MLB Stadium Saga: Oakland/Tampa Bay/Southside

[Sport]

This is a major bummer. 

[The_Admiral]

Screw these garbage billionaires

[heavybass]

Oakland becomes a wasteland because it's too cheap to do :censored: and they wanted 10 billion dollars of refurbishment

[BBTV]

8 minutes ago, heavybass said:

Oakland becomes a wasteland because it's too cheap to do and they wanted 10 billion dollars of refurbishment

who are you saying is too cheap - the team? Or the taxpayers?

[heavybass]

1 minute ago, BBTV said:

who are you saying is too cheap - the team? Or the taxpayers?

The City mostly, they tried to get the A's to fund the refurbishment of the stadium... team was like that wasn't part of the deal and basically both sides aren't heroes in this.

[OnWis97]

1 hour ago, Walk-Off said:

 

Even if baseball requires more of a local connection than does football, it seems quite clear to me that baseball requires also more of a historical connection than does football or any other team sport with a traditionally large following in North America.  For many decades, baseball has tended to attract lots of North American fans who have cared more deeply about the history and traditions of that sport than the average North American fan of football, basketball, or hockey has cared about that particular sport's history and traditions.

 

Thus, I think that keeping the championship-filled, Hall of Famer-laden, geographically very portable Athletics / A's brand upon relocating to the Las Vegas area would be much safer and much wiser than conjuring a new, patently Las Vegas-centric identity.  As I see it, that latter alternative would make decidedly more sense for a team that has a geographically far more specific nickname and/or plays a sport with a clearly less history-conscious fandom.

I agree. However, I think the main factor here could be that times are simply changing. The Raiders are a bit of an exception because, well, "the Raiders." What's the last relocation before that where a name was kept? It feels like it's been a really long time.

This will be a very interesting test. The A's make total sense for keeping the name because they're an original AL franchise, have at least some history of success, a distinctive color scheme,  and a name that pretty much fits everywhere (unlike, say, Senators).

I feel like this might be the unpopular opinion (in contrast to BBVT thinking his was the unpopular opinion); I really hope they keep it. Of course, that's in large part because I tend to favor that approach in general but this means more to me than if it was the Rays or someone.

[OnWis97]

Recent teams that have kept names:

• Nets (but does that count?)
• Raiders
• Chargers

 

But what's the last team to move to a far away city with no connection and keep the name aside from the Radier?. The Oilers changed after a few years. The Hornets, but they ultimately changed. The Stars (if you count that).

Could it be argued that aside from the Raiders (who I maintain are a bit of a different case) the last team to 100% keep the name on a relocation of more than a two-hour drive is the Colts?

[The_Admiral]

New Orleans Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies

[OnWis97]

1 minute ago, the admiral said:

New Orleans Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies

Ah, the Grizzlies.

 

I missed that one. If ever there was a case to make a change, that might be one. Minimal history/success (far less important to the league than the Sonics). But I'm still glad they kept it.

I really hope the A's do. MLB doesn't need the Las Vegas Rolling Bones or the Sin City Night Owls

[FiddySicks]

Good riddance. the A’s. 

[ManillaToad]

9 minutes ago, OnWis97 said:

Recent teams that have kept names:

• Nets (but does that count?)
• Raiders
• Chargers

 

But what's the last team to move to a far away city with no connection and keep the name aside from the Radier?. The Oilers changed after a few years. The Hornets, but they ultimately changed. The Stars (if you count that).

Could it be argued that aside from the Raiders (who I maintain are a bit of a different case) the last team to 100% keep the name on a relocation of more than a two-hour drive is the Colts?

 

Rams

[BadSeed84]

But they have been the Athletics every city they have been in since 1901.

[Lights Out]

1 hour ago, Sodboy13 said:

Also, Montréal says "Allo."

 

The Expos were even worse, since the league itself stepped in to sabotage the franchise after dangling the threat of contraction over its head. The A's relocation is more of a typical "Major League" kind of screwjob.

[who do you think]

The A's name doesn't belong to any one city, they might as well carry it forward. This probably won't be their last stop anyway, if Vegas eventually caves in on itself like we all think it will.

[McCall]

1 hour ago, Sodboy13 said:

Also, Montréal says "Allo."

 

I read the Review-Journal rah-rah "story" on this and it makes so little sense. You're building a 30,000 seat ballpark, minuscule by MLB standards, with a "partially retractable roof" in the middle of the desert. So you're building small and cheap. And not only are you building small, you're doing it as the "who needs to draw fans, we get free money from broadcast rights fees" business model is completely evaporating in front of your eyes. Like, teams are literally not getting paid what they are owed right now by Sinclair/Diamond/Bally and MLB may have to take over the responsibility for production of their telecasts. And the ownership of the regional sports network covering Vegas is very loudly announcing its desire to sell off its RSNs to somebody, anybody, please.

 

"But 30,000 a night in Vegas is still better than 4,000 a night in Oakland" yeah well maybe if ownership spent its time and money on fielding AN ACTUAL BASEBALL TEAM instead of blowing it all on lobbyists the next state over, the people of Oakland might be more inclined to show up.

Actually, it's 35,000 seats.

[Lights Out]

One underrated part of this is how the A's spent decades cheaping out on the roster because Oakland was such a small market... only to move to an objectively smaller market. They're downgrading from 10th to 40th in the Nielsen rankings. If the league seriously thinks this team is going to start spending money once the new ballpark is built, they're delusional.

[tBBP]

10 hours ago, LMU said:

 

 

North of Allegiant Stadium, eh? That tells me the Wild West Truck Stop on Tropicana is as good as toast then. (Half that parking lot was used to stage the materials used to build Allegiant in the first place, plus no one cares about trucks, truckers, or truck stops anyway...for shame.)

 

9 hours ago, ZapRowsdower8 said:

Most of the time I hate to see a team move, but I think this one will hurt more than most, purely from a uni point of view. I don’t see the current A’s look fitting with what Vegas teams want to bring to the table. We may be losing one of the best uniforms in all of sports. 

 

I'm with you on this one. Whatever they do, they BETTER keep that bright, beautiful kelly green...shoot even the darker green will work, just keep green.

 

9 hours ago, aawagner011 said:

Las Vegas becoming quite the sports town. Within just a couple years, they’ll have gone from zero top level professional teams to hosting NHL, NFL, and now MLB.

 

And in a few years they'll also go to hosting zero water, too...anyone know how much water it takes to maintain an MLB field???

 

8 hours ago, SCMODS said:

It won't  really matter because 30 years from now Vegas will be swallowed up by the desert sands. 

 

See above...

 

22 minutes ago, OnWis97 said:

Ah, the Grizzlies.

 

I missed that one. If ever there was a case to make a change, that might be one. Minimal history/success (far less important to the league than the Sonics). But I'm still glad they kept it.

 

I'm sure you (and others) know the story, but upon relocating to Memphis in '01, the organization actually wanted to change its name to the Express, in honor of hometown shipping giant FedEx. But the league itself nixed that idea, citing that—haha—they didn't want any of its teams representing corporate sponsorship. OHHH HOW FAR WE'VE COME SINCE THEN. (Oh and local fans also wanted to keep the original nickname in honor of the WFL team that used to play in Memphis, which was also nicknamed...you guessed it...the Grizzlies.)

[McCall]

3 minutes ago, tBBP said:

 

North of Allegiant Stadium, eh? That tells me the Wild West Truck Stop on Tropicana is as good as toast then. (Half that parking lot was used to stage the materials used to build Allegiant in the first place, plus no one cares about trucks, truckers, or truck stops anyway...for shame.)

 

 

I'm with you on this one. Whatever they do, they BETTER keep that bright, beautiful kelly green...shoot even the darker green will work, just keep green.

 

 

And in a few years they'll also go to hosting zero water, too...anyone know how much water it takes to maintain an MLB field???

 

 

See above...

 

 

I'm sure you (and others) know the story, but upon relocating to Memphis in '01, the organization actually wanted to change its name to the Express, in honor of hometown shipping giant FedEx. But the league itself nixed that idea, citing that—haha—they didn't want any of its teams representing corporate sponsorship. OHHH HOW FAR WE'VE COME SINCE THEN. (Oh and local fans also wanted to keep the original nickname in honor of the WFL team that used to play in Memphis, which was also nicknamed...you guessed it...the Grizzlies.)

[tBBP]

Just now, McCall said:

 

Yup, called it. (The orange is the exact location of the Wild West Truck Stop.)

[who do you think]

15 minutes ago, tBBP said:

plus no one cares about trucks, truckers, or truck stops anyway...for shame

 

Nah I like truck stops. One of my favorite restaurants (really just a Denny's knockoff, I didn't have exquisite tastes) as a kid was in a truck stop and it was a treat whenever I got to go there. When I first moved here before finding a job I had a brief ritual where I would trek out towards 75 mid-morning, grab a deli sub and some sides from Publix, head over to I believe Flying J in Dade City (been a while, idk for sure but that sounds/looks right) and hang out and chow down. At some point I'd head in to use the restroom then leave and bomb around the boonies for a while before heading home. Then I found work and that was the end of that.

 

So yeah, weird fact about me for the day.

 

To make this semi on-topic, surely this Vegas development blows up the Utah proposal, right?