Oakland’s City Council passed the City’s term sheet on Howard Terminal (6 ayes, 1 no, 1 abstention). With that the A’s braintrust is off to Vegas while they and MLB decide what to do next.
You didn’t really think this would magically come together in the last few weeks, did you?
… and a snap poll for good measure:
There’s a baseball game on today. In Oakland. Enjoy it. I’ll provide feedback on the meeting later today.
newballpark.org 
Did you mean “Enjoy it..while it lasts”?
It is time for the A’s to decide now: do you want to stay or do you want to go ? btw, I want to hear directly from the owner. Where is Fisher ?
My name is Cesar Luna I live in Burlingame CA, I met my GF now my wife in San Francisco, both my kids are born, raised, both my kids graduated from Burlingame High School and college on the west side of the bay. But we always been ticket holders and big time Oakland A’s fans. To us it’s very upsetting when we hear our SF Giants fans neighbors in Burlingame telling us for the past 20 YEARS!!! That Oakland it’s a 2nd class city, with 2nd class politicians, Oakland has always been under SF shadows and it will always be because Oakland just don’t evolve or develop like SF does. In the mid 90’s, I used to work in the GAP corporate building at 1 Harrison and Embarcadero near China Basin Landing. I would drive thru that area see drug dealers selling, homeless eating from the garbage and pimps beating on prostitutes while Johns circle around. The Giants with the help from the city built Pacific Bell Park, now that ex-dilapidated area has a new Kaiser, a new UCSF medical building, classy bars, restaurants, million dollar condominiums and oh yeah the basketball team Oakland lost Golden State in Chase Arena. Now the Son of Don Fisher the man I worked for is trying to build the same thing in Oakland! But maybe my neighbors are right?! Maybe Oakland and their politicians are to live under the SF shadow forever! The same politicians that built that $100+ million dollars monstrosity for Al Davis to bring the Raiders back and just left to Las Vegas not long ago. I’ll miss you Athletics, but I don’t blame you. I blame Oakland and their 2nd class politicians.
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The good new for Oakland is that if the A’s want to negotiate with LV, LV is going to get “urinated” off very very quickly if the A’s still have the door open in Oakland. Either Oakland is cut off or you are going to have to play footsie with someone else. There won’t be many takers
@ML
Looking at full picture, I am cautiously optimistic (vary cautiously), a long way to go but it may happen.
One thing I am concerned about is the revenue sharing the A’s will receive (again) if they relocate to LV, or Portland, or any other location that may open up.
I am sure the A’s would love to get that 70 million a year back, that money has to be considered when thinking about HT. I get that between the combined statistical areas of San Francisco and Sacrament there is like 11 or 12 million people but that money needs to be made up somewhere regardless of market size..
* Sacramento
C’mon ML! Why give HT boosters false hope over on Twitter about the A’s/Oakland being “stuck with each other”?! Oakland has had over 25 years to get something done for the A’s!! And yesterday proved once again they are not serious about keeping the Green and Gold. At some point (and I believe that time is soon), MLB has to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Much greener pastures elsewhere in my opinion; be it the desert or somewhere else in The Bay..
Hey ML, there was also false hope provided for others wanting “greener pastures” for the A’s: the “for now at least” in your “territorial rights/SPACE/Ratto” tweet. Hope lives in the twitterverse!
I think the plan to build a stadium near Circus Circus makes a ton of sense for the A’s and Las Vegas. The owner of the property has already voiced support for the plan and I could see that area of Las Vegas really booming in the coming years. There is a lot of development potential in the area. A 4 billion dollar resort just opened nearby and another large upscale casino is set to open across the street in 2023. Also monorail is nearby and more public transit development could come if Elon Musk’s tunnel project expands from the convention center.
Looking at the pros relative to each site (HT and north strip Vegas):
Oakland-bigger TV market, underdeveloped downtown area could math out to more financial opportunity, nicer aesthetics next to water, better weather, bigger home fanbase with history, better access to water
Vegas-Lower project build costs, probably no affordable housing requirements and potentially lower community benefit costs, unique opportunity to develop more hotel and gaming nearby, no state income tax, unique corporate money for convention attendees in luxury suites.
The Festival Grounds is by far the best site for the A’s in Vegas. Will they pay for it? Moving costs for the A’s would be:
1. $1 Billion to Phil Ruffin for the land
2. $1 Billlion relocation fee
3. $1+ Billion for the retractable roof ballpark construction cost
So that’s $3+ Billion to move to the Strip. If Fisher sees the value in that, more power to him. History shows that he’s too cheap to do it.
If manfred is really pushing Las Vegas that hard then maybe the relocation fee will be much lower. The land could probably be sold for some amount of equity or for much lower because it would increase the value of the nearby properties owned. Ruffin seems very enthusiastic about the potential. I’m no real estate expert but 1 billion seems like a high valuation for the land. The stadium will definitely cost a billion but the development costs would be so much lower than HT and maybe the government will offer some amount of financial incentive. Just on the surface seems at least like a good alternative to Oakland.
It’s a mistake to think Manfred is pushing for any city. He’s trying to gin up better deals among competing cities. He knows moving is a last resort especially for the A’s because of the economic implications for the team and baseball as a whole.