Sports
Related: About this forumA's buy land in Vegas. They are leaving Oakland.
Oakland A's agree to purchase land near Las Vegas Strip
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/36241520/oakland-agree-purchase-land-las-vegas-strip
The Oakland Athletics have signed a binding agreement to purchase land near the Las Vegas Strip, where they intend to construct a major league ballpark, team president Dave Kaval said Wednesday night.
The A's will work with Nevada and Clark County on a public-private partnership to fund the stadium. Kaval said the A's hope to break ground by next year and would hope to be moved into their new home by 2027.
"For a while we were on parallel paths [with Oakland], but we have turned our attention to Las Vegas to get a deal here for the A's and find a long-term home," Kaval told the Review-Journal. "Oakland has been a great home for us for over 50 years, but we really need this 20-year saga completed and we feel there's a path here in Southern Nevada to do that."
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred expressed his support for the purchase agreement and for the A's shifting their efforts toward a move to Las Vegas.
Clash City Rocker
(3,541 posts)They want to give the Giants a monopoly on the Bay Area. So that will leave me with one baseball rooting option, to root for the Giants to lose every year.
Fiendish Thingy
(18,512 posts)Oakland has now lost all of their sports teams- Raiders, Warriors and now the As.
From Wikipedia:
The Coliseum, along with Oracle Arena and its surrounding parking lots, are owned 50% by the City of Oakland and 50% by the Athletics.[52] The Athletics purchased their 50% share in 2018 from Alameda County, after the City of Oakland dropped a lawsuit that attempted to block the sale.[52] As of July 2021, two Black-led redevelopment groups were vying for the chance to purchase the City's half of the site, one led by the African American Sports and Entertainment Group and the other by Dave Stewart and Lonnie Murray.[53] In November 2021, the council voted to move forward with the plan proposed by the African American Sports and Entertainment Group.[54]
snip
Public debt[edit]
A 1996 expansion of the stadium was funded by a controversial issuancecritics said that " Oakland) Raiders' late owner, Al Davis, fleeced local officials at the expense of taxpayers"of some $220 million of public debt by both Alameda County and the City of Oakland,[99][100][101] resulting in substantial debt service payments for both governments. As of spring of 2018, the City of Oakland still owed $135 million for the expansion.[102]
In December 2019, Alameda County officials announced the sale of the county's interest in the stadium to the Oakland A's baseball club, saying the $85 million deal would allow the county to pay off its share of the debt. In a joint statement, Supervisor Scott Haggerty and Supervisor Nate Miley noted that the two Supervisors "have led the negotiations and played instrumental roles in moving the sale of the county's share forward in the hope that, once finalized, the $85 million valuation will relieve the county of debt which has weighed on taxpayers for decades."[103]
I hope Oakland can survive this.
Auggie
(31,798 posts)Manfred wants a franchise in Las Vegas.
A new stadium was completely viable on the Coliseum complex site. It's next to two rail lines, a major freeway, and close to an international airport. And it would come cheap.
Well, good riddance. John Fisher purposely stripped the team of talent and lowered the payroll while raising ticket prices. It was his intention to enrage fans, send them packing and open the door to Las Vegas.
Fisher is a Republican. He is co-chair of the Charter School Growth Fund. He, and his family, donated nearly $9 million to a dark money group that opposed Barack Obama in the 2012 election.*
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._Fisher
underpants
(186,646 posts)The irony of having a MLB team in Vegas is a lot.
Rule #1 posted in every clubhouse- Do not bet on baseball.
madinmaryland
(65,154 posts)rsdsharp
(10,118 posts)Both teams have been in three cities. Now the As look to make it a fourth. At least their team name has never been changed.
El Supremo
(20,377 posts)No more Kelly Green. I wonder what Charlie O would say?
ProfessorGAC
(69,881 posts)Philadelphia, Kansas City, Oakland, Vegas.
Admittedly, it's over 120 years but that seems a lot, given how little overall movement there's been in MLB.
Xavier Breath
(5,012 posts)but I feel for the diehards in Oakland who will be losing the club they love, some of them since the WS teams of the '70s.