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Walk-Off

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  1. Walk-Off
    Dave Kaval, for all of his recent uptalking of a potential move of the A's to the Las Vegas area, seems to have admitted that a Howard Terminal ballpark is, at least for now, much closer to becoming a reality than an MLB-ready venue anywhere in Southern Nevada: https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/06/07/as-have-called-the-stadium-pursuit-in-las-vegas-and-oakland-parallel-paths-but-what-does-that-mean/
  2. Walk-Off
    I am quite sure that I made that suggestion in the 2021 MLB season thread, but I appreciate the shout-out just the same. Anyway, Josh Solomon, a St. Petersburg city hall reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, has made a detailed thread of tweets recapping this past week's developments in the Rays' stadium saga: https://twitter.com/ByJoshSolomon/status/1398399480874086404 Also, Charlie Frago, a co-worker of Solomon's who covers Tampa city hall matters, has revealed what one Tampa City Council member claims to have heard recently from Rays officials with regard to one potential option for the team's future: https://www.tampabay.com/news/tampa/2021/05/28/are-the-rays-listening-to-music-city-siren-songs/
  3. Walk-Off
    Yesterday, an anchor of the morning newscast on the Bay Area's Fox station interviewed Dave Kaval: https://www.ktvu.com/video/938385 Kaval talked up the Las Vegas option so much in that interview that I have come away with the impression that Kaval, A's principal owner John Fisher, et al. are now to MLB, Oakland, and Las Vegas what Anthony Precourt was to Major League Soccer, Columbus, and Austin, respectively -- people who are eager to try to move a big-league pro sports team from a fairly large city that seems to be too boring for their tastes to an area that has noticeably fewer residents but also a considerably more exciting image (be it the hip, socioculturally cool, "weird" reputation of Austin or the hedonistic glitz of Las Vegas).
  4. Walk-Off
    https://www.tampabay.com/sports/rays/2021/05/27/rays-resurrect-ybor-city-stadum-idea/ The Good News for Rays Fans A new ballpark for the Rays in Tampa's Ybor City section might be gaining another chance at being built. The Bad News for Rays Fans The Rays remain bound to their stadium lease in St. Petersburg through 2027. Stu Sternberg is still demanding that at least one government somewhere in North America spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new stadium for the Rays, and he has made no obvious offer to spend substantially more of his own money on such a venue than what he has done so far as the team's principal owner. Sternberg is insisting that Tampa and Hillsborough County, just like St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, settle for sharing the Rays with Montréal and thus letting the Rays be only a part-time user of a new ballpark in the Tampa Bay area. Furthermore, Sternberg is continuing to spin his split season proposal as a way to enable governments in both the Montréal and Tampa-St. Petersburg metro areas to build open-air ballparks for his team instead of a government in either region having to spend more money in order to construct a roofed stadium for a full-time local MLB club. On another note, I think that the time has come either for the Rays to have their own "Wheel of Relocation" thread or for the Oakland Athletics' "Wheel of Relocation" thread to be expanded to cover discussion of any reasonable possibility of any MLB franchise moving from one market to another.
  5. Walk-Off
    Trucking Groups Oppose Oakland Stadium Port Site Even as A's Mull Moving Oakland A’s set to come to Portland on a baseball fact-finding mission Finally, there is this bizarre, tone-deaf tweet from the president of the A's: https://twitter.com/DaveKaval/status/1397023219421310978 (I made multiple tries at embedding the tweet, but each attempt resulted only in code being displayed in my post.)
  6. Walk-Off
    https://ballparkdigest.com/2021/05/18/as-schedule-fact-finding-trip-in-las-vegas/
  7. Walk-Off
    https://ballparkdigest.com/2021/05/17/after-ultimatum-oakland-officials-say-they-will-consider-as-ballpark-plan/
  8. Walk-Off
    Disney, MLB agree to scaled-back ESPN broadcast schedule
  9. Walk-Off
    https://ballparkdigest.com/2021/05/13/with-as-in-play-what-comes-next/
  10. Walk-Off
    Under the ownership of Joe Lacob and some rich buddies of his, the Golden State Warriors moved out of an arena within the Coliseum campus in Oakland and into a new venue in San Francisco. So, the idea that Lacob -- whether by himself, with his fellow co-owners of the Warriors, or with a different set of investment partners -- would buy the A's and keep them at the Coliseum site (even with a new stadium inside that property) makes no sense to me at all.
  11. Walk-Off
    @BBTV, yes, the A's gave Santa Clara County to the Giants back when the latter team wanted to move to that jurisdiction. However, the fact that MLB has let the Giants keep Santa Clara County all to themselves well after the Giants exhausted all efforts to get a ballpark in that county, and especially long after the Giants built and moved into their current stadium within the city and county of San Francisco, suggests to me that the "MLB-endowed" label fits quite well after all.
  12. Walk-Off
    From all that I have read on NewBallpark.org, a blog that has been chronicling the Athletics' quest for a new stadium since 2005, widespread "Not In My Back Yard" sentiments among residents and businesses across Fremont (particularly with regard to possible increases in road traffic) forced the A's to abandon their plans for "Cisco Field" (yes, naming rights were already sold) in that municipality. By all appearances, the A's wanted a Fremont ballpark because, with the Giants still claiming exclusive ballpark construction rights in Santa Clara County, Fremont was the closest place to Silicon Valley where the A's could play while staying in Alameda County. A desire for a maximum ability to tap into the wealth of both businesses and residents in Silicon Valley, which seems to be mostly in Santa Clara County and completely outside of Alameda County, is a very likely reason why the Athletics' ownership (then led by Lew Wolff, just as was the case during the pursuit of Fremont) tried and failed to prod MLB and the Giants into letting the A's move to San José, why the A's have appeared to act reluctantly in their attempts to get a new venue in economically weaker Oakland, and why the A's have shown no sign of trying to get a new ballpark in any East Bay locale other than Oakland or Fremont. While the Bay Area may have plenty of groups (or even individuals) who are wealthy enough to buy the A's, how many of those groups or people are willing to accept MLB's mandate that Alameda County and Contra Costa County be the only places in the Bay Area where the A's may play home games, while the Giants keep enjoying an MLB-endowed exclusive right to play home games in pretty much all of the economically strongest counties in the Bay Area?
  13. Walk-Off
    I could understand the Astros and the Rangers having a full overlap of regional television coverage back when those clubs played in separate major leagues; fans in both the Dallas-Fort Worth market and the Houston market could have frequent audiovisual access to the full spectrum of MLB teams, stadia, and styles of play without having to wait for national telecasts of games in whichever was the "other" league locally. However, to this day, I have thought that such an arrangement has made far less sense ever since then-Commissioner Bud Selig forced the 'Stros to play in the same league (and especially the same division) as the Rangers. A relocation of the Athletics to either Austin or San Antonio is almost sure to be the death knell for the Astros' and Rangers' 100% Texas-wide presences on traditional linear TV services. While MLB has required the A's and the Giants to locate their ballparks in different sections of the Bay Area for as long as those teams have shared that region, they have understandably had complete overlap in their regional TV territories throughout their coexistence by the Bay. Thus, I think that no one should be surprised by an Austin Athletics or San Antonio Athletics franchise wanting regional TV exclusivity in at least their new Nielsen-defined market, even if it precludes opportunities for regional TV coverage in Big D, Cowtown, or H-Town. Finally, I think that a move to anywhere in Texas by the A's will put an unusually high level of pressure on MLB to realign across league lines. The prospect of the A's becoming a third American League team in a Lone Star State without a National League franchise may irk at least some owners of NL clubs enough to call for a return of the Astros and/or even a shifting of the Rangers to the NL.
  14. Walk-Off
    @GDAWG, if, by territorial rights, you mean regional television (and maybe also radio) rights, I am under the impression that the whole state of Texas is part of a TV territory shared by the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers. Unless I am mistaken, Astros games are on regional cable even in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, and Rangers games are on regional cable even in the Houston market. As I understand it, the MLB commissioner's office ordered a full overlap of those two teams' TV territories back when the second AL Washington Senators were seeking to move to North Texas. This decision was made in order to preserve the Astros' freedom to syndicate their game telecasts to any willing local TV station in the DFW area and thus encourage the 'Stros to let the Metroplex have its own MLB club; an unwillingness by the Astros' ownership to sacrifice regional TV coverage in North Texas was a key reason why the DFW region was turned down for one of the 1969 MLB expansion franchises.
  15. Walk-Off
    The top answer can be shortened to three words: Portland is richer. Specifically, Portland enjoys a lower unemployment rate and a higher rate of projected future job growth than does Sacramento. More importantly, Portland's per capita, median household, and median family incomes are all above the US average. Meanwhile, Sacramento is below the US average in all three of those income categories. Finally, as best as I can tell, Portland has more businesses that can afford to pay for premium seats at and season tickets to a MLB team's games than does Sacramento. Also, in a way, Portland may be helped by being geographically more isolated than Sacramento. If nothing else, part of the desire for a Portland team in MLB and particularly in the American League is to create a geographically close rival to the Seattle Mariners, who are decidedly the most remote MLB club at the moment.
  16. Walk-Off
    LAN (Angels) vs. LAT (Athletics) might work. With that said, I think that if and when the Greater Los Angeles region gains a third MLB franchise, such a team is most likely to play home games somewhere in the Inland Empire, which appears to be isolated enough from both Los Angeles County and Orange County to deliver a more or less captive audience to that ball club. Other possibilities that I see are Long Beach (which tried to get the Angels both when Gene Autry wanted out of Chavez Ravine in the 1960s and when Arte Moreno got antsy about the team's long-term prospects in Anaheim a few years ago), the San Fernando Valley, or even Ventura County.
  17. Walk-Off
    Among potential surprises that are big and yet plausible, I would go with Dave Kaval and company paying off the ownerships of both the Yankees and the Mets (and maybe paying off the Phillies' ownership also) and then moving the A's to the northeast quadrant of New Jersey. Some studies have suggested that, from a financial standpoint, the New York City and Los Angeles television markets would each be able to support three MLB teams more easily than any currently MLB-free TV market in the United States would be able to support one MLB franchise.
  18. Walk-Off
    The Portland area has two standing proposals now for a major-league-caliber baseball park. A few weeks ago, the Portland Diamond Project's plan for an MLB venue at the Port of Portland's Terminal 2 gained a intra-metropolitan competitor in the form of a proposal for an MLB park within a hypothetical mixed-use development in Gresham, a suburb east of Portland. Thus, the Athletics' owners could not only play the overall Portland metro area against any other possible relocation destination and/or Oakland, but could also pit the City of Portland proper against Gresham in the battle to give the A's the most attractive ballpark offer.
  19. Walk-Off
    Presently, Montréal seems more plausible to me than Charlotte, if only because of an active campaign led by Stephen Bronfman, an heir to the Seagram distillery fortune and the son of the original owner of the Expos. While Charlotte has been rumored for years as a potential home of an MLB team -- thanks largely to both a metro area with steady population growth and the continued financial pull of the city's banking industry (especially the national juggernaut that is Bank of America) -- I am not aware of any serious, clearly organized movement for an MLB franchise in or near the South's Queen City. In fact, I dare say that Raleigh has currently the most substantive and most tangible campaign for an MLB club anywhere in North Carolina (replete with a #RaleighOnDeck hashtag) ... even if most of the boosters of that project seem to be local hipsters whose individual and collective net worths are middle-class at best. Is Nashville still in play? Hmmm ... https://mlbmusiccity.com https://nashville-stars.myshopify.com https://twitter.com/NashvilleStars https://instagram.com/nashvillestarsbaseball https://facebook.com/NashvilleStarsBaseball As for Cleveland's MLB club moving anywhere, I see two major hurdles: Ohio's "Art Modell Law" forces pro sports teams playing at publicly funded venues in that state "to either get agreement from their home town to play most home games elsewhere, or give six months’ notice of their intention to move and allow locals a chance to buy the team." From what I have read, while Cuyahoga County's government is on track to pay off its debt on Progressive Field by the end of the 2023 season, it may not be exactly clear as to whether the Cleveland MLB team would become free to exit its lease of that ballpark at that moment, or would have to wait a certain number of years afterward before being allowed to play home games elsewhere. If the latter is true, then the Cleveland MLB franchise would be in a predicament much like that of the Tampa Bay Rays, who are still contractually bound to Tropicana Field through the 2027 season even though the City of St. Petersburg's government paid off the debt on that facility a few years ago.
  20. Walk-Off
    At this point, the idea that the Athletics and the Rays will stay on their respective current sides of North America if and when they move has become a common cliché when journalists, bloggers, radio talk show hosts, podcast hosts, et al. speculate about MLB's future geography. If I had to guess, such an assumption is based on a belief that MLB is unwilling to realign in order to accommodate a transcontinental relocation of a team. However, a serious problem with this premise -- and part of the dilemma that Rob Manfred and the overall MLB power structure face when dealing with these two teams' ballpark situations -- is that the A's are free to leave RingCentral Coliseum three years sooner than the Rays are allowed to vacate Tropicana Field. So, what will happen if, sometime between 2024 and 2027, whatever person or group owns the A's at that time determines that a metropolitan area located east of the Continental Divide, or even someplace that is also east of the Mississippi River, is the best new home for that franchise? Will Manfred and his minions dare to tell the Athletics' ownership, "Sorry, but the only places where you may move the A's are Las Vegas; Portland, Oregon; Sacramento; Salt Lake City; or Vancouver" and have the gall to say to political and business leaders in that easterly locale, "Sorry, but you'll have to wait till either we expand again or one of our teams in the eastern two-thirds of North America is willing and able to move, whichever comes first" in response to such a situation? Anyone who wants the A's to remain in Oakland, wishes that the Rays keep playing in the Tampa Bay area, desires that both of those teams stay put, or yearns for an MLB club in a place that is currently without such a team will need to buckle up. This could be the start of a few bumpy years of geographic uncertainty across Major League Baseball.
  21. Walk-Off
    If only to play devil's advocate, I wonder if a key reason why Comcast / NBCUniversal has been reserving ever more of the most alluring Premier League games for Peacock is a belief that the most fervent non-Hispanic US fans of soccer in general and of top-flight European club soccer competitions in particular are more likely -- and, more importantly, tend to be more willing -- to watch video programming on Internet-and-mobile-app-based, on-demand streaming services such as Peacock and, conversely, are less likely and tend to be less willing to subscribe to traditional cable-based or satellite-based, linear multichannel television services (including, obviously, Comcast's own cable operations). Whether it is fair or not, a common stereotype of non-Latinx fans of soccer in the United States is that they tend to be from either the Millennial generation (a.k.a. Generation Y) or Generation Z, and a widespread stereotype of both Millennials and Generation-Z-ers is that they tend either to be disillusioned former subscribers to cable-based or satellite-based multichannel TV services ("cord-cutters") or to have never had such subscriptions ("cord-nevers"). Another seemingly heavily accepted stereotype aimed at both Millennials and Gen-Z-ers is that such people tend to regard cable TV and even subscription-based satellite TV as costing too much money at best and as using disgustingly unreliable technology, having unbearably bad customer service, being flooded with channels dominated by mindlessly derivative "reality" entertainment programs, and being simply too old-fashioned at worst. For these reasons, I suspect that if Comcast / NBCU were maintaining the pre-Peacock status quo with regard to Premier League coverage in the United States, many of the most hardcore fans of soccer across the nation would be complaining about needing to get a cable or satellite subscription that they deem to be overpriced, and then having to accept a lot of unwanted channels, just to have access to attractive Premier League games on NBCSN ... when those same US fans can spend much less money to watch comparably interesting Bundesliga and Serie A games on ESPN+ and/or UEFA Champions League games on CBS All Access (soon to be renamed Paramount+). As much as it may disappoint those of us who have loved how both NBCSN and the over-the-air NBC network have covered the Premier League, a steady shift of games to Peacock may well be needed in order for Comcast to save face with much of the Premier League's US fandom and for the Premier League to stay relevant among US devotees of European club soccer.
  22. Walk-Off
    On the other hand, someone who dislikes whoever is the President of the United States at the moment, but is a fan of a Washington Presidents team, might display a sign at a game or post an image on social media that has a picture of the POTUS with a caption like "THIS is NOT my President!" next to a team pic with a caption such as "THESE are MY Presidents!" Also, just imagine the many American Revolution-inspired chants and memes that could be created if a Washington team nicknamed the Presidents plays for a championship against a team with a monarchic nickname. From what I remember, the notion of changing the Expos' nickname to the Senators was opposed by Washington, D.C.'s local political establishment not so much because of any general sense of polarization regarding the federal government, but rather because of ongoing displeasure over the District of Columbia's lack of representation in the United States Senate. At least one politician in that city suggested Grays, the nickname of a Negro League baseball team that split many of its seasons between Pittsburgh and the District, as a better identity for the team, so the eventual branding of the Washington Nationals may very well have been a compromise between Senators and Grays.
  23. Walk-Off
    I have never understood why Presidents has never seemed to be a popular choice for a nickname for any sports team based in Washington, D.C., let alone the frontrunner in the debate over what should be the new nickname for Washington's NFL team. A Washington Presidents identity would be an excellent way to convey leadership without having to resort to a monarchic (e.g. Kings, Monarchs, Royals), feudal (e.g. Barons, Dukes), or military (e.g. Admirals, Colonels, Generals) theme. Also, with particular regard to the apparently most likely new nicknames for the Washington Football Team, Presidents would be less generic than (Red) Wolves, be more relevant to D.C. than Red Tails, avoid the awkwardness that a singular noun like Alliance would have, and be free of the Brandiose-style gimmickry of a Seals brand with a Navy SEALs theme.
  24. Walk-Off
    Here is my proposal for a 32-team, eight-division setup for Major League Baseball, assuming that all existing teams stay where they are: American League East Division Baltimore Orioles Boston Red Sox New York Yankees Toronto Blue Jays North Division Chicago White Sox Cleveland Guardians (renaming) Detroit Tigers Minnesota Twins South Division Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers (renaming) Kansas City Royals Nashville Stars (expansion) Tampa Bay Rays West Division Anaheim Angels (renaming) Arizona Diamondbacks (league swap) Oakland Athletics Seattle Mariners National League East Division New York Mets Philadelphia Phillies Pittsburgh Pirates Washington Nationals North Division Chicago Cubs Colorado Rockies Milwaukee Brewers St. Louis Cardinals South Division Atlanta Braves Cincinnati Reds Houston Astros (league swap) Miami Marlins West Division Los Angeles Dodgers San Diego Padres San Francisco Giants Vancouver Maroons (expansion) With this alignment, and particularly with the placement of expansion teams, geographic symmetry is paramount: A switch of leagues between the Astros and the Diamondbacks not only brings the NL back to Texas, but also gives the AL a presence in the Mountain West. A Vancouver NL expansion franchise endows the Senior Circuit with both a return to Canada and a presence in the Pacific Northwest. A Nashville AL expansion franchise means that, at last, the Junior Circuit has a team in a southeastern state other than Florida. Each league's East division consists solely of teams located both north of the Potomac River and east of the State of Ohio. Each league's South division has one team apiece in Texas, Florida, a second southeastern state, and the Lower Midwest. Each league's West division includes a Pacific Northwest club and contains only teams located west of the Continental Divide.
  25. Walk-Off
    @Jamesizzo, if you want an NBA with four divisions of eight teams apiece and you want to revive the Seattle SuperSonics, then I can think of two better ways to make that happen. Let all existing clubs stay where they are, forgo an NBA version of the Kentucky Colonels and thus enable the Memphis Grizzlies to play in the Central Division, and grant expansion franchises to both Seattle and another locale in the Pacific Time Zone; or force a reversal of the ethically questionable relocation that created the Oklahoma City Thunder and thus give the original SuperSonics franchise back to Seattle, have the Memphis Grizzlies play in the Midwest Division, and put expansion teams in both Louisville and someplace in the Pacific Time Zone. The NBA's new team out west could be in Las Vegas, a third chance taken on San Diego (a former home of the Clippers and, before that, the original home of the Rockets), a third team in the Greater Los Angeles region (The Vancouver Grizzlies' last owner, Michael Heisley, gave some thought to bringing that team to Anaheim before he chose Memphis as the Grizz' new home in 2001, and the Sacramento Kings came close to becoming the Anaheim Royals nearly a decade ago.), a second team in the San Francisco Bay Area (Around the same time that Sacramento was on the brink of losing the Kings, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison tried to buy the current New Orleans NBA club and, despite his public denial of a desire to relocate that team, was heavily rumored at the time to have wanted to shift that franchise to San José.), or a brand-new franchise for Vancouver.
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