Category: That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

Las Vegas Aviators Field could be the Oakland A’s interim home while their stadium is being built on the Las Vegas Strip with a ready date of 2027 (photo from lasvegassun.com)

Difficult to build Sports stadiums in Bay Area

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

Is it just a “coincidence” that Oakland has lost three professional teams in the last 5 years? Or does anybody here question Oakland’s politicians’ leadership?

Oakland is on its way to losing their third professional league team in the last five years, Raiders, Warriors, Athletics. The Bay Area has always been a difficult place for teams to build stadiums/arenas. Many factors, like very expensive to build anything here, also the lack of land/location availability, plus a very sensitive area for environmental issues which always take preference in the Bay Area.

In 1992 Bob Lurie, owner of the San Francisco Giants agreed to sell the Giants to a Florida group that would relocate the team to Tampa Bay. That same year, the A’s ownership under Walter Haas, gave the San José territorial rights to the Giants, who were thinking of building a stadium in San José, they never did. Years later after failed elections, the Giants build their own park (inaugurated in 2020) mostly with private money.

• 49ers could not build in San Francisco: The San Francisco 49ers with a great history and tradition, with five Super Bowl titles, could never build a new park in San Francisco. In 2014 they packed their helmets and move to Santa Clara, where they build their current home, Levi Stadium. So, the San Francisco 49ers play in Santa Clara, but that is “small potatoes” because the Warriors have played since 1971 at Oakland and now San Francisco and they are still The “Golden State” Warriors, so if they win another NBA title I suppose it will be a State win?
• Oakland A’s could not build in Oakland for 20 years. The A’s proposed Howard Terminal Park is a very nice plan, next to the water in Oakland, 35,000 seats in what was going to be a revitalization of the city of Oakland, a $12 billion project. But now, that plan looks like a thing of the past, and a trivia question for future generations after last week A’s announced they have a binding agreement to buy 49 acres of land a mile from the Strip in Vegas where they hope to build their $1.5 billion half-dome stadium. Las Vegas is a growing city now looking to its third pro-league sports team, NHL Golden Knights and NFL Las Vegas Raiders. With time, they will probably welcome the NBA and MLS teams to their gambling town, with time, it will happen. In Las Vegas, the A’s are being promised half a billion dollars from the state of Nevada for their new ballpark.

Who is to blame for the Oakland A’s leaving the Bay Area, the owners of the Oakland A’s, the City of Oakland politics, climate change? Whatever your opinion there are facts to be presented to the jury; as the City of Oakland precedent is not a good one when it comes to sports franchises, that (and the jury) must take into consideration.

Oakland is not a city ran with great competence and good results for its citizens, all you have to do is watch the news every day.

The Verdict: What comes first, the chicken or the egg? 2022 A’s attendance was the lowest in all of major league baseball. Why fans are not attending? The owners do not put any money on the field to keep their stars, they rebuild every few years and it is a vicious cycle, very tough for any fan to keep involved with the team, plus it has been 34 years since the last time the team won a World Series.

Oakland A’s fans are good loyal fans. Fans do not attend? Well, they can only take so much and the City of Oakland Mayor said they wanted to keep negotiating with the A’s, until when, the year 2500? This could be a hung jury because there is enough guilt on both sides, seems the City of Oakland and the Oakland Athletics deserved each other. In this case, the perfect divorce. Case dismissed.

Note: A question often asked: Where will the A’s play while their new ballpark is build in Las Vegas? A’s President Dave Kaval said last week that the team has an option with the Howard Hughes Corporation, which own the Aviators, to play at Las Vegas ballpark for the 2025 and 2026 seasons with 2027 the target date to inaugurate their new ballpark a mile from the strip.

What this means, is that more than likely the 2024 season for the A’s could be played at the Oakland Coliseum. 2024 is the last year of the lease with the Coliseum. However, that could also change since the A’s are 50% owners of the Oakland Coliseum.

The NHL California Golden Seals Seals ended up playing nine seasons in California before relocating to Cleveland in the mid-1970s, but their beginnings go all the way back to the early 1960s when they were a minor league team in the now defunct Western Hockey League known as the San Francisco Seals.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Oakland A’s lead play by play Spanish announcer on 1010 KIQI San Francisco and 990 KATD Pittsburg and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

A map which outlines who and where businesses and where the Oakland A’s Tropicana ball park would be located on the Las Vegas Strip. The Oakland A’s have announced that they have a binding agreement with the state of Nevada to move to Vegas and their new ball park in 2027. (Las Vegas Review-Journal photo)

Adiós Atléticos – Oakland Lost in Sports World–

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

OAKLAND–While the Mayor of Oakland Sheng Thao was attending a film screening at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland to watch the new documentary “Stephen Curry: Underrated” on the opening night of the San Francisco Film Festival and Oakland police was investigating a number of car burglaries in that area, one of which was the car of Mayor Sheng Thao, about 560 miles east in Las Vegas, the Oakland A’s were closing in on a binding agreement to construct a $1 billion baseball stadium north of the Allegiant Stadium (home of the Raiders) with the support of Nevada Governor.

Nevada Gov Joe Lombardo and top lawmakers in a deal that will not involve new taxes, as it was reported by multiple sources. Stadium is planned to be ready for the 2027 season.

It remains how history will judge all protagonists, who are to blame, and all the details, but the fact remains that the city of Oakland has lost the Raiders to Las Vegas, the Warriors to San Francisco and now the Athletics to Las Vegas, completing the Trifecta in Sports (hard to do) and leaving the city of Oakland lost in Sports land.

Southern Nevada would be the fourth home for the franchise that started in Philadelphia in 1901 as the Philadelphia Athletics, later Kansas City A’s, and then since 1968 Oakland A’s that has captured nine World Series titles, leading the way in Bay Area baseball with four World Series titles in Oakland.

Although the move was expected, is sad news for Bay Area baseball fans, especially A’s fans who since they moved to Oakland in 1968 had supported the team. The City of Oakland was named the “City of Champions” during the 1970s as their three professional sports team, A’s, Raiders, and Warriors all captured titles during that period.

“We understand that it’s a difficult message for our fans in Oakland,” Kaval said. “We want to thank Oakland and express a tremendous amount of gratitude for all the years it has hosted us as a franchise. We’ve loved our time there. Incredible memories and championships.”

More to come.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Las Vegas Aviators Stadium at dusk, the Oakland A’s possibly could end up playing here while they wait for their new ballpark to be built if they come to an agreement with Vegas officials and if they don’t get an agreement in Oakland (file photo by the Las Vegas Review Journal)

A’s is it Oakland or Las Vegas? – The case for both cities

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

OAKLAND–The 2023 season just began and the clock is doing the job the Commissioner expected. Most games are way less than three hours. Last Sunday in Seattle the Guardians and the Mariners played a game in 2 hours and 3 minutes. 2023 is also the year to fish or cut bait for the Oakland A’s franchise. Do they leave Oakland after over half a century and four World Series titles in this city (that is one more than the Giants) or like the Sinatra standard “Come Fly With Me” they leave for Las Vegas?

The case for Oakland: The City of Oakland is not a huge metropolis with just over 400,000 residents inside their city limits, but it is the third largest city in the nine-county Bay Area, only San José and San Francisco have a larger population. It doesn’t matter because we have between 6 to 7 million people in this area and two major league teams. One (Giants) have played in San Francisco since 1958 and the A’s since 1968.

Yes, the A’s are rooted in Oakland, and common sense tells us this is where they should stay. They already have a planned ballpark, Howard Terminal. Oakland is not famous for keeping their pro teams; they lost the Raiders to Las Vegas and the Warriors to San Francisco.

The track record of keeping their teams in Oakland is not that good. Yet, it makes sense since they are already ahead with the plan with a designed new park ready to go. But then there are the problems with the funding for affordable housing at the Howard Terminal area a plan that would change Oakland forever, a $12 billion project.

As of today, the Mayor of Oakland Sheng Thao says it is all fine and that they are optimistic, but they do not even have a binding agreement and it might never happen because not everybody in the city council is in favor of Howard Terminal and some will say they want the team to stay in Oakland and build a new place at the same location. But the Commissioner says that is a “no go”.

The case for Las Vegas: Nevada is a desert, sometime in the future they could run out of water, the chance of running out of water, that is their biggest problem, but they have the room and they could have the will and the money if the State decide to use funds to help the construction of the A’s park.

Joe Lombardo, Governor of Nevada did not rule out public funding for the A’s. Team management has been traveling to Vegas and has looked at three different sites; with the Rio Casino Hotel might be the one preferred location. Sooner or later, Las Vegas is going to get a major league baseball franchise, maybe by expansion, but it is not that easy.

Expansion might take more than two or even three or more years to happen. The A’s seem to be hanging on a tree like a ripe mango to take. There are other cities like Portland and Nashville (ex-A’s great Dave Stewart is involved with Nashville trying to get an expansion team).

However, and very important is that the A’s know Nevada legislation will not meet in 2024, they have to get a deal done this year, 2023. If not, then what? Oakland/Bay Area is the 5th media market in the US, Las Vegas is 40th. Even Sacramento is a larger media market than Las Vegas, as the State Capital comes in as the 19th media market.

These three famous ex-players, the first two in the Hall of Fame, had said publicly that Las Vegas would be the place to the A’s to relocate, George Brett, Greg Maddux and Jason Giambi. This is what they said:

George Brett “They should come here,” he said. “I was talking to some guys earlier, and I said if I was in the Oakland organization, I’d rather play Triple A than in the big leagues.

Greg Maddux – Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux said he’s all for bringing an MLB team to Las Vegas, be it the Oakland Athletics or an expansion team. “Any team would be great as a fan,” said Maddux, a longtime Las Vegas resident.

Jason Giambi played for the A’s from1995 to 2001, then came back to play for the A’s in 2009 and on the 23rd of May hit a home run in Oakland against the Arizona Diamondbacks, it was the 400 home run of this career.

I called it in Spanish for A’s radio and remember giving him a disc with the recording which he appreciated. This is what Giambi said “the affordability of living in this area compared with California will be a big draw for free agents”.

In conclusion: I want the A’s to stay in Oakland. I have been a resident of the Bay Area since 1969 and I have worked for both the A’s and Giants calling many of their games, with the Giants doing all 162 games home and away traveling with the team.

I am afraid Oakland is playing with fire as they might take it for granted (that they will stay), but I am not sure. The city of Oakland has big problems; crime, they’re short of cops, all you have to do is watch the news every day, homelessness is a tough problem to resolve.

They need to build more affordable housing and projections now show a growing potential current year deficit of $72M. This is one of the most serious financial challenges the City of Oakland has ever faced. Also, Oakland never got the $182 million grant they needed from the Federal Transportation Department’s Mega projects.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the lead play by play announcer on the Oakland A’s Spanish radio network 1010 KIQI San Francisco and 990 KATD Pittsburg and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com