A's headed to Las Vegas

[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.

[MooseDog]

Originally Posted by mrreality68

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.

There is truth to that but don't forget that Oakland got royally screwed by Al Davis and the Raiders (twice) and I think they had no choice but to proceed carefully.

As for improvements to the stadium, it's the lipstick on a pig argument. No lie it's a dump...but it is OUR dump! Best option on the table was probably to rebuild on the spot but the Giants were unwilling to share their ballpark while that was being done.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by MooseDog

There is truth to that but don't forget that Oakland got royally screwed by Al Davis and the Raiders (twice) and I think they had no choice but to proceed carefully.

As for improvements to the stadium, it's the lipstick on a pig argument. No lie it's a dump...but it is OUR dump! Best option on the table was probably to rebuild on the spot but the Giants were unwilling to share their ballpark while that was being done.

They could easily do renovations during the offseason if they really wanted to. Fenway gets renovated pretty often, always during the off season.

Apparently the As publicly funded stadium was slow getting anywhere so now they're getting Ballys to build them one.

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by MooseDog

There is truth to that but don't forget that Oakland got royally screwed by Al Davis and the Raiders (twice) and I think they had no choice but to proceed carefully.

As for improvements to the stadium, it's the lipstick on a pig argument. No lie it's a dump...but it is OUR dump! Best option on the table was probably to rebuild on the spot but the Giants were unwilling to share their ballpark while that was being done.

not disagreeing but the As Owners cannot worry about what the raiders did and they have to as a business think about making money and in that dump of a coliseum does not help.
The City and the Owners both played games and sadly the few A's fans that are left suffer for it