From the Chronicle’s/SFGate’s Susan Slusser:
The Chronicle has learned that the @RiverCats have filed to end their affiliation with #Athletics, as I first reported was likely in May.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) September 15, 2014
The River Cats haven’t made any official announcements yet, other than some front office shuffling last week.
When the A’s announce a new PDC with a different AAA club (probably the Nashville Sounds), I’ll give that a little writeup. Otherwise, RIP River Cats we knew as A’s fans.
newballpark.org 
Very disappointing. Having the Oakland, Sacramento, Stockton triangle was great to see local development of players. Personally, I’d prefer to see Fresno instead of Nashville so we could keep a semi local affiliation.
And with that, I have attended my last Sacramento River Cats game. I doubt Art Savage would have bailed on the strong, successful decade-plus relationship he had with the A’s. Good luck, Susan Savage. She’ll need it. They may get larger crowds of Giants fans the first couple years, but if the team is bad and does not have many promising prospects, they’ll be looking at declining attendance in the long run.
Even still, this year they led the PCL in attendance again! Only team over 600,000. Fresno was middle-of-the-road with a little under 470,000.
Guess I’ll be burning my RiverCats paraphernalia tonight. Enjoy watching a loser Sac…
I’ve got you covered: http://youtu.be/OIXYoCqgDCQ
Man, this is disappointing to lose Sacramento. Sometimes I wonder how it would be, if I grew up pulling for one of the big market teams and never had to concern myself with the endless (to this point), turmoil and indecisive future, that comes along with being an A’s fan, even back to Philadelphia and K.C., although I speak, as someone that has only know them as the Oakland A’s.
Although, this may not have been the San Francisco Giants idea, something tells me they will use this fortuitous situation, as one more way to ultimately push the A’s out of the Bay Area all together.
Not, cool.
Yep, the A’s are now surrounded on all sides by the Giants and the MiLB spawn other than out 580 toward Stockton. But the Giants are already kings out there too, Ports or no Ports.
@LSN–agree–continued quest to drive the A’s out of the bay area and from what I can tell they have a pretty good shot at succeeding. My guess is that you will see the gints invest in the Rivercats, like they did the San Jose gints, and lock up the Sacto area so the a’s can’t move there. They are close to cornering the A’s in Oakland. If I am LW and had to put up with all this bs from Oakland and MLB I would be looking for a Steve Balmer type of individual who will pay beyond market value just to get a franchise. I believe ML said there is another $220M or so that the gints would have to pay to have sole possesion of the Bay Area. Why not take the money and run given his age–
I don’t know if this would impact River Cats attendance in a negative way in the long term. We obviously don’t know, but if I were the River Cats, and I was going to hitch my wagon to the Giants, I’d go all in and change the team name to the Sacramento Giants and go for the full on West Coast Red Sox strategy. The Giants are a much more popular team throughout Northern California than the A’s. There isn’t any measure that says otherwise (TV Ratings, Radio Ratings, Attendance, Revenue, etc.)
I don’t think anyone who is reasonable about this (I am not reasonable, I won’t be going to River Cats games, and I have gone to more than a couple seeing as how I lived there when the team had it’s first season) thinks this is a bad business move for the short or long term. I don’t know how correlated winning and losing is to AAA attendance, though I remember reading Marcos Breton saying it wasn’t. Either way, they will now draw the casual fan in Sacramento, the hard core Giants fan in Sacramento and possibly Giants fans from the outer East/North Bay on a semi regular basis and even Giants fans from the inner Bay Area on an infrequent basis when they wouldn’t draw those in the past. All they lose is hard core A’s fans, like us. I can’t imagine all of that gives them anything but a larger ticket buyer base than they had before next year.
The Fresno Grizzlies sure look to be in a world of trouble. They already couldn’t draw with the Giants connection and now they may end up as a Brewers affiliate. Eeeek.
Yeah I wouldn’t be shocked to see them change colors to orange and black at the very least, if not go full on Sacramento Giants by the time this is done.
If the A’s are slowly being driven from the Bay Area than is their fault for playing nice and by the rules.
This. I’ve thought for several years now that the A’s are at least partially complicit in their own woes due to playing far too nice. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, not the one that stays quiet while it’s slowly burning all the bearings away.
To be fair, the A’s have made a lot of noise about their unhappiness at the Coliseum and their desire to move to San Jose. The A’s can lose the North Bay, South Bay and Peninsula to the Giants, but it’s their own fault for letting their popularity slip in the East Bay & Central Valley.
Even without money, they could’ve presented themselves as the maverick, guerilla-style underdogs. The hardcore fanbase embodies that spirit, but the A’s marketing has completely failed to embrace that aspect of the team. Instead, they advertise themselves as a fairly vanilla ballclub to casual fans.
That said, the A’s aren’t being driven from the Bay Area by losing their Sacramento AAA affiliation.
Al Davis would have moved to San Jose long ago, and told the league to kiss his butt and slapped them with a lawsuit to boot
What would be the rationale for the A’s taking Nashville over Fresno, and the Brewers taking Fresno over Nashville?
As far as baseball ops goes, i think the rationale for the A’s to prefer Nashville is the potential for minor league free agents. Sacramento is a draw for career minor leaguers/guys on the downside. Nashville would be similar. Fresno, well… No one really loves Fresno. So the A’s would be balancing 90 minute call ups with more attractive minor league free agents. Or, that’s the only thing I have read that makes sense.
Nashville might prefer the A’s because they traditionally win at every minor league level, or at least compete. Not sure if that is a big deal for them, but it could be. Especially if you consider that the Sounds aren’t really that close to any Major League team, so they don’t have the “Giants Fan Quotient” equivalent that the River Cats are obviously looking at.
Yeah my wife’s aunt was relaying that her father to the day he died two years ago had to sit on his porch in Fresno with his gun visible to prevent people from coming up and stealing things in broad daylight. But it’s a charming city…
Well if your wife’s aunt’s father said so 2 years ago…Maybe he lived in that “crap” part of town you are talking about. Every city has em.
Nashville has a new ballpark and is a financially solvent partner. Fresno is basically the team you’re stuck with when the music stops this time round. Normally it is Vegas, but the Mets seem to actually enjoy their affiliation with Vegas due to proximity to McCarren Airport (which is a focus city for many airlines with cheap flights). Fresno is near no major airport, it’s stadium is over a decade old now (in a really crappy part of town), and the team itself is always on the edge of insolvency.
Good bye and good riddance – the Giants management sweats the small stuff – such as believing that placing their minor league affiliates locally is important. Meanwhile teams such as the Dodgers and Angels don’t care about the location of their minor league affiliates. They seem to focus on more important factors – and are way more likely to sign high impact players such as Giancarlo Stanton (who will help their franchises way better than locating their minor league franchises locally would). High impact players avoid the giants. Winning baseball and superstar players in the lineup are way more of a factor towards franchise success than placing your minor league affilates – this is no big deal – the giants AAA affiliate in Sacto will force the A’s out of the bay area? – give me a break!
@ duffer
Not saying it’s a big deal by its self, but it dose fill like another nail in our proverbial baseball coffin.
The Dodgers are considering a switch from Albuquerque to Oklahoma City. Reports are it’s a done deal.
(The Angels are committed until 2016,)
You were saying?
It’s probably a pointless question, but: if the River Cats are just trying to wring a better deal out of the A’s, and not necessarily flip to the Giants, what could the A’s offer?
It doesn’t really work that way. ML tweeted out earlier: “For those wondering, the MLB teams are not allowed to pay affiliates above the baseball operations costs. There’s no auction or bidding war.” @newballpark
Hitching their trailer to the Giants bandwagon is just better business for the RiverCats. I don’t blame them and don’t blame the Giants. Win-win for them. Big loss, obviously, for the A’s and their fans. To me, the most frustrating part about this is not so much that it happened, but that it is part of a larger trend of tactical defeats of territory/marketing opportunities that the A’s have just handed over to the Giants without much fight.
The SJ Giants, the Giants team store in downtown Walnut Creek, seizing the Rivercats. These might be comparatively minor setbacks compared to getting a new stadium, but they have consequences, namely in that a whole generation of emerging Northern California baseball fans from San Jose to Sacramento will now be inundated and surrounded by a Giants marketing machine composed of many tentacles…even if the A’s get a new stadium somewhere in NorCal, there won’t be many non-corporate fans to fill-it with the way they’ve given up the North, South, East and West Bay areas, as well as now the largest city in the Central Valley…
*nitpicking-Sacto isn’t the largest city in the central valley.
And Oakland is smaller than both Sac and Fresno…
wait..So now the G’s are gong to move their AAA team to Oakland? I think the A’s can stop that.
Or did you miss where I already admittedly said I was picking nits on the word “city”?
Well soon find out the importance of affiliate location. There will be likely be another playoff contender emerging soon in the NL West. That division is not that strong. An average team with two strong starters could win it consistently.
Once another NL West team, besides the Dodgers, becomes a playoff contender, and the giants slip to a .500 or below team for several seasons – we’ll see if the giants attendance declines and at that point – no one will care where the giants affiliates are located. Some people really need to learn to avoid sweating the small stuff – believing the Rivercats switching affiliates will cause the A’s to leave town is ridiculous.
Duffer, didn’t this already happen once before and weren’t the Giants just fine?
The giants attendance began slipping quickly.when they began losing after moving into ATT Park. They are under big pressure to out perform the A’s in their attempt to dominate the bay area (and they would like to squeeze the A’s out of town) Several years of under .500 ball or missing the playoffs will mess up their plans – bigtime.
Look at the A’s, even after .they lose Hamel and Luster as FAs – their staff wiill still include Sonny Grey, Kazmir, the Shark, AJ Griffin, and Parker (if they bounce back 100% – still a very formadible staff) T
The A’s will still be a contender on ’15. – there is a quite a bit of doubt about the giants future. though. Their pitching staff, with the exception of Baumgartner, appears washed up. Their position players are not impressive either. If the violent muggings and attacks continue occurring around ATT – that won’t help the Giants cause either.
As a business decision, this is “iffy” at best. I know it’s tempting to hitch onto the Giants bandwagon. They do in fact have more fans in Sacramento than the A’s do. But, some problems:
1. It’s never a good idea to completely alienate your existing loyal customer base. They’re currently getting bombarded on their facebook page with people saying they’re never going to another game. Sure, facebook posters might be a small respresentaion of the overall fanbase, but who knows how many other people feel the way the posters do, but didn’t post.
2. The Giants have a shallow farm system. Beyond the handful of stars that have come up (Posey, Cain, Lincecum, Sandoval), the Giants’ farm system is extremely week. Also, Sabean does not stockpile MLB journeymen (useful if used right) in AAA, like Beane does (for depth purposes). What Beane has done is caused the River Cats to always have plenty of major league ready players on the roster (Frieman, Vogt, Parrino, Scribner, etc, to name a few this year). The Grizzlies have never had this. They have AAA players, young players, and very few prospects, very few real major league ready players. Their record reflects this – only 5 winning seasons over the last 17.
Long story short, the move will make the River Cats a perennial loser, and attendance will suffer greatly. People can say it doesn’t matter in minor league baseball (arguing that people only attend for the atmosphere or checking out young prospects). But that’s nonsense. Fans want wins, period.
3. The Giants are due for a period of mediocrity. There’s only so much Bochy, Posey, and a patchwork pitching staff can do to keep them relevant. And they have no real prospects in their farm system to save them, and they’ve already over spent keeping a crappy Lincecum and a TJS Cain, so their a bit hand tied with signing outside free agents. So after some years of mediocrity/losing, the bandwagon will diminish.
4. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – playoffs, championships, leading all of Milb in attendance for several seasons – I’d call that spectacular success. Why mess with it?
My guess is that Susan Savage kept seeing all the Giants hats in the stands (again, all those bandwagon followers), and figured they needed to hitch onto the bandwagon to offset some recent attendance figures declining. Stupid.
I know I won’t be going to any more River Cats games, unless invited socially. And I certainly won’t be buying anymore River Cats merch, nor will I buy any of their food or beer if I’m at the game. All my local sports money is going to Republic FC, and the Kings, and when I’m up for the drive, A’s games.
Interesting article in the Bee today (can’t link to it from my work computer but the Grizzlies and the mayor tweeted about it if interested). Fresno’s mayor is supposedly in talks with the Giants and they said they will be taking the full 2 weeks-in direct contrast to everything we have heard.
Does it mean anything? Probably not. But if we don’t hear anything today like we have been led to believe I do think it makes things a little more up in the air.
Just read the fresno bee piece. It doesn’t make me anymore confident that Grizzlies aren’t about to get the boot. How many of these concerns are actually addressable in the near term? Better airline service from the Fresno Airport? Oh, that’s a slam dunk!
“Swearengin said the Giants want a stronger police presence around Chukchansi Park on game days. She said City Hall can do that.
The mayor said the Giants are concerned with a 12-year-old stadium starting to show its age. She said City Hall will review the Giants’ must-do housekeeping list with sincerity and energy.
Swearengin said the Giants aren’t pleased with Fresno’s air service on days the Grizzlies leave for a road trip. She said the city’s Airports Department will try to please the parent club.
Swearengin also said the Giants want a more vibrant downtown to enhance the stadium experience. She said the effort to turn Fulton Corridor into something dynamic is on the horizon.
And what about a revised stadium lease that might reinvigorate Fresno Baseball Club owners or lead to new Grizzlies ownership?
“We made it clear,” Swearengin said, “we want the team to be successful in Fresno.””
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/09/15/4126041_giants-grizzlies-city-remain-in.html?sp=/99/330/&rh=1#storylink=cpy
Hahaha at anything improving the Fulton Corridor. That’s only been an eyesore for, what, 30 years? How many somethings on the horizon have there been over that time (including Chukchansi itself)? At least one every few years. At this point, it’s like the restaurant that has been ten different things and has disappointed everyone so many times that it is like the location is cursed.
I don’t disagree with this. But if I was to defend the city’s side, they actually have a new plan this time. (Actually getting rid of the pedestrian mall and have funding to turn it into a “main street”.) Again I will believe it when I actually see something interesting open after the game. But at the same time I don’t buy that a “vibrant downtown next to the stadium” is something that any AAA team would live or die by.
Wow, Sun Trust Park sure is underwhelming. Looks a lot like their current home at Turner Field, but in a more affluent suburb. Nothing distinctive and nothing interesting.
Sun Trust field is the yin/yang to Coliseum City. One will actually be built and pay for itself in the next couple of decades, and the other one will never get out of the planning stages.
Wait so you’re saying Sun Trust Field will never get out of the planning stages?
so the real question is….if and when this happens….does the A’s now have the rights to move to sacramento since they have the rights out in sacramento as it is? will this push them forward and built/move the team to sacramento who is aggressively trying to bring in pro teams from all angles? what i remember they didnt want to ruin a great AAA team they had out here thus they went after san jose but now all bets are off and raley field is in a perfect place to build a park on the river and have their own version of splash landing like ATT park. also the weather in sacramento during the summer is warm so you will have even more people attending the games and enjoy a night of baseball. i think the rivercats might of just punched their ticket to move to a new city….
@MJ – I actually think it hurts Sac’s chances of getting the A’s. I’ll go into that later in the week.
This is what I would like to see happen. The Giants and the Mayor of Fresno and the Grizzlies work it out and re-up the affiliation. In the mean time the A’s announce they are bolting for Nashville. The Rockies stay in Colo Springs. The Dodgers and Astros switch their AAA affiliates w/ each other, leaving the Sacramento River Cats with the last team standing, the Brewers. Would be too funny! This could happen depending on if Fresno can convince the Giants to stay. That would be the big hurdle.
@ Robo
That would be something else, if it actually went down that way.
Rockies grabbed Albuquerque as per Denver Post
Well Dodgers just bought OKC and Colorado moved their affiliation to ABQ. But your idea that Sac could end up holding their hat could still come to pass if the Giants re-up with Fresno. But I suspect the Giants will take advantage of the opportunity presented to them. However if they do I suspect they’ll also get the Savage family to agree to some upgrades to Raley Field in the process (possibly funding by selling a minority share to the Giants ownership). As nice as Raley Field is, there are one or two drawbacks to the place, chief among them being that the clubhouses are out behind the outfield wall, not part of the main stadium structure as in most parks. It’s not a huge deal or even a deal breaker for most team, but it is a little strange at the AAA when most Single A stadiums have integrated clubhouses like Lake Elsinore or even old San Jose or decrepit Boise.
How are the A’s being pushed out of the Bay Area when all Lew Wolff has to do is sign on the dotted line and become part of a great project in Oakland?
Agree, a new ballpark at the CC site or San Jose will help the A’s greatly. This talk about the giants minor league affiliates as important and will drive the A’s out of town is foolish.
@ duffer
I don’t think anyone is saying that this move will be the singular reason, why the A’s have to leave the Bay Area, but in a cumulative effect it could have an impact, and It’s just one more way the Giants, will be hampering the A’s ability to grow.
if I were like some and viewed building in Oakland as an impossible challenge, or not a viable one, then perhaps I would view this as something more devastating then what it is, but I don’t and I believe it’s up to the A’s to fight back, is that something Lew Wolff will be willing to do, even if it may mean fighting back, in the form of building in Oakland? That’s the million dollar question.
@ Elmano
The A’s have definitely done some things, that have not helped there situation in Oakland, they certainly are not the victims that some make them out to be, at least no more a victim, then Oakland is anyway.
That being said, I believe the San Francisco Giants would do anything (big or small), to push the A’s out of Oakland and the Bay Area.
Ugh… it’s not a “great project.” In fact, it’s barely a project. It’s more of a campaign promise than anything else at this moment.
Foolish- hummm- look at the play the gints have done with the little gints to keep the A’s out of SJ- at some point when your surrounded on all sides and stuck in Oakland it will be time to call uncle and look at new owners that take the them out of the Bay Area- LW’s pockets would be nicely lined
The A’s are more likely to build in Oakland than move out of the Bay Area. The A’s wouldn’t waste HOK’s time exploring a Coliseum ballpark unless they were serious about staying. The SJ Giants aren’t keeping the A’s out of SJ and the Giants having a AAA affiliate in Sacramento won’t impact their chances in Oakland.
@junkballmedia- you mean the S4SJ lawsuit by the lil gints that ran for 4 years had no impact? Ok- and the rule of required geographical separation between major and minor league teams had no impact- ok- and the big gints investing in the lil gints was because it was such a great value- ahh ok- watch for the same thing to happen in Sacto and it absolutely will impact what the A’s can do-
Relative to Oakland and hiring HOK- remember A’s can be pushed out at any moment if the city signs on with the Raiders- isn’t it ironic that the A’s can’t push out the Raiders? Oakland is still a long shot at best and LW is putting his best foot forward- again- but that doesn’t mean it will happen- HOK/360 also designed ballparks in Fremont and San Jose and neither of those is happening any time soon-
GoA’s, just because 360’s work in Fremont and San Jose hasn’t materialized doesn’t mean the A’s weren’t trying. Whether or not this new effort at the Coliseum site works out, the A’s are making an effort to make it work. You have to look at the situation instead of predict outcomes.
Regarding the Stand for San Jose lawsuit? The issue was how MLB allowed it to happen, not the lawsuit itself. It’s MLB’s governing policies and procedures that are keeping the A’s from San Jose, not the Giants’ ownership 55% ownership stake in a Class A team.
@ junkballmedia/GoA’s
GoA’s- I’m not so sure if the Raiders can push the A’s out, if the Raiders are serious about building at the coliseum site and the A’s are not, does that mean the A’s got pushed out, or does it mean they wanted it to appear as they got pushed out? It really comes down to which team is serious, if either one is serious. I’m sure the Raider, or A’s (if only one is serous), will try to use the other teams effort at the coliseum site to gain leverage with their perspective league, so they may get approval for San Jose, or LA, remember both leagues have asked both franchises to make a good faith effort (for various reasons), in their current location.
I don’t believe the either or theory, there is enough space at that site for both teams, if done the right way (if both party’s really wont to do it), but I’m sure it’s the excuses; one of the teams will give, if the other decides to build there, and they truly don’t want to, or are unwilling. If either the A’s or Raiders truly wanted to do this, neither team could push the other out.
Junkballmedia- “MLB’s governing policies and procedures that are keeping the A’s from San Jose, not the Giants”
I respectably say that it’s the San Francisco Giants manipulation of MLB’s governing policies and procedures that are keeping the A’s from San Jose.
The Forty Niners have already showed us what a horrible idea it is to build in a non-central Bay Area location without great public transportation options.
The Raiders, with a brand new stadium at Coliseum City and a winning team, would be cleaning Jed York’s clock.
What keeps the Raiders down is a dumb and dumber organization which knows nothing about winning football.
Lew Wolff should look at the debacle in Santa Clara when he thinks of gold in the South Bay.
LOL Raiders would love to have the debacle in Santa Clara. Brand new stadium, sold out SBLs, Tons of Corporate Sponsorship, and a winning team…what a debacle!!
Or i could say: Terrible access and to hot during the day but Brand new stadium, sold out SBLs, Tons of Corporate Sponsorship, and a winning team…what a debacle!!
Didn’t the Raiders have a winning team that went to the Superbowl in the early 2000s? From what i can remember tickets were still easily available and no one was buying PSLs..
Every body loves to jump on the bandwagon until they sit roasting in the stadium in their hot red jerseys and sit in gridlock traffic for three hours. That’s the price of wanting to get in on the ” hot” thing at the moment.
People do silly things like shelling out thousands to sit in an ugly hot stadium, paying exorbitant prices for food and drink, and then sitting in gridlock for hours, just because the media and Jed York told them how groovy this new fancy stadium was going to be.
Nav, Niners fans spent the last half century sitting in traffic getting in and out of their old stadium. You think the new one is going to disuade them once they work the kinks out?
Yes that “debacle” in Santa Clara would really dissuade any sports owner. $500 million in seat sales and $100 million in public funding… Real debacle that.
It’s a debacle for the fans and for Santa Clara County residents and tax payers. I agree, it is great for the billionaire Yorks.
@Elmano – No, the debacle is Mt. Davis. Santa Clara, while flawed, is practically paid for. I’m pointing this out in case you can’t tell the difference.
@junkballmedia- that’s some fine hair splitting you are doing- of course MLB is responsible for the A’s current plight and of course the gints are leveraging the MLB incompetence to further solidify their hold on the Bay Area and drive it to a 1 team market- btw- anyone notice the Gruber of the Dodgers is buying a 50% ownership share in his AAA team- expect the gints will do the same with Sacto which will effectively keep the A’s from ever moving there (not that they want to) under current MLB restrictions regarding locations of major and minor league ballparks-
As far as Oakland goes I have no doubt LW is giving it his best effort- and all it takes for that to come crashing down is the Oakland/raiders to agree on building a new stadium on the Coli footprint.
LSN- if A’s could push out Raiders then they city/county should be in full scale negotiations to turn over the property to LW and allow him to be the primary developer. He has said he is willing- those negotiations happening- ahh no- instead city continues to negotiate with Raiders on the CC pipe dream.
@ GoA’s
I agree with you, if Lew Wolff is truly offering what ML has been reporting, from various sources. Yes absolutely the city of Oakland (politicians), should be dancing in the hallways, if this is actually a true offer.
The problem is we don’t know if Wolff and (or), Davis are really committed, furthermore if I took the view that only one team could build at the coliseum site (which I don’t), and both men were serious Oakland would be beyond ridiculous to not except a Lew Wolff proposal over one from Mark Davis.
Now before you say it, I realize Oakland’s past and present politicians, would be foolish enough to go with the a Raiders proposal over an A’s proposal, but think about it, if the city and county end up going with a Raider proposal, over an (supposed?) A’s proposal, the question for me then becomes, was Lew Wolff proposal even for real?, because as ridiculous as past and present Oakland politicians have been, there is no way (even), they would turn down 81 home dates for 10, at a facility that would cost half as much, led by a men that has been a master developer, no way.
But I did say, I don’t believe in the “either, or” theory, as has been mentioned recently there are 535 acres available, LM say’s that half of that land can be built on in a profitable way, that would be 267 acres at minimum, I think it can be done for both of them, the real question, is not who is forcing who out, but who really wants to get a stadium done.
GoA’s, so you’re agreeing with me that MLB is responsible, but also remarking that I’m splitting hairs? The Giants buying up ownership stake in the SJ Giants may be to help expand/solidify their brand in San Jose, but it’s not going to specifically keep the A’s out of San Jose. If you’re not going to offer up a counter point, don’t simply be rude. It’s not an argument. It’s a discussion and it unnecessarily lowers the quality of the discussion.
@jb- the gints are taking advantage of MLB to grow their dominance in the Bay Area- the gints could easily agree that the South Bay TR were given free of charge and intended to stick inky if they built- they are hiding behind the rules of MLB to protect something that should be shared- to say the gints are not at fault and that it is all MLB is a weak argument and deserves to be viewed skeptically- or as you claim- rudely
MLB has created the problems for A’s ownership. Wolff, Fisher and Beane have created their own problems. The Giants dominate every region of the Bay Area including the East Bay precisely because the A’s have done a horrible job marketing the team and have made it perfectly clear that they didn’t want the East Bay.
There’s no city ordinance in Oakland that says the A’s couldn’t open a store in Rockridge, Piedmont Avenue, Lakeshore, or Jack London Square.
There is no city ordinance in Walnut Creek against opening up an A’s merchandise store. The Giants market their team much better and have been to the World Series twice in the last five years.
The A’s on the other hand make dumb trades and never get out of the first round of the playoffs. The A’s always seem to get Billy Beaned.
I hate the Giants but let’s get real here about who is irresponsible for the A’s underachieving in their very large East Bay market.
@ Elmano
You are right on the money, this is the side of the story that some don’t want to give credence to. The A’s themselves bare a certain amount of responsibility in this, it’s easy to talk about Oakland politicians, or MLB, and the San Francisco Giants, but it’s Lew and the boys that own the franchise, and while Oakland may not be there first choice, if they want a new park no one is stopping them from building it.
And the movements officially begin. Rockies are now ABQ’s parent. Dodgers have bought OKC and are now affiliated with them. Leaves 4 PCL teams available, Colorado, Memphis, Sac and Fresno.
I thought Memphis was O&O by the Cardinals…?
Apologies, I meant Nashville.
To all of tose who are dumping on the Giants for trying to get into Sacramento:
Given the opportunity to move your business out of Fresno, wouldn’t you jump at the chance?
Honestly this is the one time I’m not knocking the Giants. They’re only doing what any other smart team would do in the circumstances. This is all on the RiverCats which is what makes it even worse.
Yeah, honestly the Giants, who have been obstructionist on other things, are doing what they should do on this one, at this point it a matter off, if the A’s, as an organization are going to sit there and cry about or build a new ballpark.
@Lakeshore/Neil – the SJ vs MLB lawsuit is not over. MLB would really prefer to avoid the case going the SCOTUS docket. Also MLB has been questioning the giants managment on how the Giants believe the A’s moving 40 miles further away from SF is going to reduce the giants attendance. MLB appears not to be residing in the Giants camp – contrary to the opinions of some fans.
@ duffer
I hope you are correct, as much as I would prefer the A’s build in Oakland, I just want them to build, if that means building in San Jose, I’m cool with that, but if San Jose is not going to happen (for whatever reason), we need to get on with it, the A’s need to build in Oakland, or sale the team to someone that will (contrary to popular belf, I believe there are people willing to do that), or give the Giants their victory and sale to out of state interest, I’m just tired (like everyone), of all this waiting, and as unfair as things have been to Lew Wolff and the A’s, they have to take some responsibility, either willingly, or unwillingly, they have played a part in this whole mess, if they really can’t get San Jose, such it up and build in Oakland, or sale the da^$*&)_(, team and be done with it!
Sorry, I meant to say “if they really can’t get San Jose, suck it up”
Just read through the Facebook posting where the RiverCats/A’s fans completely lose their shit.
I can state that, as a Giants fan, the Cats’ affiliation with the team on this side of Yerba Buena Island has not affected me one way or the other as to the frequency with which I would go to games at Raley. Besides, I can never bring myself to cheer for any team from Fresno – that’s just how I’m wired.
Back in the day, I thoroughly enjoyed going to Mini-Giants games in San Jose, and I will admit it was cool having seen guys like Steve Decker and Richie Aurilia make it up to the majors after having seen them a few years before down on South Campus.
Next season, the Tower Bridge will still be there. The Berm will still be there. Saturday Night Fireworks will still be there. Dinger will still be there, and the guys in the bullpen will still chuck water at him when he rides by on the four-wheeler. Unfortunately, Mike on the Mic will probably still be there, but there’s always room for hope.
If you’re never, ever going to Raley again to see a game because of this situation, then who’s the one who’s being short-sighted – you, or the RiverCats organization?