MLB Stadium Saga: Oakland/Tampa Bay/Southside

[B-Rich]

On 1/17/2024 at 11:32 PM, FiddySicks said:

Ehh. As long as I’ve been here I’ve wanted to see the Sacramento A’s become a reality. But not this way. That would be a real twist of the knife for my sports soul after all the I went through with that doomed Republic MLS bid.

 

Seriously, I looked to see if we had a "care" hug emoji like on Facebook to put on as a response.

 
I remember following and reading your posts during that time; it was NOT good and very disheartening just to read it.  I feel for what you went through being involved with it. 

[LMU]

 

[BBTV]

"we don't know anything about these renders, we don't know who made them, they may or may not have existed for quite a while, they're likely not official, but we do know for sure that they exit".

 

Brilliant stuff.

[Fowler2]

18 minutes ago, LMU said:

 

 

Frank Lloyd Wright Field it is then 

[schlim]

For anybody following the mess the Royals have created trying desperately to leave Kauffman Stadium, here's a pretty good rundown, and here's a story about Frank White's block to extend the sales tax.

[FiddySicks]

21 hours ago, BBTV said:

"we don't know anything about these renders, we don't know who made them, they may or may not have existed for quite a while, they're likely not official, but we do know for sure that they exit".

Are we talking about a baseball park or the movie Contact? 

[GDAWG]

21 hours ago, LMU said:

 

 

The location looks good and keeps the team in Chicago proper, but what are the odds it actually happens?  

[The_Admiral]

Reinsdorf is politically connected and not just some cloistered weirdo like George McCaskey, so more likely than the Bears moving to Arlington Heights.

[Dilbert]

The A's arent just looking at Sacramento, Las Vegas, Oakland, and San Francisco for temporary sites. Salt Lake City appears to be in play.

 

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/as-considering-triple-a-stadiums-in-sacramento-and-salt-lake-city-for-temporary-2025-27-home-per-report/

 

Salt Lake  might make more sense than you think. Smith's Ballpark is currently home of the Angels AAA club Salt Lake Bees. The Bees are building a new ballpark scheduled to open in 2025. University of Utah also uses Smiths Ballpark but they are looking into building a new on campus ballpark as well. With the Bees and possibly Utah out of the picture,  the A's would have the ballpark to themselves. Upgrade the park to major league standards, like they did for the Jays in Buffalo and they got a ballpark until they get Las Vegas built. Salt Lake sits about 500 more than Sacramento.  Las Vegas currently sits  nearly 4,500 less than Salt Lake.

[DustDevil61]

44 minutes ago, Dilbert said:

The A's arent just looking at Sacramento, Las Vegas, Oakland, and San Francisco for temporary sites. Salt Lake City appears to be in play.

 

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/as-considering-triple-a-stadiums-in-sacramento-and-salt-lake-city-for-temporary-2025-27-home-per-report/

 

Salt Lake  might make more sense than you think. Smith's Ballpark is currently home of the Angels AAA club Salt Lake Bees. The Bees are building a new ballpark scheduled to open in 2025. University of Utah also uses Smiths Ballpark but they are looking into building a new on campus ballpark as well. With the Bees and possibly Utah out of the picture,  the A's would have the ballpark to themselves. Upgrade the park to major league standards, like they did for the Jays in Buffalo and they got a ballpark until they get Las Vegas built. Salt Lake sits about 500 more than Sacramento.  Las Vegas currently sits  nearly 4,500 less than Salt Lake.

It was the big story around town yesterday. Currently, the AAA Bees plan to leave Smith’s Ballpark after the 2024 PCL season for the new stadium in Daybreak (on the southwest corner of the Salt Lake Valley) in 2025, but that still-under-construction ballpark is what the A’s are eyeing. Aside from a smaller capacity, the new ballpark as planned will have the facilities a Major League team needs, with separated bullpens and batting cages for both home and visiting teams. There’s not much of a geographic footprint to expand on at Smith’s Ballpark without tearing down nearby homes, either.
 

The seating capacity at the new park would be temporarily expanded from its planned 7,500 to about 11,000 for the A’s while the Bees remain at Smith’s Ballpark for the duration of their layover in Salt Lake.

 

https://kslsports.com/510099/does-having-two-stadiums-give-salt-lake-city-edge-to-temporarily-land-as/

 

Of course, I can see a (not very likely) situation where funding for the Vegas stadium is delayed or falls through and Fisher is forced to sell the A’s to the Big League Utah group (while being granted a Las Vegas franchise), who in turn would build their planned Power District stadium west of downtown Salt Lake.

[GDAWG]

3 hours ago, Dilbert said:

The A's arent just looking at Sacramento, Las Vegas, Oakland, and San Francisco for temporary sites. Salt Lake City appears to be in play.

 

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/as-considering-triple-a-stadiums-in-sacramento-and-salt-lake-city-for-temporary-2025-27-home-per-report/

 

Salt Lake  might make more sense than you think. Smith's Ballpark is currently home of the Angels AAA club Salt Lake Bees. The Bees are building a new ballpark scheduled to open in 2025. University of Utah also uses Smiths Ballpark but they are looking into building a new on campus ballpark as well. With the Bees and possibly Utah out of the picture,  the A's would have the ballpark to themselves. Upgrade the park to major league standards, like they did for the Jays in Buffalo and they got a ballpark until they get Las Vegas built. Salt Lake sits about 500 more than Sacramento.  Las Vegas currently sits  nearly 4,500 less than Salt Lake.

 

Plus, Salt Lake City has expressed interest in an MLB team of their own and they will want to use hosting the A's to "test the waters."

[kolob]

On 1/20/2024 at 7:05 PM, DustDevil61 said:

It was the big story around town yesterday. Currently, the AAA Bees plan to leave Smith’s Ballpark after the 2024 PCL season for the new stadium in Daybreak (on the southwest corner of the Salt Lake Valley) in 2025, but that still-under-construction ballpark is what the A’s are eyeing. Aside from a smaller capacity, the new ballpark as planned will have the facilities a Major League team needs, with separated bullpens and batting cages for both home and visiting teams. There’s not much of a geographic footprint to expand on at Smith’s Ballpark without tearing down nearby homes, either.
 

The seating capacity at the new park would be temporarily expanded from its planned 7,500 to about 11,000 for the A’s while the Bees remain at Smith’s Ballpark for the duration of their layover in Salt Lake.

 

https://kslsports.com/510099/does-having-two-stadiums-give-salt-lake-city-edge-to-temporarily-land-as/

 

Of course, I can see a (not very likely) situation where funding for the Vegas stadium is delayed or falls through and Fisher is forced to sell the A’s to the Big League Utah group (while being granted a Las Vegas franchise), who in turn would build their planned Power District stadium west of downtown Salt Lake.

 

Living close to Daybreak I'd LOVE for the stadium to house the A's to temporarily call the new stadium home. But, I think the most logical place will be the Las Vegas Ballpark IF the move is finalized. I have a hard time seeing anything else, especially because the A's will need to win fans over. This is definitely the LHM Group playing their cards, showing interest in hosting, etc. to be next in line for an expansion team.

 

HOWEVER.

 

I think there's more to this than just being next in line. I think the LHM Group is also putting themselves in position to either buy (buy into the A's) to have them relocate to SLC. They can easily play in Daybreak until the new stadium is built, while the Bees either share Daybreak with the A's or, more likely, extend their contract for a couple more years at Smith's Ballpark.  I'd much rather the A's (or established team) then an expansion team and with each passing day the A's to Vegas does seem a little bit less likely.

 

 

[gosioux76]

On 1/20/2024 at 8:05 PM, DustDevil61 said:

Of course, I can see a (not very likely) situation where funding for the Vegas stadium is delayed or falls through and Fisher is forced to sell the A’s to the Big League Utah group (while being granted a Las Vegas franchise), who in turn would build their planned Power District stadium west of downtown Salt Lake.

 

Could this be the first example of a team using another city as leverage over the new city it used as leverage over its current city? 

 

As much as I'd hate to see the Athletics name go away, there's a certain symmetry to the idea of them going from the A's to the Bees.  

[Dilbert]

 

59 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

As much as I'd hate to see the Athletics name go away, there's a certain symmetry to the idea of them going from the A's to the Bees.  

They can use the new Oakland B's logo and call them the Salt Lake B's

 

[BBTV]

If SLC gets a permanent major-league team, I'll hold a contest for the board to pick the most humiliating user name that Infrared will allow, and I'll change to that for a year.  I'll also close every post with "but what do I know, I'm a flaming idiot."

 

It makes sense for them to not play in LV during the interim period.  Being awful isn't a good way to develop a fan base in a new market.  Their best plan would be to settle for the least-uncomfortable out-of-market place, and then overpay and do whatever it takes to put themselves in position to be competitive on day 1 in Vegas.

[Sykotyk]

50 minutes ago, BBTV said:

If SLC gets a permanent major-league team, I'll hold a contest for the board to pick the most humiliating user name that Infrared will allow, and I'll change to that for a year.  I'll also close every post with "but what do I know, I'm a flaming idiot."

 

It makes sense for them to not play in LV during the interim period.  Being awful isn't a good way to develop a fan base in a new market.  Their best plan would be to settle for the least-uncomfortable out-of-market place, and then overpay and do whatever it takes to put themselves in position to be competitive on day 1 in Vegas.

But they can't possibly make that much money in a back-up city. NFL tried it with Memphis and gave up. At least the Raiders staying in Oakland was because it was Oakland. While the Chargers sat in LA (roughly) at StubHub for a while before Sofi was built.

 

Plus, this idea that a new team to a city must storm out of the gates is rough. If you can't draw fans without winning year 1, you don't have fans at all.

[BBTV]

2 minutes ago, Sykotyk said:

If you can't draw fans without winning year 1, you don't have fans at all.

 

This is patently false.  Why on earth would people in LV go to an outdoor game in a non-major-league park in the summer time to watch a horrible team that they've had no previous connection to?  Also, why would they even be fans for any reason other than the city name on the jersey?  A team gets a grace period to endear themselves to a new location.  

 

I don't think people not showing up in Las Vegas in year one means anything about the type of market it will be.  I don't know if it will or won't be any good, but that first year (maybe even two) don't indicate anything.

 

 

Also, comparing a baseball relo to any other sport is not fair.  Baseball has 81 home dates to fill.  Eighty one.  It's going to be rough - I just think it's a good strategy to spare Vegas of that roughness and get off on the right foot in a new park with a (hopefully) decent team.

 

[TrueYankee26]

It's been a while since I heard about the Angels Long Beach rumors

[Sykotyk]

1 hour ago, BBTV said:

 

This is patently false.  Why on earth would people in LV go to an outdoor game in a non-major-league park in the summer time to watch a horrible team that they've had no previous connection to?  Also, why would they even be fans for any reason other than the city name on the jersey?  A team gets a grace period to endear themselves to a new location.  

 

I don't think people not showing up in Las Vegas in year one means anything about the type of market it will be.  I don't know if it will or won't be any good, but that first year (maybe even two) don't indicate anything.

 

 

Also, comparing a baseball relo to any other sport is not fair.  Baseball has 81 home dates to fill.  Eighty one.  It's going to be rough - I just think it's a good strategy to spare Vegas of that roughness and get off on the right foot in a new park with a (hopefully) decent team.

Why do Las Vegans go to Aviators games and sell out frequently? The stadium sits in the foothills west of town and has good air flow. Also is situated to avoid the sun for evening games. Sure, prices would go up, but they'd be watching major league players. And it would be THEIR team they're supporting. And even then, you'd have the 'visiting fan' effect that LV is counting on anyways. But the whole time you'd have "Las Vegas A's" or whatever the name is to grow support over a few years before your shiny new state of the art facility opens.

[McCall]

2 hours ago, Sykotyk said:

But they can't possibly make that much money in a back-up city. NFL tried it with Memphis and gave up. At least the Raiders staying in Oakland was because it was Oakland. While the Chargers sat in LA (roughly) at StubHub for a while before Sofi was built.

 

Plus, this idea that a new team to a city must storm out of the gates is rough. If you can't draw fans without winning year 1, you don't have fans at all.

The A's playing in Salt Lake is not the equivalent of Nashville playing in Memphis. Those two cities have a bitter rivalry and Memphis rejected the "little brother" sentiment of being only a temporary NFL city instead of a full-time one.