Evaluating several key factors of A’s Las Vegas relocation saga originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Athletics’ potential move to Las Vegas from Oakland has been nothing short of a procrastinatory saga.
In talking to NBC Sports California’s Brodie Brazil on Sunday, The Athletic’s Melissa Lockard shared what she knows about MLB’s most consequential ongoing storyline as the A’s work out where they’ll play when their Coliseum lease expires after the 2024 MLB season.
“Clearly, there’s messaging happening,” Lockard told Brazil. “There’s probably two different forces at play here. What Major League Baseball is willing to give up and what the A’s might be willing to give up to stay at the Coliseum are probably two different things. The idea of negotiating an expansion franchise is not really up to the A’s. So, messaging might be different from MLB than from the A’s.
“But it would be giving a lot of credit to John Fisher to assume that he has a grand plan that’s two steps ahead of where we are because there’s been nothing that has shown that he’s had that ability to get to this point.”
Lockard confidently believes MLB and the A’s are sending mixed signals, clearly fighting for leverage. She adds that Fisher hasn’t proved to be helpful by any means.
And with reports that the A’s might have a temporary home in Sacramento as they await a new ballpark in Las Vegas, Lockard evaluated what the team’s temporary move to Sutter Health Park would look like.
“It’s an interesting thing because [Sacramento] has been both an A’s and Giants market for a long time — you find [the Sacramento River Cats] there for both of those teams since 1999,” Lockard stated. “There was always this intent that the stadium could eventually become a big-league stadium. When it was built, there was this idea you could tack on a third deck to it.
“There was always this idea that the West Sacramento area could grow up to become this bigger thing. Certainly, when you look at the other cities in consideration, it matches up with size… media… number of people that could be going there. I don’t think, though, that this would necessarily present as the best case for making that sort of pitch to [MLB]. They’re not going to be playing in a big-league stadium. It’s not like it’s going to be able to draw 30,000 people a day.”
Lockard also believes MLB commissioner Rob Manfred misconceives the Bay Area market, thus making the relocation process much more strenuous, especially for fans.
“[Manfred] might understand what it means to be the business side of baseball, but I would guess he’s never truly been a fan of any sports team,” Lockard said. “I do think there is a real misunderstanding of this market from the East Coast base of Major League Baseball. There’s a sense that the Bay Area is smaller than it is [and] this idea, ‘Geographically, there’s only 10 miles apart between [the A’s and San Francisco Giants]. Therefore, it’s like basically like they’re neighbors.’ And they’re not neighbors in any way.”
Similarly to what the Cubs and White Sox deal with in Chicago, Lockard believes MLB officials see Oakland and San Francisco as one location. Manfred also believes A’s fans in the Bay Area likely could evolve into Giants fans — a cruel concept.
Lockard also recognized the A’s Triple-A affiliate, the Las Vegas Aviators, and how they opened their $50 million Las Vegas Ballpark in 2019. She assumes the Aviators’ owners aren’t the happiest with the A’s’ proposed move.
Regarding the A’s’ on-field product, Lockard fears for the team’s ability to sign free agents because of uncertainty surrounding its home field and potential move.
“Even with the fact that I think a lot of players would play for Mark Kotsay under [many] circumstances, it’s too negative [an environment] to want to make a long-term commitment,” Lockard declared.
“I think Ross Stripling was fine with coming over in a trade. I think Alex Wood was fine with coming over for a year. A year is one thing, but when you’re talking about two to three years, and not knowing where your family is going to live. It’s hard enough to be a major league baseball player and know you could be traded.”
Lockard, overall, sees the situation as a tough one to solve — summarizing it as if Fisher and Co. broke up with the city of Oakland over voicemail while potentially wanting to remain roommates.
