Rob Manfred deserves blame, Oakland isn’t innocent, Mark Davis says true things, and what it means for the SF Giants.
They were enabled by MLB commissioner — aka the owners’ lawyer — Rob Manfred, who was hands-off in the team’s stadium quest, only chiming in with empty rhetoric that signaled how little he cared about the situation. Manfred failed to exert any authority when it became clear years ago that Fisher wasn’t a serious owner, or that Kaval was unemployable in his role.
Tony Clark, the president of the players’ association, is complicit in this part. When the players and owners re-negotiated the sport’s collective bargaining agreement, Clark did not prioritize a league-wide salary floor. Without one, the A’s can continue to field a 26-man roster that makes less than Mets starting pitcher Max Scherzer annually.
In baseball, only 12 of 30 Major League teams can claim, at the moment, to have a solid television contract. The A’s are one of those teams due to their local TV deal with NBC Sports Bay Area, which is partially owned by the Giants. That’s a significant revenue hit, especially for a team already pushing that it will be for Las Vegas locals.
All this to say that while the A’s have turned their back on Oakland, all they have to show for it is a truck stop they purchased on the wrong side of the highway. New mayor Sheng Thao was no adversary, but she was hardly an advocate. Her priority wasn’t the A’s, and Fisher and company responded by not making Oakland their priority.“We ended up in Las Vegas, which is absolutely fantastic and couldn’t be better,” Davis said, amongst so many other things. “But the A’s never gave us a real good chance to stay up in Oakland.”
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Kurtenbach: Oakland, the East Bay deserve better than John Fisher’s bush-league A’sThe A’s said they’re done with Oakland. The city should learn from the Raiders debacle and kick the team out as soon as possible.
Read more »
Oakland A's Oakland's last major league team of any sportWith the Oakland A's having purchased land in Las Vegas for a new ballpark, and with the Raiders and Warriors gone, Oakland, with no major sports teams left, becomes a ‘minor league’ city.
Read more »
Q&A: Oakland A’s president Kaval on Las Vegas land purchase, future in Oakland and more“In Oakland, it could be two or three years before we get a binding agreement. … It’s disconcerting because we would lose our league revenue and the team would be in worse shape than it…
Read more »
Kurtenbach: Kevon Looney — the Warriors’ irreplaceable colossus — keeps proving he’s a Golden State legendBuild the statue.
Read more »
Kurtenbach to A’s owner John Fisher: Good riddance!The A’s said they’re done with Oakland. The city should learn from the Raiders debacle and kick the team out as soon as possible.
Read more »
Oakland Mayor Calls Athletics' Las Vegas Stadium Site Deal ‘Extremely Disappointing'Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao on Thursday said news of the Athletics signing a binding purchase agreement for a potential ballpark site in Las Vegas is “extremely disappointing.”
Read more »