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The A’s would be almost ready to open a new stadium near Laney College in Oakland these days if at least some of the things they planned and promised in 2017 had come true. But none of them did.
This may sound familiar: Even after the A’s had to admit defeat in the Laney debacle, they would probably still be in the final stages of building a new stadium on the Howard Terminal site, right at this moment, if everything owner John Fisher and his lieutenants would have trumpeted and declared it had really happened. Then they delayed it and delayed it again, negotiated with the city of Oakland and still kept promising.
But not.
All Fisher did in all that time (and for three or four other failed efforts before that, dating back decades), was really wasting time. Very precious time. His own time, his personal time, politicians’ time and, most importantly, the time and emotions of A’s fans. Wasted. Just completely wasted. He literally could have had a stadium already, several times over, if he had been willing to commit more of his vast resources than he wanted.
You can blame whoever you want, but the common denominator in this is John Fisher. And failure.
And now, to the new situation in Las Vegas, which is starting to feel and sound like all of Fisher’s old situations in all his other delayed, frustrating, and ultimately doomed endeavors.
That’s what I took away from Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman’s very interesting comments on a Front Office Sports podcast. casting a certain amount of doubt about the A’s planned move to the site of the soon-to-implode Tropicana Las Vegas hotel, which, it is important to note, is located in unincorporated Clark County and not in Goodman’s jurisdiction. Additionally, Goodman slightly retracted his comments a little later.
Once again, Goodman did not speak with any real authority on this matter. But let’s take his skepticism (he literally said the A’s should figure out how to build in Oakland) as a representation of the Las Vegas demographic that never it seemed also I’m excited about the A’s moving to Nevada.
As with any other demographic, business, or fan: the more you know Fisher’s operation, the less faith you have in anything good happening.
For me, the most telling point was not Goodman’s comments. It was that his clear ambivalence about the A’s in Las Vegas was met with almost total silence among the powerful in that region. Ambivalence upon ambivalence. Where was the rallying cry of all those businesses and fans supposedly lining up to welcome the A’s? Where was the energy? Why didn’t anyone with influence step forward to shout that the mayor was wrong and that the A’s will take this city by storm in 2028, which is the new theoretical end date?
If there was a big vote of confidence in Las Vegas for Fisher this week, I sure didn’t see it.
GO DEEPER
Rosenthal: Why I’m still skeptical about the A’s’ grandiose plans in Las Vegas
And I wonder if Fisher himself feels it too. Because, if you’re ever honest with yourself, you might come to the same conclusions I just came to, sitting here more than six years after your Laney College plans fell through and almost a year after you backed out of the college talks. Howard Terminal to concentrate only. In Las Vegas.
Starting with the big conclusion:
Fisher is virtually no further along with this Las Vegas stadium than he was with the Howard Terminal project early last year.
Stop and go over that sentence again. I’m not exaggerating to achieve the effect. Considering the mood of the local population, it is probably a step or two away behind that pace, which should be pretty scary for Fisher and everyone involved in the Las Vegas situation. That is, if someone wants to be honest with themselves.
Of course, Fisher could finish this stadium if he puts in the effort, gets a real construction plan, gets financing, and commits to several hundred million dollars of his own money. Maybe he still does that.
But friends, that was also true at Howard Terminal, Laney College and the Coliseum. That’s always been true, especially at Howard Terminal, when the city offered a deal that was broader than many experts expected. He has always refused to make that kind of commitment. You just go from one project to another and then the plans explode. He has always found a way to fail. He will do it again in Las Vegas.
Yes, Fisher has MLB approval to move to Las Vegas. Unanimous, even! But he also had MLB approval to build anywhere he wanted in the East Bay. And those sites were much more realistic than the small nine-acre parcel the A’s have in Las Vegas..
That’s why MLB’s relocation vote in November was not the final step. It was not even the first step of the final stage. There is simply so much more to discover. There are too many things in the air.
Yes, Fisher will receive $380 million from the state of Nevada. But that’s only if the A’s build on the Tropicana site. It’s most likely too small to fit under a retractable roof (there goes that spectacular Las Vegas night backdrop) and overall looks too small for indoor Major League baseball.
There would be no greatness within that theoretical stadium. There will be no sun. It would feel small and cramped. And it would be just another big air-conditioned attraction competing for attention with lounge shows, mafia museums, animal habitats and, oh yeah, every type of casino imaginable.
At Howard Terminal, the stadium would have been next to the Bay and would have been outdoors. It would have eventually had a mixed-use neighborhood surrounding the stadium. It would have been much, much better than anything that could be placed on the Tropicana site. It’s not a bad thing to say that, and the mayor of Las Vegas just said it.
Even if the A’s get the stadium in Las Vegas up and running, the estimated opening date of 2028 is very optimistic given all the delays so far: 2029 or 2030 seem much more realistic..
So where will the A’s play after this season, when the Coliseum’s lease runs out? Wow, Fisher has no announced plans. He doesn’t know, other than that it seems likely the A’s will become a traveling team, perhaps playing some in Sacramento, some in Salt Lake City and some in a couple of minor league parks in Nevada.
Yes, looking and acting like a rampaging 4A team might not be the perfect way to market this franchise in a new city.
Of course, to help marketing, the A’s lost a total of 214 games over the past two seasons. And they’re about to slash their TV pay because they’ll likely play most of their games outside of the NBC Sports Bay Area broadcast region. So you know Fisher will keep payroll as low as possible.
I can’t imagine how the A’s will be better than they have been the last two seasons, and they could be worse. Until 2029 or 2030.
Buy your Las Vegas season tickets now!
When I expressed my extreme cynicism about Fisher to high-ranking people in baseball during Fisher’s stadium odyssey, they generally nodded their heads but tried to emphasize the positive. This time, they have said, I should do it right. This time he has to do it.
They said it again about the Las Vegas situation and I understand it. Fisher has no other options. MLB has shamefully disdained Oakland and opened the Las Vegas market to it. There is no way out. If Fisher is ever going to make it, it has to be now. It would be very embarrassing not to do so. Any logical owner would do this.
And I keep saying: I’ve seen Fisher do illogical things every step of the way. I have seen it wasted so a long time: The A’s are probably further from a stadium now than they were a year ago, when they were further away than a year earlier and further away 10 years earlier. We know the other MLB owners don’t want to force Fisher to sell the team. But if anything will make them think about it, or at least strongly suggest to Fisher that it’s time to hand this team over to someone else, it will be if he ruins this Las Vegas situation.
Which may not be inevitable, but it sure would be the betting option right now.
(Photo of possible future Las Vegas ballpark site for the A’s, currently mostly dirt: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)