Oakland Athletics to Las Vegas

[Ulice Payne]

10 minutes ago, FriarHouketh said:

I have a unique perspective on this, as in - well, I'm a displaced Brewer fan in the East Valley in Arizona. And, as I live in the A's spring home city, I have a somewhat partial rooting interest in this situation.

 

Love the Pilots cap in your avatar.

[wiguy94]

40 minutes ago, MrTPlush said:

Mexico City is more logical logistically....but yah, the ridiculous elevation could be problematic. However, Denver exists.

Mexico City's elevation is 7300 ft. Denver's is 5200 ft. Again not really comparable.

[MrTPlush]

Just now, wiguy94 said:

Mexico City's elevation is 7300 ft. Denver's is 5200 ft. Again not really comparable.

They are comparable. Both are high elevations compared to the rest of MLB. It would create another pitching/hitter issue like Denver. Would it be worse, yeah...obviously. I never said it was an identical twins comparison. 

[MrTPlush]

37 minutes ago, FriarHouketh said:

My number one concern is that the A's would not only abandon Oakland, but Mesa as well - one of only two Cactus League facilities that have "divided" locations. The Giants over in Scottsdale and the A's have stadiums separate from their practice fields.

Of course, if the A's move to Vegas, they might be interested in moving their facility to Legacy USA (fka Bell Bank Park) in the SE part of Mesa - and practically across the street from Phoenix Mesa Gateway. (Did I mention that Gateway has direct flights from Mesa to Las Vegas?

I don't really understand the connection of Bank Bell Park to an MLB team. 

Also, we just watched the Brewers deal with their spring training facility in Arizona. They ended up back at Maryvale after no one (namely Gilbert) wanted to pitch in money for it. I would put the odds of the Oakland A's spending twice their MLB payroll on a new spring training facility at a really solid 0%. That cheap owner would play intra-squad scrimmages in a cornfield before spending money like that. 

[owbc]

1 hour ago, wiguy94 said:

Mexico City's elevation is 7300 ft. Denver's is 5200 ft. Again not really comparable.

Milwaukee's air is 2% less dense than sea level.
Denver is 14% less dense.
Mexico City is 20% less dense. 

So it's not terrible but you're adding about a third more to the Coors Field effect. 

It's already going to be hard to pull off a Mexico expansion, so scaring pitchers away is not going to help things. And Monterrey is a fairly wealthy city as well (not quite as high as Mexico City I think...)

[MadThinker88]

7 hours ago, FriarHouketh said:

I have a unique perspective on this, as in - well, I'm a displaced Brewer fan in the East Valley in Arizona. And, as I live in the A's spring home city, I have a somewhat partial rooting interest in this situation.

My number one concern is that the A's would not only abandon Oakland, but Mesa as well - one of only two Cactus League facilities that have "divided" locations. The Giants over in Scottsdale and the A's have stadiums separate from their practice fields.

Of course, if the A's move to Vegas, they might be interested in moving their facility to Legacy USA (fka Bell Bank Park) in the SE part of Mesa - and practically across the street from Phoenix Mesa Gateway. (Did I mention that Gateway has direct flights from Mesa to Las Vegas?)

I do foresee an expansion franchise considering Legacy USA for their spring home, though that may be my selfishness talking.

Anyways, as to the A's themselves - I'm old enough to remember the two times Finley tried to sell the team and move them to Denver. This thing ain't gonna be a clean divorce. Oakland's gonna force them to play at the Coliseum in 2024 by lawsuit, no matter how much money MLB throws at them, and we might be in for another round of what happened when the A's moved to Oakland in the first place - placating jilted cities with expansion teams.

Which, realistically, is what they should have done back in the 60's, tbh. Finley should have just sold the team to KC concerns (Kaufmann, for example), and let Oakland join the AL with Seattle in 1970 or 1971.

Thank you for chiming in  & sharing the insights regarding the spring training situation.

[Playing Catch]

I think this article pertains to the conversation... Mexico City Series: Why the Mexican capital faces an uphill climb toward landing a Major League Baseball franchise - ESPN

With that linked, I'm kinda shocked they didn't mention the elevation, I mean... https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/04/29/mexico-city-baseball-an-explosion-colors-and-home-runs-for-giants-padres/

 

I think Montreal is in the driver's seat for any expansion.

 

[TURBO]

On 4/25/2023 at 1:40 PM, homer said:

Mexico City's murder rate is about the same as Los Angeles. 

Assuming that they report all of their murders.  I wouldn't be shocked at all if what they report and realty are not even close.  They don't want to scare off tourists with their crime reports.

[homer]

 

 

[MrTPlush]

The A's are now going to demolish the Tropicana to make room for a new stadium....no sorry, not the dump in Tampa Bay you are thinking of, a casino in Las Vegas. The new plan would apparently require over $100mil less of public funding. 

The new plan also puts them directly on the south side of strip, instead of on the west side of the freeway like the Raiders stadium is. 

[thebruce44]

On 5/6/2023 at 8:43 AM, TURBO said:

Assuming that they report all of their murders.  I wouldn't be shocked at all if what they report and realty are not even close.  They don't want to scare off tourists with their crime reports.

FWIW, I felt safer in the nice neighborhood's of Mexico City than in most US downtowns. It is a really interesting city in terms of the variance in quality of life.

[owbc]

On 5/6/2023 at 8:43 AM, TURBO said:

Assuming that they report all of their murders.  I wouldn't be shocked at all if what they report and realty are not even close.  They don't want to scare off tourists with their crime reports.

Have you ever been to Mexico? 

[Fear The Chorizo]

Mexico City has been somewhat spared from the drug cartel violence in many other parts of Mexico, primarily because most of the wealth in that country chooses to live in affluent parts of Mexico city.  Cartel kingpins play relatively nice in a metropolis that size when they all have kin living there.  Its not part of turf wars for smuggling routes to the states, either.

 

Its a huge city that has the same problems as most other major metropolitan centers in the world, but it's not crime that will prevent a mlb team from calling Mexico city home.

[homer]

As others have suggested, I think Monterrey makes a lot of sense. 

[DHonks]

When I came home from my first year of college in CA, my friends said “hey, I heard the A’s are getting a new ballpark near your college!”  Would have been cool to have them in San Jose.  Oh, and the year was ‘00.  Glad they have some certainty finally. 

[homer]

 

[homer]

Maybe Vegas was a leverage move? I am not so sure MLB wants Vegas to have a team. The threat of Vegas getting a team can be used for new stadium deals in existing markets.

 

[patrickgpe]

17 minutes ago, homer said:

Maybe Vegas was a leverage move? I am not so sure MLB wants Vegas to have a team. The threat of Vegas getting a team can be used for new stadium deals in existing markets.

 

from the beginning MLB has had cities that have been willing to be used for leverage to get stadium deals done. If LV is not available, they have SLC, Nashville, Charlotte, Orlando, and Portland. Wherever the A's go, there will always be a city trying to get a MLB team

[jerichoholicninja]

Leverage for what? Oakland isn't going to do anything to keep them.

[homer]

• 20 minutes ago, jerichoholicninja said:

  Leverage for what? Oakland isn't going to do anything to keep them.

   

• In 2021, the A’s asked the City to form an infrastructure financing district for the project. Oakland’s Council, including current Mayor Sheng Thao, agreed and convinced Alameda County to consider "opting in” as well, nearly doubling the potential funding available for public infrastructure, parks and affordable housing.
• In 2021, the A’s asked the City to raise nearly $360 million to fund offsite infrastructure. The City rose to the challenge, raising more than $375 million in non- City funding (with another $100 million in grant applications currently pending).
• In 2021, the A’s asked Oakland’s City Council to certify an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the project. Oakland not only did so, but successfully defended it in court – twice.

• https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/waterfront-ballpark-district-at-howard-terminal-faqs

   

[JosephC]

I'd be pretty disappointed if I was a Vegas resident.

So we'd be getting a notoriously penny-pinching owner who is building the smallest stadium in the league in what is the smallest market in the league.  The Brewers billed Miller Park as a 300 million, 50/50 public/private split giving the impression that it would be a 150 million dollar investment.  Bill so far (not even counting all the tax breaks) is 605 million and what will be another 290 million very soon (I predict that number will end up being quite a bit higher than that), so we are up to 895 million which is just a shade under 6 times what was originally sold to the public.  So if the A's are looking at 360 million of free money right off the bat, it's probably a reasonable bet that that will mean 2+ billion when freeloading billionaires and dishonest politicians have their way with the public dollars.

No way MLB allows this franchise to flounder all the way through the first five years as that would look bad and not help their expert pilfering of public money for future projects.  But when I am looking at a cheap owner in the smallest stadium in the smallest market in the league and the long-term projections of that comes with that...at what I reasonably expect to be a 2+ billion dollar price-tag over time...I'd be more than happy to throw them back to Oakland and let them deal with the constant headache of having to shell out free money to a crybaby billionaire.

[owbc]

Vegas was the plan all along, negotiating with Oakland was a leverage move for Vegas. The funding and approvals were moving through in Oakland. Slowly, because it's California, but they were moving. Once the Oakland city council figured out what was going on they bailed. 

By the way, this was brilliant. Kudos to A's fans for a fantastic night. 

 

 

[BlightyBrew]

According to Rosenthal, Mark Attanasio is heading the relocation committee that will evaluate the A's proposal to move to Las Vegas.

[owbc]

8 hours ago, BlightyBrew said:

According to Rosenthal, Mark Attanasio is heading the relocation committee that will evaluate the A's proposal to move to Las Vegas.

Practice for moving the Brewers to Nashville I suppose

[patrickgpe]

reading Manfred's comments yesterday, reminded me of one of heel managers in WWE from my youth. I know he is planning on MLB and the rest of the owners making a lot of cash on this move, but he should show some compassion for the true A's fan.