Stadium/Arena Saga Omnibus

[goalieboy82]

21 hours ago, Wings2 said:

 

Trout or flounder?......sorry I need 5 more minutes to decide. 

 

[tp49]

No love for the Grouper?

[DustDevil61]

There are reports out there saying that Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak will block an A’s move to Las Vegas if public funds are being used on a stadium, though his office has denied that.

 

 

Between this and the lawsuits in Oakland slowing down the Howard Terminal project, the Athletics appear to be between a rock and a hard place. I think they’re more or less Vegas-bound, if MLB is OK letting the casinos/Las Vegas businessfolk fund a ballpark on their own dime.

 

Edited April 13, 2022 by DustDevil61
Added links

[BrySmalls]

Oakland drew a crowd of 3,748 for last night's game against the Orioles. It was the smallest crowd in nearly 42 years.

[Brian in Boston]

5 hours ago, BrySmalls said:

Oakland drew a crowd of 3,748 for last night's game against the Orioles. It was the smallest crowd in nearly 42 years.

Those 3,748 fans through the turnstiles in Oakland made for a smaller crowd than 13 affiliated Minor League Baseball teams were able to draw yesterday.

 

Dayton Dragons - 6,871

Las Vegas Aviators - 5,607

Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp - 5,153

Hartford Yard Goats - 4,765

Nashville Sounds - 4,506

Vancouver Canadians - 4,403

Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs - 4,354

Amarillo Sod Poodles - 4,317

Augusta Green Jackets - 4,156

Clearwater Threshers - 4,039

Springfield Cardinals - 3,879

Greenville Drive - 3,838

Louisville Bats - 3,751

 

That’s five Triple A teams, three Double A clubs, a trio of High A franchises, and a pair of Single A squads that pulled in more spectators than Oakland’s “Major” league outfit managed to attract yesterday.

 

 

[sky1324]

7 minutes ago, Brian in Boston said:

Those 3,748 fans through the turnstiles in Oakland made for a smaller crowd than 13 affiliated Minor League Baseball teams were able to draw yesterday.

 

Dayton Dragons - 6,871

 

 

We should move the A's to Dayton.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

6 hours ago, BrySmalls said:

Oakland drew a crowd of 3,748 for last night's game against the Orioles. It was the smallest crowd in nearly 42 years.

 

I am currently reading* Billy Ball by Dale Tafoya.   I have just finished the chapters on the 1981 A's, who in only 56 home dates nearly matched the existing franchise attendance record that had been set in the first year after the move from Philadelphia to Kansas City, more than quadrupling their attendance from two years earlier.  And it only cost the careers of four or five starting pitchers. What a bargain! (I am now getting to the part where Billy inevitably implodes. Sigh.)


*OK, so it's more "listening to" than "reading". It still counts.  Shut up.

[McCall]

6 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

Springfield Cardinals - 3,879

To be fair, that's on a Tuesday night. I haven't worked there in almost 13 years, but I know Tuesday's weren't exactly the biggest draw... so, Oakland seems even worse.

[DoctorWhom]

I have a soft spot for the A's because of Billy Beane. But my god is it obvious that they are sandbagging their way out of Oakland.

[FiddySicks]

Hey, um, so, remember that really small crowd from last night? Well, it looks like they drew more than a thousand people LESS today. :censored:ing how? Manfred, come get the A’s, they’re WASTED. 

 

[who do you think]

Meanwhile the Rays are clocking in at a below-average-even-for-them 12,000 per game after 7 home dates. Granted that's against AAAA teams, and I'm sure the influx of visiting M:censored:s and New Yorkers will help bring it back up to the more standard 15,000 average when all is said and done, so no need to worry.

 

I bet all the loose change in my gym bag that both teams get whacked by 2030. Anyone who thinks Montreal or Vegas is the answer for either of these franchises is nuttier than genderx dot com. They are not viable where they are and have nowhere to go.

[McCall]

7 hours ago, who do you think said:

Meanwhile the Rays are clocking in at a below-average-even-for-them 12,000 per game after 7 home dates. Granted that's against AAAA teams, and I'm sure the influx of visiting M:censored:s and New Yorkers will help bring it back up to the more standard 15,000 average when all is said and done, so no need to worry.

 

I bet all the loose change in my gym bag that both teams get whacked by 2030. Anyone who thinks Montreal or Vegas is the answer for either of these franchises is nuttier than genderx dot com. They are not viable where they are and have nowhere to go.

Ok, say "I don't watch baseball" without saying "I don't watch baseball".

 

The Rays have been one of the most successful on-field teams over the last 14 years. This is a reflection on the market and/or the stadium, not the team. You put them in a market with a legitimate fanbase, and they'll be fine.

 

The A's have such a history of outperforming expectations, so the same could be said for them. Granted, they tend to dismantle rather quickly, but somehow always seem to be in the playoff hunt. Again, put them in a better market and they'll be fine as well.

[gosioux76]

Meanwhile, the marketing hucksters behind the MLB-to-PDX charade say they've renewed their invite to the A's to come kick the tires on Portland and claim the have four viable stadium sites, two each in the city and the suburbs. Of course, they don't say where specifically, and they admit they don't have any sort of development rights in the suburbs. So at this point, it still feels like a vacant marketing tactic to make the case that they're not just a campaign to sell baseball caps with a "P" on them. 

 

Anyway, the resident sports columnist bit on this without asking any tough questions: https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-mlb-to-pdx-effort-invites?s=r

 

For the longest time I had questions about who would own a Portland team and who's backing this Portland Diamond Project endeavor. But It's starting to become clear that this is just a business recruitment effort. They trot out Russell Wilson and Ciara as "investors" but it seems as if they're just trying to get the current owners to decamp for Portland.   

[leopard88]

9 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

Hey, um, so, remember that really small crowd from last night? Well, it looks like they drew more than a thousand people LESS today. :censored:ing how? Manfred, come get the A’s, they’re WASTED. 

 

 

To be fair, the game time yesterday was moved up 3.5 hours to avoid impending nasty weather (the first ever reverse rain delay?).

 

That doesn't mean they would have drawn 30,000 at the regular time, but there were at least extenuating circumstances yesterday.

[Brian in Boston]

10 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

Hey, um, so, remember that really small crowd from last night? Well, it looks like they drew more than a thousand people LESS today. :censored:ing how? Manfred, come get the A’s, they’re WASTED. 

 

So, which MiLB teams outpaced the Oakland A’s at the turnstiles last night?

 

Dayton Dragons - 7,343

Louisville Bats - 6,615

Round Rock Express - 5,826

Carolina Mudcats - 5,652

Hartford Yard Goats - 5,274

Mississippi Braves - 5,205

Las Vegas Aviators  - 5,174

Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs - 4,798

Nashville Sounds - 4,270

Amarillo Sod Poodles - 4,251

Wichita Wind Surge - 4,175

Sacramento River Cats - 4,025

Buffalo Bison - 4,009

Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp - 3,939

Bowling Green Hot Rods - 3,902

Portland Sea Dogs - 3,419

Springfield Cardinals - 3,395

Memphis Redbirds - 3,373

Augusta Green Jackets - 3,301

Greenville Drive - 3,259

Greensboro Grasshoppers - 3,026

Pensacola Blue Wahoos - 2,909

 

I can’t shake the image of a clueless Rob Manfred sitting in his office, a cocksure grin on his face, smugly musing, “And they said my restructuring would destroy the minors.”

 

 

 

[GrayJ12]

My high school gym could fit more than 3 times the amount of people that went to the A's game last night. 

[Sport]

I'm morbidly curious to see the Reds attendance this week. They've only played one home game since Phil Castellini went out of his way to antagonize the fans (twice!) on Opening Day and that was the day game after Opening Day that's usually sparsely attended anyways. Since then the team's been out west for mostly late night games people haven't seen and lost 9 straight to go to 2-11. Phil hasn't yet had to grapple with the true consequences of his actions. If they don't win a couple of the games against St. Louis this weekend the Padres series in the middle of the week is going to look like COVID rules are back.

 

If you're a Cardinals fan in/around Cincinnati this weekend and planning to go to the games can you do us a favor and not? I want the stadium empty. 

[McCall]

19 minutes ago, Sport said:

I'm morbidly curious to see the Reds attendance this week. They've only played one home game since Phil Castellini went out of his way to antagonize the fans (twice!) on Opening Day and that was the day game after Opening Day that's usually sparsely attended anyways. Since then the team's been out west for mostly late night games people haven't seen and lost 9 straight to go to 2-11. Phil hasn't yet had to grapple with the true consequences of his actions. If they don't win a couple of the games against St. Louis this weekend the Padres series in the middle of the week is going to look like COVID rules are back.

 

If you're a Cardinals fan in/around Cincinnati this weekend and planning to go to the games can you do us a favor and not? I want the stadium empty. 

I was about to ask what you wanted Cardinal fans to do. I don't like the Reds, as a rival fan, but I feel for their players and fans with what the ownership has become. They deserve a lot better. I'd rather hate them because our respective teams are battling it out. Give me having us argue and bicker immaturely over Yadi-Phillips or Yadi-Castellanos any day over this crap.

[who do you think]

3 hours ago, McCall said:

Ok, say "I don't watch baseball" without saying "I don't watch baseball".

 

The Rays have been one of the most successful on-field teams over the last 14 years. This is a reflection on the market and/or the stadium, not the team. You put them in a market with a legitimate fanbase, and they'll be fine.

 

The A's have such a history of outperforming expectations, so the same could be said for them. Granted, they tend to dismantle rather quickly, but somehow always seem to be in the playoff hunt. Again, put them in a better market and they'll be fine as well.

 

The hell is this? On-field performance means nothing when business performance is crap. I agree that it's really heckin wholesome how these broke meme operations keep on finding good enough players to win their annual 86 games or so, but the most important thing is that neither franchise is viable in its current market. And since there are no viable North American markets available for them to relocate to, well...

[Sport]

45 minutes ago, McCall said:

I was about to ask what you wanted Cardinal fans to do. I don't like the Reds, as a rival fan, but I feel for their players and fans with what the ownership has become. They deserve a lot better. I'd rather hate them because our respective teams are battling it out. Give me having us argue and bicker immaturely over Yadi-Phillips or Yadi-Castellanos any day over this crap.

 

A friend of mine is a Cardinals fan and he wanted to make a bet before the season and I was like "why would I do that when the team is openly not trying?" and we both agreed half the league having no interest in actually winning has sucked all the fun out of the sport. Something needs to change. 

 

To be fair, the Reds have a major league leading 13 guys on IL, which includes what would be a lot of regulars and two starting pitchers. They'd probably be like 4-9 or a 5-8 with those guys healthy.