Las Vegas A's?

[Irish27]

[Merkin]

The Clark County commissioners are amazing.

[CatsbyAZ]

Seems it's an open secret that Athletics owners have wanted a move from Oakland for years. And to lay the groundwork for this the ownership has been tanking, but not with the usual franchise tanking we're used to. Instead of losing for the sake of a higher draft pick, the As ownership has ruined the gameday experience (raising ticket prices, defering stadium upkeep) and driven off the fans to justify moving the team elsewhere – Las Vegas.

Oakland’s home attendance Vs the Cubs this past Monday was announced as 4,714. And they have a league worst W/L record of 3-16.

[CardiacCats97]

Much like what Georgia Frontierre did to the Rams.

The A’s haven’t been terrible that last 20 years. I think they’ve made the playoffs 7 or 8 times in that span, even as recently as 2020.

[Merkin]

Good article on the decline of the Oakland Coliseum.

https://oaklandside.org/2021/03/19/oakl ... terminala/


and the planned Howard Terminal waterfront park which apparently the A's did not think was good enough.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/mat ... 426272.php

[AzCatFan2]

The Coliseum was old, dirty, and dilapidated 20 years ago. And when you compare Oracle Park in San Francisco with the Coliseum, it's night and day. Not sure why the Howard Terminal planned park didn't at least spark further conversation, but I agree, the A's want out of California. The Raiders got a sweet deal and new stadium in Vegas, and I guess the A's wanted to follow.

[CardiacCats97]

I think the A’s asked for a ton of public money to build that place and the city wanted the A’s to kick in way more than they were willing to pay.

Essentially the A’s said that if you want us to stay you’ll build us a palace and let us make all the money off it.

[Merkin]

I think Oakland offered only $85M for the new waterfront park. The LV ballpark will cost $1B.

Funding has not yet been determined for the LV ballpark, but the Raiders did get $750M to move by way of a 88 cent tax on each hotel room in Clark County.

[CatsbyAZ]

This intersection of Las Vegas BLVD and Tropicana Ave where the aging Tropicana might be torn down for a new baseball stadium is famed for boasting the most hotel rooms in the world, accounting for also the New York/NY, MGM, and Excalibur.

[VegasCatFan]

People out here don’t want ANY public money spent on the A’s. The owner is a billionaire but a huge cheapskate. He could finance the stadium on his own.

He won’t pay for players which is why they suck. The AAA team here is only averaging a couple thousands less a game than the A’s as it is.

[EastCoastCat]

The A's have always fascinated me. From Finley to moneyball.

What is about Oakland franchises?

[CatsbyAZ]

[CardiacCats97]

Any truth to the rumor the A’s immediately signed the guy to a deal to pay him way less than he’s worth?

[CatsbyAZ]

Reverse Boycott Night:

[CatsbyAZ]

Attended yesterday's Athletics home game Vs the Phillies.

After hearing all season how small Oakland's home crowds have been, yesterday drew their third largest crowd of the season, only behind Opening Day and last Tuesday's Reverse Boycott. When I realized by the 4th inning this was most likely because of Father's Day - plenty of families were in attendance - that was when I remembered to call my Dad to wish him happy Father's Day.

Halfway through our call, Oakland fans broke out in chants of "Sell The Team! Sell The Team!" Dad, overhearing, naturally asked for an explanation. I tried explaining how nobody within a square mile of me likes this guy named John Fisher thanks to his plans to move Oakland's baseball team to Las Vegas.

"But," my Dad asks, "isn't everybody who can, aren't they leaving California for places like Vegas?"

On that note, I've never seen a more graffiti-ed city than Oakland California.

[TheCatInTheHat]

I've been through some pretty sketchy parts of NYC, Chicago, DC, Boston, and Philly. To me, Oakland may be the worst. The A's have a long and impressive history, but they spent 67 years in other cities before moving to Oakland, so I can see why they'd leave for Vegas if they get anything remotely close to the original stadium deal that was unveiled there. But, based on local taxpayer response, it'll probably be scaled back and/or we'll all get to pay even more in hotel and car rental fees. Gotta say it's worked out pretty well for the Raiders.

[Merkin]

I remember going to an auction house in Oakland around 1987 when we lived in San Francisco.

We were getting hungry so went to the KFC next door. The entire counter area was behind inch thick bullet proof glass, and you passed the money and received your food through turnstiles.

Don't recall ever seeing that before or since. Neighborhood seemed fine, but maybe at night it turned different.

Sure liked those old A's teams. Think Reggie was my favorite player back then, and even watched him on the Yanks although I have always hated the Yanks before and after Reggie.

[CatsbyAZ]

"The Oakland Athletics still don’t exactly know where they’ll be playing the next few years, but in 2028, they will be become Las Vegas’ first Major League Baseball team."

"The A’s still have a lease to play in the Oakland Coliseum in 2024, but will not have a permanent home until 2028 when they are expected to move into a $1.5 billion facility on the Las Vegas Strip."

"They will play games in Summerlin, Nevada, home of the A’s Triple-A team, Oracle Park in San Francisco, where the San Francisco Giants play, and perhaps also the Coliseum." 

[Merkin]

$380M in NV state funding. Oakland couldn't compete with that. I would have let them go too. Several studies have shown that people don't spend extra money to go to sporting events, they just shift entertainment dollars from one bucket to another. Restaurants and other local businesses get hurt.

SoFi didn't need any public financing.

[CatsbyAZ]

Tropicana officially sets a permanent closing date of April 2nd "in preparation for the decommissioning and demolition of the structures. The demolition is slated to make room for the Athletics' proposed 30,000-seat ballpark."

"A’s leadership is looking far and wide for another ballpark to call (temporary) home. And we mean really far. Like, more than 700 miles far. On Thursday, team executives met with Steve Starks, the CEO of the company that built Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake City. Smith’s is currently home to the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees, but they plan to move to a new ballpark in 2025."

[azcat49]

Seems like they could refurb that stadium where the used to play the vegas bowl. Mostly bleachers that could be moved and build a Diamond and a wall

[CalStateTempe]

Come to sac play at Rivercats stadium

[UAEebs86]

No worse than the Coyotes playing in ASU's hockey stadium that seats less than 5,000.

[VegasCatFan]

Seems like they could refurb that stadium where the used to play the vegas bowl. Mostly bleachers that could be moved and build a Diamond and a wall

There's a fairly new AAA stadium in a nice part town that's drawn over 500,000 each year. Not sure if the two teams could co-exist or not in the same park though. There's still plenty of issues getting financing for the stadium. Probably 95% chance it'll be where the Tropicana is, but not a done deal yet.

[RichardCranium]

There must be a high school diamond in Kingman they could put 5000 seats or so in while they build Liberace Field at Tropicana Stadium in Laxalt Park.

[CatsbyAZ]

^
^
^

?

[Irish27]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/394 ... n-bay-area

[VegasCatFan]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/394 ... n-bay-area

The Las Vegas mayor is not over the Strip where the proposed ballpark would be. That’s considered unincorporated Clark County. About half of what people think is Las Vegas really are townships. So, regardless what she says and wants has no influence at all over anything on the Strip. And a lot of the surrounding areas for that matter. Not quite sure why it’s like that though. The entire area should be considered Las Vegas in my opinion.

[Irish27]

[ChooChooCat]

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being that the stadium will 100% end up looking like that and 1 being it won't look remotely like that whatsoever, that rates at least a -100000000000000000.

[VegasCatFan]

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being that the stadium will 100% end up looking like that and 1 being it won't look remotely like that whatsoever, that rates at least a -100000000000000000.

Absolutely HATE the look of the stadium! Right now it’s about 50-50 between love/hate. I’d like to know who the 50% are that love it. Vegas likes to do cheesy but that design is ridiculous.

[Chicat]

Unless it’s the Sydney Opera House of course…

[Chicat]

Moving to Sacramento temporarily?

[CatsbyAZ]

For about 3 seasons? Until the stadium in Vegas is ready.

In related news the Tropicana closed its doors over the weekend after 67 years of business on the Las Vegas Strip.

Sutter Health Park, home of the Sacramento River Cats; Capacity ±12,000. About as nice as a AA stadium gets:

[AzCatFan2]

My parents live in W. Sacramento about 10 minutes south of the Rivercats stadium where the A's will be playing. Been to a couple of games through the years, back when it was Raley Stadium, and it's a decent AAA stadium that seats about 14k. With the A's averaging around 6k in a 60,000 seat stadium, it's not like they are going to be losing money! Still, this does feel a lot like the Coyotes playing in a 5,000 seat Mullet ASu college arena. It's unbecoming of a professional team in the big leagues, in my opinion.

[CalStateTempe]

Sign me up, gonna love biking to the games!

[MrBug708]

Sounds like they won't have a city affiliation, which is dumb since they could easily use California or Golden State (Sunshine) if they wanted to.

[RichardCranium]

Sounds like they won't have a city affiliation, which is dumb since they could easily use California or Golden State (Sunshine) if they wanted to.

Aw hell no.

They wanna be America's Team. A for 'Merica!

They'll move cities every seven years or so, just like the Raiders.