MLB Stadium Saga: Oakland/Tampa Bay/Southside

[DG_ThenNowForever]

It's funny to think anyone's going to extract free money from casinos.

[The_Admiral]

This is all starting to feel very Maloofy to me. Something is just a bit off.

[Sykotyk]

1 hour ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

It's funny to think anyone's going to extract free money from casinos.

Gambling alone is not enough anymore to get people to go to Vegas. It's the experience that Vegas has become. And any excuse to get people to want to come to Vegas is financially worthwhile. That's why sports are becoming  a huge draw for interested parties. It gives people a reason to travel to watch the road team play at the Las Vegas team and in the time there spend money at hotels, casinos, shows, etc as well. And baseball helps since many that will travel will travel for their teams' entire series there. A 4 game series might see someone going there for 5 or 6 days in part or in whole. That's a lot of opportunities for the casinos to make money off them.

[Cujo]

More fans attended tonight's Maple Leafs parking lot watch party than an MLB game

 

[Sykotyk]

On 5/2/2023 at 11:31 PM, Cujo said:

More fans attended tonight's Maple Leafs parking lot watch party than an MLB game

 

Pretty soon they're going to be taking attendance by name. 

[LMU]

The numbers will improve if the count the opossums and rats in the attendance figures.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

Brody Brazil and Casey Pratt are reporting that the A's have only a month left to get the funding legislation passed in the Nevada legislature. They quote assembly speaker Steve Yeager (not the ex-Dodger catcher) as saying that there is still no bill, nor are there any concrete plans being discussed.

 

The legislative session ends in early June, and there isn't another one for another two years. (Which is ridiculous. But that's a whole other topic.) The governor has the power to call a special session; whether the governor would want to do that for this issue is anyone's guess.

 

Both Brazil and Pratt report that the A's agreement to buy the land for the ballpark near the Las Vegas strip is contingent upon the Nevada legislature passing the funding bill.  If there's no new legislation, then the A's could back out of the purchase. 

 

Pratt speculates that this would lead to a sale of the team, as the current ownership no longer has any leverage in Oakland, having burned its bridges there.

 

So there is still some hope.

[Red Comet]

So they’ll probably wind up trying to move the team to Nashville instead of Las Vegas. Besides, Oakland is a sewer. No wonder the Raiders and Dubs left.

[tBBP]

4 hours ago, Red Comet said:

So they’ll probably wind up trying to move the team to Nashville instead of Las Vegas. Besides, Oakland is a sewer. No wonder the Raiders and Dubs left.

 

Yup...expect the Nashville Stars group bid to pick up a whole lotta steam if that deal falls through.

 

It might not make a lick of logistical sense—then again, few things in/about Nashville do make any logistical sense—but Nashville is also absolutely, unequivocally and ridiculously hellbent on building itself out as a major-league city, not to mention a major city in general (despite still being 2.3 BILLION dollars in debt...but that's another story). 

 

All that said, I'm still legitimately and oddly intrigued, for reasons I can't yet identify other than me having been there a few times, by a potential Salt Lake MLB team...

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

13 minutes ago, tBBP said:

4 hours ago, Red Comet said:

So they’ll probably wind up trying to move the team to Nashville instead of Las Vegas.

 

Yup...expect the Nashville Stars group bid to pick up a whole lotta steam if that deal falls through.

 

Dave Stewart, who is heading the Nashville group, has said that he is not interested in that.

 

 

 

[WestCoastBias]

IF Vegas falls through then I hope the only option left is for Fisher to sell and the team stays in Oakland. 

 

However, if the A's were to move to Nashville instead then the divisions would get all messed up, Kansas City to the AL West? I think MLB would have to expand at the same time the A's are moving to balance out the divisions. Portland or Salt Lake City might be the more likely back up options for the A's. 

[Red Comet]

Dave Stewart is the face of the Nashville group. Now, he’s still important because you need someone who was in the game because that helps with PR, but two things:

 

Number 1: No one is going to outright say that they are going to rip a team out of its home market. Even Clay Bennett didn’t say he was wanting to move to Oklahoma City until it happened despite every other sign screaming it. 
 

Number 2: I’d look at the Executive Committee. Those are the real big shots who are going to be making the decisions. I have hyperlinked the Music City Baseball’s board so anyone can see for themselves. 
 

As for the stadium? Well, Nissan Stadium is about to hit the dust. Just saying.   Disregard, this is actually the plan:

 

”Music City Baseball has carefully studied multiple possible sites in Davidson, Williamson and Rutherford Counties. Presently, we are focusing on a tract of land on the Tennessee State University campus, along the Cumberland River. This location would put the stadium less than four miles from downtown Nashville. We envision that the baseball stadium, which will serve as a sports and entertainment venue, will be part of a mixed-use family sports and entertainment district.”

Edited May 4, 2023 by Red Comet

[who do you think]

4 hours ago, Red Comet said:

Dave Stewart is the face of the Nashville group. 

 

"Here's all our Linkedin bios, somebody rich come fund our pet project please."

[tBBP]

12 hours ago, Red Comet said:

Dave Stewart is the face of the Nashville group. Now, he’s still important because you need someone who was in the game because that helps with PR, but two things:

 

Number 1: No one is going to outright say that they are going to rip a team out of its home market. Even Clay Bennett didn’t say he was wanting to move to Oklahoma City until it happened despite every other sign screaming it. 
 

Number 2: I’d look at the Executive Committee. Those are the real big shots who are going to be making the decisions. I have hyperlinked the Music City Baseball’s board so anyone can see for themselves. 
 

As for the stadium? Well, Nissan Stadium is about to hit the dust. Just saying.   Disregard, this is actually the plan:

 

”Music City Baseball has carefully studied multiple possible sites in Davidson, Williamson and Rutherford Counties. Presently, we are focusing on a tract of land on the Tennessee State University campus, along the Cumberland River. This location would put the stadium less than four miles from downtown Nashville. We envision that the baseball stadium, which will serve as a sports and entertainment venue, will be part of a mixed-use family sports and entertainment district.”

 

And that's already caused a bit of controversy. It goes back a couple months, but the fact that TSU was even willing to sell some of their campus in the first place caused quite a bit of an uproar amongst some alumni, current students  and some in the community once reports got out. (This gets into some touchy areas, but because I know how certain posters get around here when topics of race get brought up, I'll leave that part out for now.) Worth noting—and I didn't even know this at first until reading that link—is that Eddie George, as in current TSU head football coach, is also part of that group, and at some point over the years developed a real estate development business of his own (good for him!). 

[tyst13]

11 hours ago, tBBP said:

Worth noting—and I didn't even know this at first until reading that link—is that Eddie George, as in current TSU head football coach, is also part of that group, and at some point over the years developed a real estate development business of his own (good for him!). 

Huh, that is good for him. A few years ago I saw a touring production of Chicago and Eddie George stared in it as Billy Flynn (the lawyer played by Richard Gere in the film). So he's really making the most of retirement.

Edited May 5, 2023 by tyst13
Correcting a typo (*lost to most)

[BBTV]

Phillies president Dave Dombrowski is also part of the Nashville group, and when hired, said he didn't anticipate anything happening there for years, but if something changed, he'd leave the Phillies when the time was right to get to work on that bid.

[GDAWG]

On 5/4/2023 at 9:35 AM, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

Brody Brazil and Casey Pratt are reporting that the A's have only a month left to get the funding legislation passed in the Nevada legislature. They quote assembly speaker Steve Yeager (not the ex-Dodger catcher) as saying that there is still no bill, nor are there any concrete plans being discussed.

 

The legislative session ends in early June, and there isn't another one for another two years. (Which is ridiculous. But that's a whole other topic.) The governor has the power to call a special session; whether the governor would want to do that for this issue is anyone's guess.

 

Both Brazil and Pratt report that the A's agreement to buy the land for the ballpark near the Las Vegas strip is contingent upon the Nevada legislature passing the funding bill.  If there's no new legislation, then the A's could back out of the purchase. 

 

Pratt speculates that this would lead to a sale of the team, as the current ownership no longer has any leverage in Oakland, having burned its bridges there.

 

So there is still some hope.

 

The complete opposite of Zennie Abraham, who believes that the deal between the A's and Las Vegas will be done and they are as good as gone.  Abraham also doesn't understand why John Fisher would sell the A's when Las Vegas will do everything to placate him.  He says it's 100% that the A's will move to Las Vegas.  

[kolob]

It'd be interesting to see what happens IF the A's deal in Vegas falls through. There's no return to Oakland. And, like posters mentioned above Nashville doesn't seem like a viable option, not just because of the Nashville Stars group, but realignment issues. So, it really limits locations in the West. Which leaves Portland and SLC. And, I won't lie, I hope it's SLC. I'm a Utahn. I've wanted the major leagues here. And, I love the A's. I'd be a fan on day one.

 

Biases aside I also think SLC provides an easier move than to Portland, especially with being stadium ready even if they need to play in Smith's Ballpark for a couple years. It has the capacity and ability to add more if needed. Much better than in Summerlin.

 

But, I wonder what that does for Vegas' future status for expansion. Does it sour the whole market? Nevada politicians? I feel like it could. So does MLB expand to Portland? It'll be interesting to see what happens. But, I just have this nagging feeling that the A's deal in Vegas is going to fall through. Especially when you consider Mark Davis' feelings on the A's ownership group. There's no love loss.

[The_Admiral]

I think Oakland can be salvaged, I don't think Las Vegas will happen, and I'm sure they'll be in on expansion after this.

[Ridleylash]

23 minutes ago, kimball said:

There's no return to Oakland.

There's absolutely a return to Oakland if Fisher ends up having to sell the A's due to his own blunders; we've known that Lacob has already expressed interest in owning them and keeping the team in Oakland.

 

The issue between Oakland and Fisher is completely on Fisher, not the city; Fisher just wants someone who'll do whatever he wants them to do.