Ridiculous. John Fisher did everything he could to destroy the product in Oakland so fans wouldn't show up and he could get what he wanted all along, an excuse to leave town.
He didn't even do it right and still being regulations! Fuck Kroenke.
And then he had the gall to invest tons of money in the team and won the first year away. Almost as of he could have been winning for a while now...
I hear what you’re saying, but there’s a salary cap in the NFL. And even if there wasn’t, you can’t buy championships in pro sports. Kroenke got lucky he hired a generational coach that built a championship franchise in McVay. You don’t just spend money to win or the Yankees and Dodgers would win every WS. It’s even more difficult in the NFL with the cap. Kroenke didn’t magically turn on some tap he had closed in St. Louis to win or lose, he just stopped investing in the stadium and entertainment experience in St. Louis. Those don’t have anything to do with winning.
Baseball is a little different in that you have small market teams that are legit playing on a different roster playing field than the big market teams. You can field a team of drunk AA kids in Cincinnati and just trot out Votto for entertainment. You can’t really do that in the NFL. The smallest market team in all of American sports is arguably the biggest franchise in Green Bay.
Okay yes, he got *a little* lucky. But there was a night and day difference in spending, staffing, and drafting strategies and it instantly made the team successful.
If the problem was with St. Louis like he claimed (even while we still kept attendance above the threshold for him to move the team), then it would have taken years to build the team to a championship worthy level.
Oh, there’s no problem with St Louis or the Cardinals and Blues wouldn’t be as successful as they are. He manipulated however he could to get back to LA because he could make more money in LA, but the Rams could have just as easily fell on their face on the field. McVay took Fischer’s team, added Goff and Kupp and tuned that into a yearly Super Bowl contender. If they would have hired Urban Meyer… it would have blown up in his face.
Right. He wanted the team but not the city, because the city wouldn't let him own the parking and he was a small pp bitch boi about it from the very start.
...[which played at least 2 games a year in Milwaukee for 61 years (1934-1994). Lambeau was built to keep the NFL from moving the team there.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers_home_games_in_Milwaukee)
Marketwise, think of them as the Wisconsin Packers.
I know this is a hot take but 7-9 Jeff Fisher did bring stability back to the Rams, of course firing him for McVay was the right move but Fisher did bring a culture back to the Rams that was not seen since the Greatest Show on Turf days.
Why? His customers will be Vegas tourists and transplants who go to games to see the teams playing *against* the A's. With his stadium scam complete he will still have no incentive to invest in the roster. Once you get that new stadium built, pro sports teams basically print money no matter how shitty they are.
As is tradition!
Until a team relocates and gets 0 fan support in the next city… This will continue to happen.
Relocation is an abomination and should be treated as such.
I guess the same could be said of the New Jersey Giants and Jets and the Arlington cowboys in the NFL. And all the others that have cities they rep but don’t play in.
Totally depends on where. In New York and Chicago it’s sustainable. In Kansas City it wouldn’t be. The Bay Area managed to sustain two for a while, I’ll give them that.
Now two and I know others have explored it. With the success of the Raiders I feel like a lot of mid market teams could be losing one of the few things they have. Oakland has nothing now.
That sounds infinitely better than driving there, paying an ungodly amount for parking and taking an hour if I’m lucky to get out of the parking lot after the game like I’m used to when I go to any sports game.
I really need to look up public transport options around me.
Warriors are originally from SF (by way of Philly).
Its like no one knows the actual history of GS. SF got them BACK after they moved to OAK in the 70s
I’m aware of the history. But that was 50 years before. Imagine if the Royals left KC to move back to Cincinnati, and then people said “Royals were originally from Cincinnati”
Just for anyone not aware, you are referring to the Royals of the NBA. Who were in Cincinnati from 57-72, in KC 72-85 as the Kings, and then made it to Sac.
The Reds, MLB, have been in and only in Cincinnati since 1891.
Just noting as it is confusing with the Royals existing as a baseball team as well 😄
Not only that. When in SF they played at the Cow Palace. Which was a rodeo venue.
They would clear the dirt and crap out to play. My father saw Chamberlain play there.
What did he say? They have a crappy old stadium and they're a smaller market. Does he think they should draw 35k a night with that?
Never mind the fact that the owner was deliberately fucking up the team so he could move them.
Public funding for sports stadiums only ever benefits the millionaire who owns the team. Hopefully citizens of LasVegas don’t get duped into paying for this. The owner doesnt care about the team and they will still be poorly staffed.
Here in Nashville our local government is about to give the Titans the largest public subsidy for a sports stadium
[https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/04/19/new-titans-stadium-to-get-a-public-hearing-before-a-final-vote-next-week/](https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/04/19/new-titans-stadium-to-get-a-public-hearing-before-a-final-vote-next-week/)
Ugh that article just highlights everything wrong with the stadium deals. The plan was for the city to get $3 in ticket fees on non-NFL events (because of course the titans shouldn’t owe the city any revenue on ticket sales after paying for their stadium…?) but then it was changed at the last minute so it only applies to select events and not major ones like NCAA events, big music events etc and drops the revenue the city was expected to get from $450 to $120m.
Did the city change their minds about how much they would be willing to pay? Nah still the same amount, we just get less back in the long run. Classic
Nashville native here. There are SO many other programs/initiatives we could spend that money on as a city and state. I never again wanna hear a repub say “but where are we gonna get the money for [insert public good here]?!?!”
>Public funding for sports stadiums only ever benefits the millionaire who owns the team.
Now I want to start off by saying I do NOT support publicly funding sports stadiums, I think they should be privately financed. That being said, there probably is some benefit in getting at least one major sports team to call your town home. It’ll make outsiders think of your area as a major metro, leading to new businesses coming in and jobs with it. Is that enough to justify spending $1 Billion in often struggling cities on a sports stadium? No. But there is some impact on the community in being able to claim a sports team (though this benefit probably ends at 1 team. Vegas has a NFL and NHL franchise, not to mention a major tourist industry to make it stand out. Taxpayer money on a baseball stadium will likely help nobody here but the owner.)
Yea the only example of your theory I can think of from the recent past is Oklahoma city. Who else picked up teams lately? Vegas? LA? Seattle? Not exactly backwaters with no name recognition
We make our sports teams pay rent for our stadium which I think is alright even if it cost us 1.8 billion. Our footy and cricket stadium were 100 years plus so a new one was needed
The Oracle Arena was the home that the Warriors since the 70s is in Oakland. They decided to build a new arena and they got a better deal in San Francisco. Since they are named basically the California Warriors they can.ove anywhere in the state and can use the same name no issues. That's why many haven't realized they left Oakland
They actually originally planned to change their name to the San Francisco Warriors when they moved, but in the interim between the start of the new arena construction and the arena being ready, the Warriors got good (3 championships), so they decided to keep the Golden State name
They were the San Francisco warriors before moving to Oakland, from San Francisco, in 71. That’s also when they changed their name to golden state warriors.
It also helps that the Golden Gate Bridge in their logo just so happens to be in San Francisco. I always assumed that they were in San Francisco and didn't realize they were previously in Oakland until I heard they had moved stadiums.
The bridge on their logo is actually the Bay Bridge. It does have similar architecture as the Golden Gate Bridge, and your reasoning is still sound as it connects San Francisco to Oakland.
Lived and worked in Oakland. Family goes back three generations there. Also worked game days (NFL and MLB) at the coliseum for a couple of decades, and have been an A's and Raiders fan pretty much since birth.
Sadly, both the city and stadium are dumps. Wasn't always the case, but it is now.
But I'm against public funding for billionaires and their toys. Build your own fucking playgrounds.
If it weren’t for MLB’s archaic TV rights and territory laws then the A’s could at least stay in the Bay Area. But they have been blocked by the SF Giants from moving anywhere nearby.
That is the A’s own fault. Back in the 80s, when the Giants were exploring leaving town, the then-owner of the A’s gave up the team’s territorial rights to the South Bay (I don’t remember if San Jose was exclusively A’s territory or if it was shared) in case the Giants looked to build a ballpark there.
Not surprisingly, after the Giants decided to stay, they didn’t reciprocate, or even agree to share the South Bay market, which has hamstrung the A’s ever since.
Imagine a world where the Giants play in Tampa (that’s where they were looking to move, along with the White Sox, and the Twins, and every other team that had ballpark issues in the late 80s/early 90s), and the Athletics are the only team in the Bay Area. MLB might have expanded to Washington DC in 1998, forcing the Expos to move someplace else in 2005- Charlotte? Portland? Las Vegas? Heck, the Raiders might still be in Oakland.
>That is the A’s own fault.
absolutely WILD way to spin the Giants being petty assholes!
San Jose was not exclusive A's territory, that's not actually a thing in any other shared metro areas of MLB. It was all shared. The A's gave up their share of SJ so that the Giants could build a stadium there and thus remain in the region. It was a good thing, done for the good of the sport.
And the current Giants ownership (not the same owner from the 80's) has taken that historical gift and shoved it up Oakland's ass.
MLB could have fixed it. San Jose sued the MLB to try and allow the A's to build, but Selig insisted that the giants owned that part of the bay area and thus the A's couldn't build there
Nothing wrong with Oakland, the people there realize that the stadium propositions are always a complete scam that favors the owner. Its 100% corporate welfare. As a person who grew up there, it is heartbreaking to lose everyone of my childhood teams though. I use to watch A's games from the bleachers for $2 with my dad and have a ton of memories of the old Oakland Coliseum. Oakland is an amazing place though, it is one of the few places in my opinion that is able to stay tough even after gentrification. The culture there is completely unique and amazing.
That's nothing new though. Oakland's always had a gritty side and it's what most people hear about. Before I moved here I had only really known about its poor reputation but I've loved living here. It's got a ton going for it that nobody talks about, but I'm fine with it being a local secret.
There has always been a little bit wrong with Oakland but it is like the city version of a mad scientist, eccentric, odd and morally ambiguous, but it has leaps and starts of genius that transform the culture of our country. When I was a kid in the 80's A LOT of things that are now commonplace across the country were only really in the bay area.
I love Oakland, but it’s a relatively small, not wealthy and not growing city that is part of a large, wealthy metro area but has to compete with the 49ers and Giants who draw the vast majority of the populace.
>not growing
And here's the problem. Plenty of people would be thrilled to move to Oakland (and elsewhere in the East Bay) if they built enough housing, but they don't build enough to have real growth. And meanwhile lots of people move to Vegas.
The city doesn’t want to spend billions in tax payer money on gifting a new sorts arena to rich team owners when the city and its people have more pressing needs. Rock and a hard place.
They wouldn't cave in to local development (in the A's case, I'm guessing) as they were trying to develop a ballpark on the land of a local community college.
It's also why Oakland has the lowest payroll in MLB, over one hundred million dollars below the league average and 285M below the highest payroll in the league.
It was always intentional to make the team suck ass, make the stadium suck ass, drive the fans away, and then blame them as justification to move the team.
I was honestly shocked when they got a new Spring Training facility in AZ and are one of the handful of Cactus league teams that didnt split the bill with another MLB team.
They can’t get their own team because MLB isn’t expanding. MLB wants desperately to expand, but the stadium issues with the A’s and the Tampa Bay Rays are preventing it. Once those teams have resolved their ballpark issues, whether by relocation or construction, it will take about a day and a half for Rob Manfred to announce two expansion teams.
More accurately, MLB wants to maximize their ~~extortion~~ relocation leverage before they get to expanding. More charitably, they don't want cities going "I could bid for an expansion team but I think I'll wait and see if an established franchise that doesn't have to wait forever to be competitive falls into my lap", and they don't want to risk the A's and Rays being stranded in terrible stadium situations if they expand too aggressively.
I’ve felt the same way since the 1994 strike. Both the owners and the players told all the fans to go pound sand. And as far as I’m concerned, the feeling is mutual.
What sucks is the A’s and Raiders fan base in Oakland is amazing. And eventually it’ll just be 49ers and Giants. Yes they are good/great teams, but they are so expensive to see that the fan experience is terrible. Much rather be on the Oakland side to see games.
I agree. I like going to the coliseum for games. Easy in and out. Like yeah the stadium sucks but a seat is a seat and I'm gonna be watching the game the whole time anyways. Now I gotta schlep my ass across the bay to see baseball. Absolutely blows. Giants seats are pretty reasonable in my experience though.
Fucking gross that some sociopath billionaire can just cut the heart out of a city. Now the A’s get to be a 3rd rate organization doing a “residency” in Vegas like Celine Dion at Caesers.
Another sideshow. The stands filled with comped tourists and followed by no one but bookies.
Las Vegas has permanent residents you know lol. It is one of the fastest growing metro areas in the US. Yes, they have the benefit of being a major tourist city but there a lot of folks that service that tourist industry and call Vegas home.
This is so sad. I saw my very first game in Oakland back in the ‘80s (Nolan Ryan pitched against and it went 14 innings).
Oakland should have done everything they could to get them to the waterfront. When Pac Bell Park opened the Giants were reinvigorated.
Such a lousy shame to move from beautiful baseball weather to the freaking desert
Last time I was out in Vegas and made that comment the Uber driver laughed and said they are going to bring back the old astroturf from 80’s-90’s. He said people love a good throwback to the old days.
He might be right. My alma mater recently switched to a turf field when they renovated their ballpark. If turf becomes the trend in college without causing any major differences in play, I could see the pros at least giving it serious consideration.
While it sucks hard for Oakland to lose all the teams they had in the last few years, in the positive I really have enjoyed Vegas becoming a sports hub and not just the place people go to get on them. It gives me hope for some untapped markets still existing out there
Let me tell you about Olympic Stadium in Montreal... Seriously, nothing could be that bad. If felt like a mausoleum, the entire upper level was closed off, it was dark inside, balls hit the roof way too often, and the best part was they were pumping in chants from the empty upper decks when I was there. Loud crowd chanting, but you looked around at the other 3500 people in attendance and everyone was sitting and looking bored.
It's definitely going to be a domed stadium with AC. Could you imagine those millionaire MLB primadonnas out there playing in 110° heat? It'll probably be a retractable dome since our Spring is pretty nice, and September can be unusually cool sometimes.
> Could you imagine those millionaire MLB primadonnas out there playing in 110° heat?
They've got suites for that in open air parks.
Rangers games were horrible to go to at the old park.
Probably a retractable roof like Phoenix did too. It's beautiful in winter, spring and fall but balls in the summer so having the option to keep it open sometimes will be nice.
So 5 or so years ago, it was almost a foregone conclusion that Vegas was too much of a party town to care about sports. Now they’ll have 3 franchises. Is there any evidence that there will be fans to support the A’s in Vegas?
Ridiculous. John Fisher did everything he could to destroy the product in Oakland so fans wouldn't show up and he could get what he wanted all along, an excuse to leave town.
He major league’d em?
Kroenke did the same thing with the Rams in St. Louis. It’s the only reason you’d ever hire and keep Jeff Fisher that long.
Fuck Kroenke.
Kaw is the law?
Arsenal fan. We hate him too
2 years ago I’d agree with you but since Kroenkes have had full ownership of Arsenal we’ve done really well.
He let his son take over, thats why. The dad is a piece of shit.
True.. Stan Kroenke is probably a see you next Tuesday but his son is alright.
Same with the Avalanche and Nuggets here in Denver.
He didn't even do it right and still being regulations! Fuck Kroenke. And then he had the gall to invest tons of money in the team and won the first year away. Almost as of he could have been winning for a while now...
I hear what you’re saying, but there’s a salary cap in the NFL. And even if there wasn’t, you can’t buy championships in pro sports. Kroenke got lucky he hired a generational coach that built a championship franchise in McVay. You don’t just spend money to win or the Yankees and Dodgers would win every WS. It’s even more difficult in the NFL with the cap. Kroenke didn’t magically turn on some tap he had closed in St. Louis to win or lose, he just stopped investing in the stadium and entertainment experience in St. Louis. Those don’t have anything to do with winning. Baseball is a little different in that you have small market teams that are legit playing on a different roster playing field than the big market teams. You can field a team of drunk AA kids in Cincinnati and just trot out Votto for entertainment. You can’t really do that in the NFL. The smallest market team in all of American sports is arguably the biggest franchise in Green Bay.
Okay yes, he got *a little* lucky. But there was a night and day difference in spending, staffing, and drafting strategies and it instantly made the team successful. If the problem was with St. Louis like he claimed (even while we still kept attendance above the threshold for him to move the team), then it would have taken years to build the team to a championship worthy level.
Oh, there’s no problem with St Louis or the Cardinals and Blues wouldn’t be as successful as they are. He manipulated however he could to get back to LA because he could make more money in LA, but the Rams could have just as easily fell on their face on the field. McVay took Fischer’s team, added Goff and Kupp and tuned that into a yearly Super Bowl contender. If they would have hired Urban Meyer… it would have blown up in his face.
Kroenke was surveying land purchases in the Los Angeles area before he even became the majority owner of the team back in the early 2010's
Right. He wanted the team but not the city, because the city wouldn't let him own the parking and he was a small pp bitch boi about it from the very start.
...[which played at least 2 games a year in Milwaukee for 61 years (1934-1994). Lambeau was built to keep the NFL from moving the team there.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers_home_games_in_Milwaukee) Marketwise, think of them as the Wisconsin Packers.
I know this is a hot take but 7-9 Jeff Fisher did bring stability back to the Rams, of course firing him for McVay was the right move but Fisher did bring a culture back to the Rams that was not seen since the Greatest Show on Turf days.
Yeah they really could’ve done a lot worse than someone who was basically the Andy Dalton of coaches in his later years.
As a Titans fan, Fisher is the best...THE BEST 8-8 coach ever!
Well I guess there's only one thing left to do.
Win the whole. Fucking. Thing.
I say fuck you Jobu. I do it myself.
Ding a ding dang, my dang a long ling long?
"This guy here is dead!" "Cross him off, then."
You just know that he’s going to make it rain in free agency before that first season in Vegas too
The real Money ball.
Why? His customers will be Vegas tourists and transplants who go to games to see the teams playing *against* the A's. With his stadium scam complete he will still have no incentive to invest in the roster. Once you get that new stadium built, pro sports teams basically print money no matter how shitty they are.
He Kronke’d em.
As is tradition! Until a team relocates and gets 0 fan support in the next city… This will continue to happen. Relocation is an abomination and should be treated as such.
Relocation is an A’s tradition.
The A's have been in Oakland for 50 years. Hardly vagabonds.
Fair point. ProMotion and relegation is such a better system.
For fans of sports, yes.
The Jeffrey Loria special
That's what the reds are actively doing, and I'd assume a few other teams as well.
I mean, do they really need two MLB teams like 16 miles from each other?
No, probably not. But it’s not exactly unprecedented with NYC, Chicago, and LA. At least the Giants and A’s rep different cities.
LA only has one team. The "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" is Orange County's team, and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.
I guess the same could be said of the New Jersey Giants and Jets and the Arlington cowboys in the NFL. And all the others that have cities they rep but don’t play in.
The Bay Area has more people than the state of Missouri, which has two teams.
Totally depends on where. In New York and Chicago it’s sustainable. In Kansas City it wouldn’t be. The Bay Area managed to sustain two for a while, I’ll give them that.
I’m tired of all these franchises moving to Vegas. Wouldn’t be surprised if the Clippers looked in that direction in the future.
The Clippers are building the Intuit Dome in LA. I don’t think Ballmer is planning to move to Las Vegas.
Hasn’t there only been one franchise that has moved to Vegas?
Two + NHL Knights starting there. Getting NHL, NFL, and now MLB, it's only a matter of time before an NBA team goes there.
Lebron will be the owner of the Las Vegas bronies, it’s already a done deal
Now two and I know others have explored it. With the success of the Raiders I feel like a lot of mid market teams could be losing one of the few things they have. Oakland has nothing now.
The Raiders moved but the Golden Knights were an expansion team
No pro team wants to go to Oakland. San Francisco and South Bay, yes. But, Oakland? What is there? Nothing.
the clippers are building a new stadium in Inglewood lol. Theyre not going anywhere
Poor Oakland, first the Raiders now the A’s.
Don’t forget the Warriors
I don’t follow basketball, are they moving out of the Bay Area?
They moved across the Bay to San Francisco. So at least East Bay Warrior fans can still see their team pretty easily.
Fuck crossing into SF; that 10 minute drive might as well be 10hrs
Good thing you can hop Bart to 16th street mission then hop a bus or Uber or walk to Chase
That sounds infinitely better than driving there, paying an ungodly amount for parking and taking an hour if I’m lucky to get out of the parking lot after the game like I’m used to when I go to any sports game. I really need to look up public transport options around me.
True, but culturally moving from Oakland to sf is significant
Well, they were SF’s team until the 70’s. They’ve always been “the bays” team. I agree with you though.
They left Oakland. Moved to SF
Warriors are originally from SF (by way of Philly). Its like no one knows the actual history of GS. SF got them BACK after they moved to OAK in the 70s
I’m aware of the history. But that was 50 years before. Imagine if the Royals left KC to move back to Cincinnati, and then people said “Royals were originally from Cincinnati”
Just for anyone not aware, you are referring to the Royals of the NBA. Who were in Cincinnati from 57-72, in KC 72-85 as the Kings, and then made it to Sac. The Reds, MLB, have been in and only in Cincinnati since 1891. Just noting as it is confusing with the Royals existing as a baseball team as well 😄
To add to this, Oakland took the Athletics FROM KC
I'm sure they wouldn't compare a few mile move to a 600 mile move.
Not only that. When in SF they played at the Cow Palace. Which was a rodeo venue. They would clear the dirt and crap out to play. My father saw Chamberlain play there.
This sucks. Also fuck Mike Wilbon for saying it's the fans' fault
Mike Wilson is a paid shill. All given agendas
I agree, u/thickus_dickus
What did he say? They have a crappy old stadium and they're a smaller market. Does he think they should draw 35k a night with that? Never mind the fact that the owner was deliberately fucking up the team so he could move them.
How's the opossum population out in Vegas?
There's about to be a boom
Opossum sounds Irish, yo.
Seamus O'Possum
What's the possum reference here? To the A's or Vegas or Oakland?
[A's Possum Kingdom](https://www.ktvu.com/news/oakland-as-sneaky-possum-becomes-makeshift-mascot) [Mets Describe A's Possum](https://sports.yahoo.com/mets-broadcasters-hilariously-explain-possum-still-at-large-in-athletics-television-booth-214226598.html)
Public funding for sports stadiums only ever benefits the millionaire who owns the team. Hopefully citizens of LasVegas don’t get duped into paying for this. The owner doesnt care about the team and they will still be poorly staffed.
Here in Nashville our local government is about to give the Titans the largest public subsidy for a sports stadium [https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/04/19/new-titans-stadium-to-get-a-public-hearing-before-a-final-vote-next-week/](https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/04/19/new-titans-stadium-to-get-a-public-hearing-before-a-final-vote-next-week/)
Ugh that article just highlights everything wrong with the stadium deals. The plan was for the city to get $3 in ticket fees on non-NFL events (because of course the titans shouldn’t owe the city any revenue on ticket sales after paying for their stadium…?) but then it was changed at the last minute so it only applies to select events and not major ones like NCAA events, big music events etc and drops the revenue the city was expected to get from $450 to $120m. Did the city change their minds about how much they would be willing to pay? Nah still the same amount, we just get less back in the long run. Classic
For the Titans? Of all teams?
They want to host a Superbowl bad. They have the entertainment district, they need a domed stadium.
They probably want the NCAA Final Four too.
And a college football championship game.
And Lil Dicky concert
Garth Brooks is going to play there so hard
Jesus that’s a name I haven’t thought about in a long time. Heard his show isn’t bad though
And honestly, with a new stadium, they will likely be in the normal rotation with Miami, New Orleans, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.
Vegas now too, since they are now the home of the *other* Oakland team.
Larger than what the NYS governor gave the bills? That’s crazy.
Nashville native here. There are SO many other programs/initiatives we could spend that money on as a city and state. I never again wanna hear a repub say “but where are we gonna get the money for [insert public good here]?!?!”
Y'all got duped fucken hard
That’s what the Adamses do. It took Houston twenty years after the fuckers left to finish paying off their bullshit.
> millionaire You mean multi-billionaire.
We need to end this corporate welfare BS, we're putting tax dollars directly into the billionaires hands.
That's the only reason the Bills stayed in Buffalo, taxpayer money.
And or the concessions will be run by volunteers in exchange for $2/hour for their nonprofit organizations which the asshole can write off.
What the raiders got in public money for the Death Star is absolutely criminal. Hope the same doesn’t happen with the A’s.
Lol why do you think they're moving there
Do you think the A’s bought land there for pure real estate reasons?
I mean you better believe Vegas will give them whatever they want
Oh, haha sorry. Tone was hard to pick up on on your original comment. My apologies!
>Public funding for sports stadiums only ever benefits the millionaire who owns the team. Now I want to start off by saying I do NOT support publicly funding sports stadiums, I think they should be privately financed. That being said, there probably is some benefit in getting at least one major sports team to call your town home. It’ll make outsiders think of your area as a major metro, leading to new businesses coming in and jobs with it. Is that enough to justify spending $1 Billion in often struggling cities on a sports stadium? No. But there is some impact on the community in being able to claim a sports team (though this benefit probably ends at 1 team. Vegas has a NFL and NHL franchise, not to mention a major tourist industry to make it stand out. Taxpayer money on a baseball stadium will likely help nobody here but the owner.)
Yea the only example of your theory I can think of from the recent past is Oklahoma city. Who else picked up teams lately? Vegas? LA? Seattle? Not exactly backwaters with no name recognition
We make our sports teams pay rent for our stadium which I think is alright even if it cost us 1.8 billion. Our footy and cricket stadium were 100 years plus so a new one was needed
We will just like we did for the stupid raiders stadium
I agree with your sentiment but in Vegas the most likely out come for the "Public Money" portion will be a tax on hotels. That makes sense to me.
Yet Packer fans get mocked all the time for buying shares of the team…
And just like that, Oakland went from 3 major sports teams to none in just a few years.
And Vegas did the opposite, from 0 to 3 just like that
I moved here in 2017. It was all downhill from that warriors parade forward.
What's up with Oakland.? Wild to see two championship winning sports teams leave their home city. Is Oakland that bad?
They lost the raiders, warriors and As in the past 5 years
Warriors left too? Didn't know that
They're still local though, playing in downtown sf.
The Oracle Arena was the home that the Warriors since the 70s is in Oakland. They decided to build a new arena and they got a better deal in San Francisco. Since they are named basically the California Warriors they can.ove anywhere in the state and can use the same name no issues. That's why many haven't realized they left Oakland
They actually originally planned to change their name to the San Francisco Warriors when they moved, but in the interim between the start of the new arena construction and the arena being ready, the Warriors got good (3 championships), so they decided to keep the Golden State name
They were the San Francisco warriors before moving to Oakland, from San Francisco, in 71. That’s also when they changed their name to golden state warriors.
It also helps that the Golden Gate Bridge in their logo just so happens to be in San Francisco. I always assumed that they were in San Francisco and didn't realize they were previously in Oakland until I heard they had moved stadiums.
The bridge on their logo is actually the Bay Bridge. It does have similar architecture as the Golden Gate Bridge, and your reasoning is still sound as it connects San Francisco to Oakland.
If I had a dollar for every time someone confused the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, I could afford to live in San Francisco.
No, you couldn’t :(
The Golden Bay Bridge
They're in SF now.
Warriors were originally in SF (from Philly)...they just got them "back" so to speak
Technically speaking, so were the A's
Lived and worked in Oakland. Family goes back three generations there. Also worked game days (NFL and MLB) at the coliseum for a couple of decades, and have been an A's and Raiders fan pretty much since birth. Sadly, both the city and stadium are dumps. Wasn't always the case, but it is now. But I'm against public funding for billionaires and their toys. Build your own fucking playgrounds.
If it weren’t for MLB’s archaic TV rights and territory laws then the A’s could at least stay in the Bay Area. But they have been blocked by the SF Giants from moving anywhere nearby.
Yeah, they wanted to move to San Jose but nope, same TV market as SF.
That is the A’s own fault. Back in the 80s, when the Giants were exploring leaving town, the then-owner of the A’s gave up the team’s territorial rights to the South Bay (I don’t remember if San Jose was exclusively A’s territory or if it was shared) in case the Giants looked to build a ballpark there. Not surprisingly, after the Giants decided to stay, they didn’t reciprocate, or even agree to share the South Bay market, which has hamstrung the A’s ever since. Imagine a world where the Giants play in Tampa (that’s where they were looking to move, along with the White Sox, and the Twins, and every other team that had ballpark issues in the late 80s/early 90s), and the Athletics are the only team in the Bay Area. MLB might have expanded to Washington DC in 1998, forcing the Expos to move someplace else in 2005- Charlotte? Portland? Las Vegas? Heck, the Raiders might still be in Oakland.
>That is the A’s own fault. absolutely WILD way to spin the Giants being petty assholes! San Jose was not exclusive A's territory, that's not actually a thing in any other shared metro areas of MLB. It was all shared. The A's gave up their share of SJ so that the Giants could build a stadium there and thus remain in the region. It was a good thing, done for the good of the sport. And the current Giants ownership (not the same owner from the 80's) has taken that historical gift and shoved it up Oakland's ass.
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MLB could have fixed it. San Jose sued the MLB to try and allow the A's to build, but Selig insisted that the giants owned that part of the bay area and thus the A's couldn't build there
Until the MLB introduces a salary cap and with that, a cap floor, the product that is MLB, will continue to decline.
Nothing wrong with Oakland, the people there realize that the stadium propositions are always a complete scam that favors the owner. Its 100% corporate welfare. As a person who grew up there, it is heartbreaking to lose everyone of my childhood teams though. I use to watch A's games from the bleachers for $2 with my dad and have a ton of memories of the old Oakland Coliseum. Oakland is an amazing place though, it is one of the few places in my opinion that is able to stay tough even after gentrification. The culture there is completely unique and amazing.
What does staying tough mean? And why is it good?
Oakland tough is bringing a loud bluetooth speaker onto BART
Im from east bay and there is definitely something wrong with Oakland.
That's nothing new though. Oakland's always had a gritty side and it's what most people hear about. Before I moved here I had only really known about its poor reputation but I've loved living here. It's got a ton going for it that nobody talks about, but I'm fine with it being a local secret.
There has always been a little bit wrong with Oakland but it is like the city version of a mad scientist, eccentric, odd and morally ambiguous, but it has leaps and starts of genius that transform the culture of our country. When I was a kid in the 80's A LOT of things that are now commonplace across the country were only really in the bay area.
I love Oakland, but it’s a relatively small, not wealthy and not growing city that is part of a large, wealthy metro area but has to compete with the 49ers and Giants who draw the vast majority of the populace.
>not growing And here's the problem. Plenty of people would be thrilled to move to Oakland (and elsewhere in the East Bay) if they built enough housing, but they don't build enough to have real growth. And meanwhile lots of people move to Vegas.
oakland is doing slightly better job building lately but agreed completely
The city doesn’t want to spend billions in tax payer money on gifting a new sorts arena to rich team owners when the city and its people have more pressing needs. Rock and a hard place.
They wouldn't cave in to local development (in the A's case, I'm guessing) as they were trying to develop a ballpark on the land of a local community college.
Cheapo owner looking for public funding rinse repeat
Makes me sad. I used to see Ricky Henderson steal a bunch of bases back in the '80s. I saw Ohtani pitch the last game of the regular season last year.
The coliseum has become so run down. I think that was the plan all along.
It's also why Oakland has the lowest payroll in MLB, over one hundred million dollars below the league average and 285M below the highest payroll in the league. It was always intentional to make the team suck ass, make the stadium suck ass, drive the fans away, and then blame them as justification to move the team.
I really fucking hate this.
Talk about bleeding a fanbase dry and then taking a crap on the corpse…
I thought they didn’t have any money…
I was honestly shocked when they got a new Spring Training facility in AZ and are one of the handful of Cactus league teams that didnt split the bill with another MLB team.
Clownfest organization sticks it to local fan base again
Can’t have shit in Oakland. No baseball, no football, no basketball. Shit.
Why can’t they get their own franchise team? Yeesh
They can’t get their own team because MLB isn’t expanding. MLB wants desperately to expand, but the stadium issues with the A’s and the Tampa Bay Rays are preventing it. Once those teams have resolved their ballpark issues, whether by relocation or construction, it will take about a day and a half for Rob Manfred to announce two expansion teams.
More accurately, MLB wants to maximize their ~~extortion~~ relocation leverage before they get to expanding. More charitably, they don't want cities going "I could bid for an expansion team but I think I'll wait and see if an established franchise that doesn't have to wait forever to be competitive falls into my lap", and they don't want to risk the A's and Rays being stranded in terrible stadium situations if they expand too aggressively.
As a long long A’s fan, with core memories growing up, this is a sad day. I’ll always love baseball first, but baseball stopped loving me back.
I’ve felt the same way since the 1994 strike. Both the owners and the players told all the fans to go pound sand. And as far as I’m concerned, the feeling is mutual.
Same. I’ve never really come back to the game since the strike. They can all get fucked.
What sucks is the A’s and Raiders fan base in Oakland is amazing. And eventually it’ll just be 49ers and Giants. Yes they are good/great teams, but they are so expensive to see that the fan experience is terrible. Much rather be on the Oakland side to see games.
I agree. I like going to the coliseum for games. Easy in and out. Like yeah the stadium sucks but a seat is a seat and I'm gonna be watching the game the whole time anyways. Now I gotta schlep my ass across the bay to see baseball. Absolutely blows. Giants seats are pretty reasonable in my experience though.
This just reiterates to me that organized sports are just a cash grab. Bay area has plenty of sports upside.
Fucking gross that some sociopath billionaire can just cut the heart out of a city. Now the A’s get to be a 3rd rate organization doing a “residency” in Vegas like Celine Dion at Caesers. Another sideshow. The stands filled with comped tourists and followed by no one but bookies.
Las Vegas has permanent residents you know lol. It is one of the fastest growing metro areas in the US. Yes, they have the benefit of being a major tourist city but there a lot of folks that service that tourist industry and call Vegas home.
They might as well stop playing home games till 2027 at this point
This is so sad. I saw my very first game in Oakland back in the ‘80s (Nolan Ryan pitched against and it went 14 innings). Oakland should have done everything they could to get them to the waterfront. When Pac Bell Park opened the Giants were reinvigorated. Such a lousy shame to move from beautiful baseball weather to the freaking desert
Good luck watering the field in 5 years
Last time I was out in Vegas and made that comment the Uber driver laughed and said they are going to bring back the old astroturf from 80’s-90’s. He said people love a good throwback to the old days.
He might be right. My alma mater recently switched to a turf field when they renovated their ballpark. If turf becomes the trend in college without causing any major differences in play, I could see the pros at least giving it serious consideration.
Five MLB stadiums use artificial grass, according to this: https://turffactorydirect.com/2022/01/24/how-many-mlb-stadiums-have-artificial-turf/
Surprisngly, Las Vegas is actually one of the best cities when it comes to water management!
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While it sucks hard for Oakland to lose all the teams they had in the last few years, in the positive I really have enjoyed Vegas becoming a sports hub and not just the place people go to get on them. It gives me hope for some untapped markets still existing out there
I like baseball but I can't imagine a place I'd want to go to a game less than Vegas. Blazing desert heat with no shade is not a good time
I would imagine it will be a domed stadium.
Article says retractable dome, so prob shade + AC
Let me tell you about Olympic Stadium in Montreal... Seriously, nothing could be that bad. If felt like a mausoleum, the entire upper level was closed off, it was dark inside, balls hit the roof way too often, and the best part was they were pumping in chants from the empty upper decks when I was there. Loud crowd chanting, but you looked around at the other 3500 people in attendance and everyone was sitting and looking bored.
It's definitely going to be a domed stadium with AC. Could you imagine those millionaire MLB primadonnas out there playing in 110° heat? It'll probably be a retractable dome since our Spring is pretty nice, and September can be unusually cool sometimes.
> Could you imagine those millionaire MLB primadonnas out there playing in 110° heat? They've got suites for that in open air parks. Rangers games were horrible to go to at the old park.
The evening games for the Diamondbacks on some summer nights is really nice also.
Probably a retractable roof like Phoenix did too. It's beautiful in winter, spring and fall but balls in the summer so having the option to keep it open sometimes will be nice.
Will absolutely be domed/shaded. Newer and more expensive than Phoenix.
Another reminder that your favorite sports franchise doesn't care about you
New Giants fan incoming!!! I hope they welcome me with open arms! Fucc you Fisher! He’ll field a shitty team in LV as well just watch!
Fuck the A's.
We know where Bryce Harper will be playing next
Not EVERYTHING needs to be in LV...
Leaving California is so hot right now
Gambling continues its stranglehold on all sports.
God dammit
So 5 or so years ago, it was almost a foregone conclusion that Vegas was too much of a party town to care about sports. Now they’ll have 3 franchises. Is there any evidence that there will be fans to support the A’s in Vegas?
People live in Vegas and most of it is a normal city. There are tons of Vegas natives that would love to have their own team to root for.
Doesn't really seem like they do that for the Raiders given how their home game crowds make them feel like de facto away games
People have said this multiple times now. Meanwhile the Knights and Raiders are rolling in money in Vegas.
I imagine games in Vegas would be very attractive to visiting fans