The 2023 Running Baseball Thread

San Francisco Chronicle confirms, adding Oakland has halted talks with the A's.

Oakland A’s closing in on stadium deal in Las Vegas Oakland A’s closing in on stadium deal in Las Vegas
(may be paywalled)

 

And from KPIX.

 

Bring the possum to Vegas.

 

Freezing cold takes. (Samson, not you.)

Feel bad for the fans in the East Bay and beyond, they don't deserve this. They weren't exactly blessed with great ownership over the years, apart from when the Haas family brought stability in the 80s and 90s after the privations of Charlie Finley. No franchise has had boom-bust cycles quite like the A's have had ... a trait that dates to their Philadephia roots.

I don't know enough about the political part of this, whose to blame, etc., locally in Oakland. I do know that public financing of stadia becomes harder by the year. It takes lots of money and some level of community desperation to make it happen, both of which Las Vegas have to burn.

I also know that the Coliseum was never the same after the crap (and soon pointless) Mount Davis was added. I'm sure the calamitous decline since had a lot to do with zero desire to maintain the facility once the Raiders left and once the A's made it clear they weren't playing there long-term.

I remember how bad County Stadium was in Milwaukee when it had to be used one extra year after the crane accident delayed the opening of Miller Park by a season. Once Miller Park was approved? County Stadium fell apart in a hurry as there was no motivation to maintain it for the last five seasons of its existence.

Certainly down the list of priorities, but I kind of wish the A's would leave the green-and-gold back in Oakland. Yeah, I know they switched to the scheme right before they left Kansas City, but that part of their legacy screams "Oakland" to me. The Mustache Gang, the Bash Brothers, etc., they're the green-and-gold A's. Let Oakland have that part of their transient legacy.

Let the Vegas A's (and they should keep the A's name in the franchises' fourth city) forge ahead with their own colors. Either something totally new, or maybe a return to the Philly A's blue-and-white?

 

Vegas? Call it the A's of Spades Stadium.

 

Com 'on, this is baseball. Has to be A's of Diamonds Stadium.

 

Is Oakland the only city to lose franchises in all four major sports?

 

In the modern era, yes.

 

My old firm represented As at one point; I’m glad they are leaving because Oakland simply can’t afford it. Every public thing I know about the deal was the team was penny-pinching the whole way. Forget it, kick them out now and let them play in a 20k bandbox in LV.

 

MLB as a corporate enterprise could get brand new stadiums going up in Oakland and Tampa within two weeks by writing a couple of billion dollar checks.

But MLB, like all the "major" pro sports, has ironclad policy that all stadiums must be paid for by the taxpayers.

If the A's and Rays skip out on their stadium contracts, opponents at each prospective expansion city can come marching into the council chambers with the argument, "Tampa and Oakland built taxpayer financed stadiums with the very objective of attracting MLB teams, the teams came and they left anyway," as Samson alludes.

 

“I want a team so bad we can move it to Las Vegas.”