Oakland A’s fan at the Oakland Coliseum on Fri Apr 28, 2023 thumbs down the idea of the A’s moving to Las Vegas (Las Vegas Review Journal file photo)
On the Oakland A’s Commentary with Steve:
On the Oakland A’s podcast:
#1 How practical is it for the Nevada tax payers to front the A’s some $200 million to 75 million to cover the existing gap to cover the $395 million to pay towards the $1.5 billion A’s new ballpark at the Tropicana site in Las Vegas. Some people interviewed in Las Vegas are against paying for a ball club that’s deliberately not trying to win and bringing them to Vegas.
#2 The A’s currently have a $59 million payroll while most of the other MLB clubs have a $100 million which keeps most of them somewhat competitive. If the A’s are in Vegas and fans are only showing up to see Shohei Ohtani or Aaron Judge will the A’s be able to sustain business as usual?
#3 The A’s manager Mark Kotsay said that losing is 100% his responsibility. That Kotsay beats himself up everyday about it and he doesn’t know how to hide it. It’s a constant struggle. It’s not going to change much at this point because A’s Money Ball genius Billy Beane and general manager David Forst are not going on the free agency market anytime soon.
#4 The A’s as it turned out could have pushed during their times of trying to move to San Jose that the San Francisco Giants no longer had territorial rights because those territorial rights that the A’s gave them so they could have moved to San Jose were used so they could try and build a stadium in the South Bay and once they had built their own stadium in the City they should no longer have those territorial rights anymore and the A’s should have had a chance at trying to get a ballpark in San Jose which they are being blocked by the Giants.
#5 Taxpayers in Las Vegas are skeptical about spending the $395 million of public money for the stadium tax credits towards the Tropicana Ballpark when they see how A’s owner John Fisher is not putting any money into trying to be competitive. Most likely Fisher and the A’s will be competitive after they get the new ballpark at Tropicana but on the face of it the taxpayers in Vegas are wondering if the A’s come will they continue compete with a low payroll.
#6 Do you see any outside chance that the A’s Tropicana deal could fail and Fisher would go back to Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and try to iron out a deal at Howard Terminal?
#7 The NBC Bay Area Sports fired TV broadcaster Glen Kuiper for using the N word on a pre game broadcast during a series in Kansas City. Kuiper joined the A’s broadcast team in the early 90s. Some critics say you don’t use that word unless you use that word.
Stephen Ruderman covers the Sacramento Rivercats and MLB for http://www.sportsradioservice.com
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