economic study after economic study has shown that in fact these stadiums do not pay for themselves. Almost all the games are on TV and they will be available through some package MLB sells, so frankly I don't see a problem. The reality of the modern ballpark is this, it's in fact not a ballpark at all but a shopping and dining destination with a game going on in the middle. Ballparks have restaurants in them, clothing stores, souvenir shops, socialization areas (bars), food courts with all sorts of options, places to take selfies, and recreational activities for children. Someplace in the middle of all this a baseball game is going on. The last time I was at a game (2018), all I saw were fans getting up and down going for food, taking selfies, looking at iPads and their phones, hell the line-ups weren't even posted on the 10 million dollar scoreboard.

I feel sorry for the poor citizens of Nevada forced once again to subsidize yet another ballpark. Sports leagues are nothing but a scam, a monopoly fully protected by the government and subsidized by every taxpayer and cable subscriber in the country.

[1960'sTVfan]

Since the relocation request has formally been approved, it seems at this point that the only way for the A's to remain in Oakland would be for their current corrupt owner to sell the team to someone like Joe Lacob who would work with the city government to finally get a stadium deal done in Oakland. The chance for this to happen is not likely but it's not zero. Back in 1978 the A's were very nearly sold and relocated to Denver but something happened at the last moment and the deal didn't go through.

The A's will be in Oakland for 2024 but after that it's unknown where they will be. If the deal in Las Vegas goes through, it's said that the stadium won't be ready until 2028 at the soonest. So where will the A's be in 2025, 26, and 27? Will they sign another lease to play at the Oakland Coliseum for a few more years until the Vegas stadium is ready? Or will they play elsewhere? These are interesting questions that have yet to be answered.

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by Duster76

If I were living in Oakland I would feel a sense of deliverance that the hapless taxpayer isn't subsidizing the A's. Let the A's buy the land and construct their own ballpark. Economic study after economic study has shown that in fact these stadiums do not pay for themselves. Almost all the games are on TV and they will be available through some package MLB sells, so frankly I don't see a problem. The reality of the modern ballpark is this, it's in fact not a ballpark at all but a shopping and dining destination with a game going on in the middle. Ballparks have restaurants in them, clothing stores, souvenir shops, socialization areas (bars), food courts with all sorts of options, places to take selfies, and recreational activities for children. Someplace in the middle of all this a baseball game is going on. The last time I was at a game (2018), all I saw were fans getting up and down going for food, taking selfies, looking at iPads and their phones, hell the line-ups weren't even posted on the 10 million dollar scoreboard.

I feel sorry for the poor citizens of Nevada forced once again to subsidize yet another ballpark. Sports leagues are nothing but a scam, a monopoly fully protected by the government and subsidized by every taxpayer and cable subscriber in the country.

I agree that modern baseball stadiums have all sorts of attractions aside from the actual baseball game. It's almost like the game isn't the main event anymore. And the ticket prices are outrageous so the average person can barely afford the cost.

[TMC]

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• John Fisher's Negligence Is To Blame, Not Oakland Fans

[TMC]

Chapters:

• 0:00 These are 6 comments I see frequently
• 0:49 "Oakland fans should have shown up"
• 7:57 "There was no deal in Oakland"
• 10:16 "The A's will be different in Vegas"
• 12:22 "The A's were Rooted in Philadelphia and Kansas City first..."
• 14:48 "Oakland doesn't deserve an expansion team..."
• 16:49 "Vegas has better sponsor & media opportunities..."

The Oakland Athletics are officially packing their bags to Las Vegas, Nevada. After decades of disrespect, greed, and deception, John Fisher and the A's give the final blow to the incredible fans of Oakland.

A complete timeline of how everything fell apart for a once dominant and prized franchise, into losing their home and countless fans along the way.