Stadium/Arena Saga Omnibus

[GDAWG]

A's going on hiatus isn't happening, or at least the MLBPA won't allow it to happen.  For obvious reasons they want to keep the A's, and I can see management of the MLBPA also touring Sacramento and Utah.  Where the A's play from 2025-2027 will also involve the union.  Not having them involved could cause some problems.  

[McCall]

14 minutes ago, Walk-Off said:

 

To be fair and to be clear, my idea is that an MLB expansion team starting up during a hiatus of the A's would keep playing -- and, preferably, keep playing in its original geographic area -- well after a relaunch of the A's as a Las Vegas club and the debut of another expansion franchise that together bring MLB up to 32 teams.  In short, I am proposing a two-step, asymmetrical expansion of MLB.

 

I realize that my overarching idea is complex.  Then again, John Fisher, his underlings, and the MLB establishment have been entertaining an increasingly complex relocation of the A's, so, in that sense, what I am proposing would be all too fitting.

That's my point. Your plan calls for an expansion team to begin next year, in 2025. There is no market long term expansion-ready that quickly. The time it would take a market to be expansion ready would take about as long as the construction of the Vegas ballpark. Therefore, any market that would be expanded to and use whatever infrastructure already in place, would not be any different than the A's playing there temporarily. The A's playing there would actually better work as a test case without the guarantee of a long term commitment that an expansion team would. Which, again, would be greatly hampered by the short amount of time.

[gosioux76]

3 hours ago, Ridleylash said:

Like, who in Utah is going to give a about a team that views them as nothing more than a stopgap because they don't have anywhere to play where they actually want to be?

 

 I don't understand this sentiment at all. 

 

If I'm a baseball fan in a market without its own team and suddenly I learn that one's going to play there, albeit temporarily, I'd be beyond excited. I'd go to as many games as possible because it's a helluva lot easier than taking a flight or planning a road trip to Denver, Phoenix, Seattle or San Francisco, which would be the closest MLB cities from SLC. 

 

That's just accounting for the convenience of it all. Now say you're a city, like SLC, that thinks it's big enough and deserves to be a big-league city. In addition to being a baseball fan who is excited to see some games played locally,  you've added a component of civic pride to the equation. It's even more powerful if you think going to those games, and showcasing that civic pride, increases the chances of getting your own team full-time. 

 

If you're SLC, there's absolutely ZERO risk in this and all upside. 

[Sec19Row53]

48 minutes ago, McCall said:

That's my point. Your plan calls for an expansion team to begin next year, in 2025. There is no market long term expansion-ready that quickly. The time it would take a market to be expansion ready would take about as long as the construction of the Vegas ballpark. Therefore, any market that would be expanded to and use whatever infrastructure already in place, would not be any different than the A's playing there temporarily. The A's playing there would actually better work as a test case without the guarantee of a long term commitment that an expansion team would. Which, again, would be greatly hampered by the short amount of time.

If this were pitched in the Arena Football thread, we'd all say 'yep, that sounds totally like Arena Football to pull something like this.

[B-Rich]

5 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

There's also the New Orleans Superdome, which has been renovated recently.  Of a similar size is the Alamodome; both stadiums seat more than 50,000 for baseball...

 

4 hours ago, McCall said:

Secondly, you can't fit a near-regulation baseball field in the Superdome...

 

The Superdome WAS originally configured to hold both baseball and football:

 

It held a lot of baseball games (MLB exhibition, college, etc.-- I saw a lot of them over the years). A three game exhibition series in 1980 averaged 25,000 a game and had 45,000 the first night.  Some Tulane-LSU matchups were well-attended.

 

However, the recent renovations Ferd noted have precluded any further baseball being played in the Superdome.  The lower sideline sections, which were once movable to create  a square/diamond shape, have  been made permanent, with bunker clubs underneath the stands  and wider concourses at the top.

The rectangle can no longer become a square.  

[DustDevil61]

1 hour ago, gosioux76 said:

 

 I don't understand this sentiment at all. 

 

If I'm a baseball fan in a market without its own team and suddenly I learn that one's going to play there, albeit temporarily, I'd be beyond excited. I'd go to as many games as possible because it's a helluva lot easier than taking a flight or planning a road trip to Denver, Phoenix Seattle or San Francisco, which would be the closest MLB cities from SLC. 

 

That's just accounting for the convenience of it all. Now say you're a city, like SLC, that thinks it's big enough and deserves to be a big-league city. In addition to being a baseball fan who is excited to see some games played locally,  you've added a component of civic pride to the equation. It's even more powerful if you think going to those games, and showcasing that civic pride, increases the chances of getting your own team full-time. 

 

If you're SLC, there's absolutely ZERO risk in this and all upside. 

With the recent chatter in the news about putting the A’s on hiatus until their Las Vegas stadium is done, and some comments on here about a temporary team to fill in the gap, it honestly wouldn’t surprise me if MLB pushed Fisher to sell the A’s to Big League Utah while granting him an all-new expansion team in Vegas. Obviously SLC would need to figure out funding for the MLB stadium, but they almost seem to have a better plan there than Vegas at the moment.

Salt Lake gets their team and Vegas gets time to figure out their stadium/funding, getting a new team of their own. No one goes on hiatus (unless Fisher wants the A’s brand/records and wants to do some form of Browns/Ravens situation).

 

Edited February 1 by DustDevil61
Browns/Ravens situation, no true hiatus

[The_Admiral]

Seems like Salt Lake City and Las Vegas should both be expansion locations while keeping the A's in Oakland. What a completely embarrassing situation. 

[McCall]

I have seen nothing from MLB that indicates Salt Lake is getting any team, other than the A's, potentially, on a temporary basis. Seems like everybody thinks that because they're being looked at as possible home until the Vegas ballpark is done, and I guess couple with Ryan Smith's intended desires to get an NHL expansion team, it means they've jumped the expansion list. Even IF the A's stayed in Oakland (it's not happening), Nashville would be much more desirable, along with Las Vegas, than Salt Lake.

[Dilbert]

4 hours ago, B-Rich said:

 

The Superdome WAS originally configured to hold both baseball and football

 

However, the recent renovations Ferd noted have precluded any further baseball being played in the Superdome.  The lower sideline sections, which were once movable to create  a square/diamond shape, have  been made permanent, with bunker clubs underneath the stands  and wider concourses at the top.

The rectangle can no longer become a square.  

BC Place in Vancouver was similar in that it could host both football and baseball. Im guessing when they did renovations there, the ability for baseball went with it too.

[kolob]

4 hours ago, DustDevil61 said:

With the recent chatter in the news about putting the A’s on hiatus until their Las Vegas stadium is done, and some comments on here about a temporary team to fill in the gap, it honestly wouldn’t surprise me if MLB pushed Fisher to sell the A’s to Big League Utah while granting him an all-new expansion team in Vegas. Obviously SLC would need to figure out funding for the MLB stadium, but they almost seem to have a better plan there than Vegas at the moment.

Salt Lake gets their team and Vegas gets time to figure out their stadium/funding, getting a new team of their own. No one goes on hiatus (unless Fisher wants the A’s brand/records and wants to do some form of Browns/Ravens situation).

 

 

I feel like this is the position that the Miller Group has tried to put themselves into, because it's not a guarantee that they'd get an expansion team, especially if western cities like Portland and Vegas are on a short list. 

 

It's kind of the position that the Smith Group is putting themselves into with the NHL in hopes to get the Coyotes or other relocated team. 

[gosioux76]

2 hours ago, McCall said:

I have seen nothing from MLB that indicates Salt Lake is getting any team, other than the A's, potentially, on a temporary basis. Seems like everybody thinks that because they're being looked at as possible home until the Vegas ballpark is done, and I guess couple with Ryan Smith's intended desires to get an NHL expansion team, it means they've jumped the expansion list. Even IF the A's stayed in Oakland (it's not happening), Nashville would be much more desirable, along with Las Vegas, than Salt Lake.

What is this “expansion list” and who keeps it?

[The_Admiral]

Fisher is burning baseball in an active shared market, a potential future market, and a third longshot-potential market. How hard can it be to get him on a hot mic saying that black guys smell like weed so that he can be forced to sell the team? Fake it with AI if you have to, I don't care. Make the son of a :censored: deny it. 

[BBTV]

8 hours ago, The_Admiral said:

Fake it with AI if you have to, I don't care. Make the son of a deny it. 

 

 

"That was just AI" is going to become the new "that was taken out of context".  Either way, I'm always up for hearing a denial that starts with "look, I have black friends, and...."

 

If he was smart, Allen Iverson (who, ironically, always smells like weed) would get his name all over some AI-based system.  "Powered by AI!" 

 

 

[TBGKon]

Not saying its feasible, and the Royals might be the ones who would have to sign off on it, but Omaha has Charles Schwab Field which seats 24k.  Not ideal, but could be a quick stopgap too.

[McCall]

1 hour ago, TBGKon said:

Not saying its feasible, and the Royals might be the ones who would have to sign off on it, but Omaha has Charles Schwab Field which seats 24k.  Not ideal, but could be a quick stopgap too.

The return of the Kansas City A's (of Omaha... until Las Vegas)

[WillLanigan]

So now the mayor of Las Vegas says she doesn’t think the A’s should even move to LV.  You can’t make this stuff up!  Total ineptitude. 

[GDAWG]

1 hour ago, WillLanigan said:

So now the mayor of Las Vegas says she doesn’t think the A’s should even move to LV.  You can’t make this stuff up!  Total ineptitude. 

 

This is surprising coming from a mayor who is usually all about having major league teams in her city.  

[Walk-Off]

As I understand it, the City of Las Vegas proper does not include the Tropicana site (or at least the majority of the whole Las Vegas Strip, for that matter), Allegiant Stadium, or T-Mobile Arena; all of those properties are in an unincorporated part of Clark County, Nevada.  Thus, I suspect that the Las Vegas mayor's recent comment about the A's and their current ballpark quest stems ultimately from a rivalry with and/or jealousy toward unincorporated Clark County, and I doubt that she would express a wish that the A's work something out in Oakland if the team were targeting an at least equally problematic site that happened to be within the Las Vegas city limits.

[Luigi74]

4 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

This is surprising coming from a mayor who is usually all about having major league teams in her city.  

Those teams and eventually the A's don't play in her city, they play in Unincorporated Clark County. 

[kmccarthy27]

30 minutes ago, Luigi74 said:

Those teams and eventually the A's don't play in her city, they play in Unincorporated Clark County. 

It not Vegas per se its called Paradise, NV.