Oakland A’s podcast with Morris Phillips: Budget crunch–A’s could share park with triple-A Nashville

Photo credit @athletics_fanly: Former Oakland A’s pitcher Bartolo Colon pitched for the A’s with a Oakland Oaks throw back jersey during an A’s promotional day tribute to the old PCL team

On the A’s podcast with Morris:

We asked Morris his thoughts of the possibilities on the idea to bring the Oakland A’s triple-A affiliate, the Nashville Sounds, to Oakland. The money conscious-minded A’s could save a bundle from shipping players from Oakland to Nashville and vice versa by moving the team to Oakland and sharing the park with the Sounders and rename them the Oakland Oaks (named after the former PCL team in the ’40s and ’50s).

The A’s will probably own the Oakland Coliseum property soon enough and then they’ll have their say on running the facility once that’s in place. The Oaks could play at the Coliseum on days that the A’s are on the road. It would also be a good way to keep the Coliseum busy when the A’s are not using the park.

The A’s would save money on flying players back and forth from Nashville and if they would consider consolidating the the A’s and Oaks to one location. The NHL’s San Jose Sharks are doing that with their minor league club, which they moved from Worcester to San Jose, and they’ve saved a bundle on travel not to mention being able to being able to get players up to the big club by a short walk down the hallway.

If the A’s move to Jack London Square, they can continue to have the Oaks play at the Coliseum since the A’s would own the Coliseum property anyway. With the money the A’s save, they could finally have their Spanish radio broadcasters travel with the team and announce all 162 regular season games. They could afford to have them on the charter and stay at the team hotels and promote the A’s to their largest untapped audience, the Hispanic radio market.

Morris Phillips is filling in for Jerry Feitelberg for today’s podcast. Morris covers Oakland A’s baseball each Sunday home and away at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

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