A's headed to Las Vegas

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by steve B

How things have changed.

At one point Mays was "banned" because he invested in and did some PR stuff for a casino. Welcome back when that all ended.
Having a franchise in Vegas would have been nearly unthinkable.

Now? No problem.

Gambling money is paying for that, one way or another.
Baseball pretty much isn't baseball anymore.

To avoid the obvious hypocrisy they should have and induction ceremony for both Jackson and Rose during the home opener.

It's impossible to block Vegas after so many states legalized sports gambling after the courts changed the hold Vegas and Atlantic City held.

We have sports gambling in Michigan now, should they have been forced to move all 4 professional teams for a decision at the state legislative level?

I expect the gap of not having the NBA in Vegas to be filled in the next few years as well. They do an amazing job of bringing in teams alienated by local governments and have a solid fanbase along with a cheap airfare for visiting fans to attend as well.

If I was any of these teams asking for improvements I would be looking at Vegas already.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by JustinD

It's impossible to block Vegas after so many states legalized sports gambling after the courts changed the hold Vegas and Atlantic City held.

We have sports gambling in Michigan now, should they have been forced to move all 4 professional teams for a decision at the state legislative level?

I expect the gap of not having the NBA in Vegas to be filled in the next few years as well. They do an amazing job of bringing in teams alienated by local governments and have a solid fanbase along with a cheap airfare for visiting fans to attend as well.

If I was any of these teams asking for improvements I would be looking at Vegas already.

Baseball was at least publicly taking the high road and avoiding gambling at all costs. Putting a franchise in Vegas is just hypocritical unless they abandon the rules they've had for a hundred years.

But that seems to be the new "in" thing, chase the money while making the produt worse.
Other sports have at least acknowledged the gambling aspect while trying to keep players and officials out of it.

But "everyone is gambling so it's ok!"

Eff it, I'm getting out my Hartford Jai Ali glasses and displaying those instead of baseball stuff.

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by steve B

Baseball was at least publicly taking the high road and avoiding gambling at all costs. Putting a franchise in Vegas is just hypocritical unless they abandon the rules they've had for a hundred years.

But that seems to be the new "in" thing, chase the money while making the produt worse.
Other sports have at least acknowledged the gambling aspect while trying to keep players and officials out of it.

But "everyone is gambling so it's ok!"

Eff it, I'm getting out my Hartford Jai Ali glasses and displaying those instead of baseball stuff.

Always follow the money. That’s Business

The gambling money, the growing market, the tourist market

A’s can only do better than what it has just hope they then invest some of the new money when it comes into players to be more competitive

[steve B]

They've recently made sports betting legal here.

And it's made things weird and not better. Like the Celtics series, the time spent on the radio maybe highlighting a particular matchup instead focused on general playoff betting, and whether one of the players would score more or less than a certain number of points. Yawn....

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by steve B

They've recently made sports betting legal here.

And it's made things weird and not better. Like the Celtics series, the time spent on the radio maybe highlighting a particular matchup instead focused on general playoff betting, and whether one of the players would score more or less than a certain number of points. Yawn....

Sports gambling embraced by the powers that be has opened the floodgates, its no longer about the sport it's about the line, nobody cares about protecting the moral aspect anymore.

[MooseDog]

Lifelong A's/Oakland fan here...

The A's have a small but loyal fan base, however the current ownership has done everything they can to alienate that fan base while using the City of Oakland as a bargaining chip to get a deal in Las Vegas. That appears to have been the plan all along.

The only catch is that the ownership wants LV/NV to pay for the stadium with public money and only want to reap the benefits. They are such horrible people and bad businessmen that it's very likely that the LV deals will fall through, or the public money will not be there and they will be a team with no home when the Coliseum lease expires in 2024.

As a teenager growing up in Oakland in the 1970s it was a golden era. Three baseball championships, one NBA championship, three Super Bowls, and well the Oakland/California Golden/Not Golden Seals, loveable losers as they were.

Even though I don't live there any more I'm rooted in Oakland, when/if they leave I'm done with them, just like the Raiders. As it stands they are a MLB team in name only.

Now it comes out in the recent Reggie Jackson documentary that Reggie had an ownership group that had a better offer but Selig let his buddy Lew Wolff have the team instead. Despite the fact he eventually went to the hated Yankees, Reggie is still beloved in these parts and having him as a part owner of the A's would have been awesome.

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by MooseDog

Lifelong A's/Oakland fan here...

The A's have a small but loyal fan base, however the current ownership has done everything they can to alienate that fan base while using the City of Oakland as a bargaining chip to get a deal in Las Vegas. That appears to have been the plan all along.

The only catch is that the ownership wants LV/NV to pay for the stadium with public money and only want to reap the benefits. They are such horrible people and bad businessmen that it's very likely that the LV deals will fall through, or the public money will not be there and they will be a team with no home when the Coliseum lease expires in 2024.

As a teenager growing up in Oakland in the 1970s it was a golden era. Three baseball championships, one NBA championship, three Super Bowls, and well the Oakland/California Golden/Not Golden Seals, loveable losers as they were.

Even though I don't live there any more I'm rooted in Oakland, when/if they leave I'm done with them, just like the Raiders. As it stands they are a MLB team in name only.

Now it comes out in the recent Reggie Jackson documentary that Reggie had an ownership group that had a better offer but Selig let his buddy Lew Wolff have the team instead. Despite the fact he eventually went to the hated Yankees, Reggie is still beloved in these parts and having him as a part owner of the A's would have been awesome.

Well said J Stone
and all fans of teams emphasizes with you.
Sadly that is the reality of Sports. That way to many teams use their city or other cities for leverage to get what they want and how they want it. Which of course is for the public to pay for stadium so they can maximize their profits.
The only thing that I partially disagree on is that I believe the City of Oakland has dragged their feet for to long and could have done more both sooner(as short term bandaid like helping improve the stadium) while they figured out the long term solution of a new stadium.