This article won’t be much of an update about any news. Instead, this post will be used to shed light on an upcoming event tomorrow, Fansfest.
As we all know, the A’s are the only MLB team this year to not put on a fan fest this spring. As a result, some of the incredible Oakland A’s fans have. Tomorrow, in Jack London Square, you can catch the makeshift fansfest in its normal place and time. Things will look different, as everything will be fan and vendor-run. You can head over to the Last Dove Bar twitter account to find more info. If you have the time, I think it could be a lot of fun.
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Earlier this week, The Athletic reported that the city of Sacramento has emerged as the favorite to host the A's for the upcoming three years in which they'll be homeless. This comes on the heels of the A's meeting with Oakland city officials to discuss a renewal of the Coliseum lease.
After the A's brass visited both Sacramento and Salt Lake City, and then returned to talks with Oakland, it seemed like they didn't get anywhere with the two prior cities. Obviously, if this report is true, then Sacramento may indeed be a big fit. Personally, I'd take every rumor from here on out with a grain of salt. It could be true that Sacramento is a front-runner, but we know how cheap the A's ownership is, and John Fisher, or a different member of the front office, could be leaking info to put pressure on other cities. Everything from this point on is another bargaining tool. I'll be back with future updates. As was announced earlier this week, today the A’s held talks with the City of Oakland regarding a possible lease extension. So, what happened?
Not much it seems, at least as of now. A spokesperson for the A’s released this statement today: ”We had a positive meeting with the city and council. We look forward to further discussions regarding a lease extension at the Coliseum for the interim period before the Vegas ballpark opens.” So, a whole lot of professional jargon there, but it doesn’t mean much. The team obviously remains committed to Vegas, there’s no surprise there. The meeting was described as “short and cordial by Casey Pratt from ABC7, who also said the two sides planned to meet again soon. No real news here as of now. It looks about as expected, with both sides clearly far apart, yet both realizing this is the most practical outcome, for the short-term at least. Well, well, well.
On Tuesday afternoon, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Oakland Athletics and the city of Oakland are meeting on Thursday to talk about a possible lease extension at the coliseum. Upon hearing this, your first thought might be that the A’s do want to stay in Oakland after all. It’s not that simple, though. Most likely, this is about the remaining four years until their proposed stadium in Las Vegas is ready. One bright side to this, is that the City of Oakland has all the leverage here. Aside from his plans in Las Vegas, John Fisher has no plan for a ballpark for his baseball team from 2025-27. He toured Sacramento and Salt Lake City, but since he’s now talking to Oakland, it appears those meetings went nowhere. The A’s did their best to get as far from Oakland as possible, and now they’ve been forced to walk back into negotiations. We’ll see how much the city is able to get out of these negotiations. The latest news from Oakland’s relocation saga comes as some words from the Current Mayor of Las Vegas.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman had some words on a podcast earlier this week, where she most notably said “I personally think they’ve got to find a way to stay in Oakland.” I mean, that’s pretty insane. Here, we have the literal mayor of the city the team wants to move to, and she’s claiming they should stay. If that doesn’t describe the last year perfectly, I don’t know what does. One fact that must be included is that the site proposed by the Athletics is out of the Mayor’s jurisdiction, and the opposite of what she pushed for. So there is the possibility that this is a statement with some jealousy in it. Still, it speaks volumes to how most people around the situation seem to feel about it. This may mean nothing at all, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Finally, I have some news to report that isn’t about the team’s relocation efforts!
Over the past weekend, the A’s made a trade. Oakland agreed to send utility man and prospect Jonah Cox to San Francisco, for pitcher Ross Stripling and cash considerations in return. Those cash considerations are the $3.25 million on his contract that the Giants are agreeing to pay. He still has a little over $9 million that Oakland will have to pay for this year, so the A’s are actually taking the financial burden on this deal. Stripling was pretty bad in 2023, finishing with an ERA and FIP both well above 5.00. Honestly, this is a little bit of a confusing move, because it doesn’t seem like it fits the direction the team is going. The A’s are pretty clearly in a rebuilding phase, so trading a prospect for an aging pitcher with a larger contract doesn’t make much sense. Anyways, at least I get to come on here and talk about actual baseball for once. I swear, everyday I wake up this situation is getting wilder and wilder. Now, believe it or not, the latest rumor going around is that the A’s might disband from 2025-27.
Obviously, that is an insane thing that I don’t think anybody expected to hear, no matter how silly the situation as a whole has gotten. Basically, Sac Town 1140 Sports Radio claimed they heard from a “bay area source” that the Athletics franchise could disband for the 2025-27 years, the same years in which they wouldn’t have a home. Logistically, for the MLB this makes no sense. There is almost no good outcome here, but at the end of the day, if the A’s run out of options, which is very much possible, things could manage to get more interesting. With a lack of action as a whole on the stadium front, rumors like these are getting a bit more attention. It could be nothing, or it could be sounded in truth. As of now, it’s just another crazy twist. Another day, another batch of updates regarding the A's relocation situation. This batch has no big news, and instead it's mostly speculation. At this point, though, I don't believe there is much else to do.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic wrote something today about how he remains skeptical to the A's plans for their new stadium. I think his article is very much worth reading. He lays his opinion out there pretty clearly, and his harsh on his criticism of the Athletics. Here's my favorite excerpt from the article; "Forgive my skepticism, considering Fisher’s shameful departure from Oakland and Major League Baseball’s role as his willing accomplice. But I’ll believe the A’s are serious about winning when I see it." This just sums up the situation perfectly. This is also a landmark moment, because up until this point, there has not been a nationally-known writer who has openly criticized the A's in this process. Lots of local media has, but now, they've finally been joined by a journalist with much more of an audience than any of them. Part of the reason for Rosenthal's distrust lies in the actions of the team; they've stated they will ramp up spending to the request of Major League Baseball, yet they have no confirmed place to play. Are they expecting to sign any players when they can't promise them a home for the next three years? They have no TV money coming in because of that, so these pocket-pinching billionaires don't even have that to spend. You wanna know if the A's decided to spend money while negotiating with Oakland at the same time they had a playoff-caliber team? They didn't. And that's the reason for the skepticism here. Things seem to be falling apart at the moment, and with Rosenthal's piece, he really put a crack in the A's armor here. We will see how the situation unfolds. The A’s are locked into the Coliseum through the 2024 season. After that, the lease is over. Their proposed stadium in Las Vegas won’t be ready until 2028, and they’ve faced hurdles there as well. They have no solid plans in either Sacramento or Salt Lake City, two minor league sites they’ve explored recently. Thus, the question must be asked; are the A’s about to be homeless?
In recent news, the A’s had a session in Las Vegas this week, where Dave Kaval, and others, spoke about the team’s plans for their stadium itself, and the funding regarding it. They were met with a lukewarm reception, at best, and the issue regarding the dome seems to be getting bigger with every new report. At this point, one has to wonder, from as unbiased a point of view as possible, at what point does the MLB come in and force a sale of the team. I mean, we’re dealing with an Owner who is now openly asking for investors to help build a stadium that is far too big for the site they want to build it on, and has more question marks than answers. This gets funnier by the day. With the A's relocation saga in full swing, we are starting to see the effects that come from burning too many bridges. John Fisher and Co. have been no strangers to the spotlight during this entire process, and they've made the situation about as poor as possible as their time in Northern California winds to an end.
If the Athletics hadn't made such a valiant effort to alienate the fanbase before leaving, they might have been able to squeeze out a couple more seasons at the coliseum while getting their plans ready in Las Vegas. While the team is locked into Oakland for the 2024 season, they've apparently been checking some alternative sites out for 2025. Andrew G Haubner, a reporter for CBS-Sacramento confirmed that A's brass, including John Fisher, Ross Bowen, Sorina Casian-Botez, Dave Kaval and Sandy Dean toured Sutter-Health Park today. This park is the home of the Sacramento RiverCats, the current AAA affiliate for the San Francisco Giants. Mick Akers from the Las Vegas Review Journal summed the situation up well; "Oakland A's brass were in Sacramento today and will be in Salt Lake City later this week, touring ballparks where the team could play the 2025-2027 seasons at. The Coliseum lease is up after the 2024 season and their planned $1.5b Las Vegas park won't be done until 2028." So, Sacramento and SLC appear to be legitimate chances for the Athletics for a three-year period following the 2024 season. Neither of these options seem realistic, and there would be significant hurdles to cross in both cities. Still, when it comes to this relocation journey, it's been shown that you can't expect anything rational when it comes to the Oakland Athletics. More updates soon. |
AuthorAn aspiring sports journalist from Northern California. Archives
January 2024
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