Oakland A’s owner John Fisher addresses the news media at a press conference on Thu Nov 16, 2023 in Arlington concluding the MLB owners vote to relocate the A’s to Las Vegas in 2028 at the new Tropicana ballpark. (AP News photo)
By Mauricio Sugura
MLB Owners Vote Unanimously To Approve A’s Move To Vegas
With sports writers, analysts, and insiders predicting it, Major League Baseball owners voted unanimously this morning to allow the Oakland Athletics to relocate to Las Vegas as soon as the 2028 season. “Today marks a significant moment for our franchise, and it’s met with mixed emotions, sadness for this change and excitement for our future. I know this is a hard day for our fans in Oakland,” A’s managing owner John Fisher said in a statement.
Despite knowing this would most likely happen, it was still a blow to A’s fans everywhere, especially to die-hard fan groups like the Oakland 68s and others, along with city government officials. For the past few months, they have been in high gear, pushing MLB and Fisher to take another route and reconsider the move or sell the team entirely to someone like Warriors owner Joe Lacob, who has stated his interest in purchasing the team and keeping it in Oakland.
There were rallies, writing campaigns, a successful “reverse boycott” that even had the Hall of Fame asking for a “SELL” t-shirt to display at the museum, and many more efforts both in Oakland and in most other ballparks around the country.
However, it’s apparent that none of their efforts made an impact on the team, league, or other owners who have now willingly opened the door for a Sin City move. But is this really it? Are the A’s really leaving? Most things point to yes, but there are still too many factors lingering that have a lot of insiders questioning if the A’s will truly finalize their effort.
Further saying that they won’t believe the outcome until there are shovels on the ground at the Las Vegas Tropicana site. And even then, the word “iffy” has been tossed around more than a pickup game of “pepper.”
The truth of the matter is that John Fisher has been trying to get the A’s out of Oakland since he bought the team in 2005. First to the Warm Springs district of Fremont, which fell through due to opposition from local groups and residents.
San Jose was also in play at one point, but that was squashed by the San Francisco Giants who refused to give up their territorial rights to the South Bay. Several locations in Oakland were then considered, including Laney College and even an entire revamp of the current Coliseum grounds.
Eventually, however, Howard Terminal became the top site, and the A’s worked with the city to make it happen. This is where the Soap Opera of “As the Athletics Turn” hit prime time.
There were lawsuits, negotiations, promises from both sides, letdowns, uplifting news, beautiful renderings, even talks of a gondola which would give fans a ride high above the city streets from downtown all the way to the ballpark.
It was a roller coaster of information that eventually settled to point to a promising possibility. Then came COVID, and everything stalled. A new Mayor was elected, and at first, things seemed bleak as the word was she wasn’t as enthusiastic about the project as the previous mayor, Libby Schaaf, had been.
At this point, depending on who you ask, the entire process has been a he-said, she-said drama. The Oakland mayor’s camp says they have gone above and beyond in trying to get funding and legislation passed that the team has asked for, actually accruing more than was expected.
According to Mayor Sheng Thao, the city and the A’s are 90% on their negotiations to finalize the Howard Terminal deal. If Fisher comes back to the table, they can finalize everything and have shovels in the ground by the summer of 2024.
Now, if you ask MLB and the A’s, they’ll say that Oakland has dropped out of negotiations, the deal was nowhere close, and they had no option but to seek moving the team to Nevada. So who’s telling the truth?
Well, Mayor Thao has presented novel-sized binders of paperwork detailing every aspect of negotiations, while the MLB and Fisher’s camp have only made comments to the press with zero substance to back up their statements.
When Fisher bought the Athletics, they were still on the “Moneyball” high of the 2002 season. It was a perfect time to capitalize and bring in another championship World Series trophy to Oakland. But almost immediately, it became apparent that Fisher wasn’t into fielding a winning team.
In the almost 20 years that he’s been at the helm, he’s gained the reputation of taking players with the greatest potential and squandering them off to the highest bidder instead of keeping them and winning a championship. Names like Kurt Suzuki, Yoenis Cespedes, Sean Manea, Josh Donaldson, Matt Chapman, and Marcus Semien, just to name a handful.
Not only that, but he’s put in little money back into the Coliseum itself regarding maintenance. The place has pipe and sewage issues, you can see rust in the stands, and we even have a resident possum living it up in the press box rent-free! It’s in complete disarray.
However, in all fairness, it doesn’t seem like the city, who own 50% of the ballpark, has done much in that respect either. All this and more is why A’s fans have become increasingly frustrated every year and have decided to stay home to the point where if there are 8,000 fans at a Friday night game, it’s celebrated like a “sell-out.”
In April 2023, pretty much out of nowhere, A’s president, Dave Kaval, announced that they had purchased a 49-acre lot in Las Vegas and were now turning their attention away from Oakland. The site would include a luxurious new 30,000-seat retractable roof stadium, with the rest of the area set aside for restaurants, apartments, and even an amphitheater venue which was apparently one of the most important aspects of this and the Oakland Howard Terminal site.
They wanted extra room for real estate ventures. Yet, no more than three weeks later, the gears were changed, and they then announced a new agreement at the current Tropicana Casino location where they would now settle for a 9-acre corner with no additional land for their real estate ventures. What? Additionally, they wanted the city to fund $400 million of the stadium build.
The money ($380 Million) was awarded in June during a special session approved by both the Nevada Senate and Assembly, with the help of Nevada’s governor, Joe Lomdardo. The funding will mainly be derived from transferable tax credits and county bonds.
Fisher has vowed that once the ballpark is built and the team begins play, he will put in the money to field a championship-winning team. This is highly reminiscent of what he promised when negotiations for a new soccer stadium in San Jose (Fisher is also the owner of the Earthquakes) were happening.
Well, he got the San Jose stadium. Still, in the eight years since, the Earthquakes remain low in salary compared to the rest of the league, and Fisher is already claiming that he won’t put up money because the stadium is already outdated.
Despite this, Las Vegas gave him the money. Lastly, in order to pay back the money to the city, the A’s will have to fill up the new stadium to about 80% capacity night after night for 30 years. Some things just defy logic!
And speaking of logic. Today’s approval by the owners was given without the team letting anyone know very crucial elements. There are no known renderings of the ballpark, no one knows which architectural firm will be chosen, or a direct timeline of things to come.
Also, where will they play between 2025 and 2027, after their lease with the Coliseum ends in 2024? Mayor Thao has stated that she’d be willing to extend the lease only if Major League Baseball awards Oakland an expansion team and the A’s leave their name and likeness in Oakland.
Many other important issues are unknown, yet the owners still voted it through. There is a chance that the A’s have opted to remain hush-hush about the details, only sharing it with the other owners, but why? Again, there is just no logical explanation for any of this. What John Fisher and the A’s are doing is unknown to most.
As stated before, today’s vote opens the door wider for the A’s to walk through, but there will be opposition and lawsuits both in Oakland and Las Vegas, and possibly on a national level. The A’s are indeed almost on the verge of moving to Las Vegas, but only time will tell if they roll a 7 or a 3.
Mauricio Segura has been a Bay Area sportswriter & photographer for the past 20 years, covering baseball, soccer, football, and basketball. He’s contributed articles for Area Chica Magazine, The Baseball Analyst Quarterly, and various newspapers. He currently publishes an online sports and entertainment website called Golden Bay Times and is the graphics and art Director for the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame.
Mauricio Segura The Golden Bay Times Owner / Writer / Photographer
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