Stadium/Arena Saga Omnibus

[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?

[Sodboy13]

Look, @tBBP, you can't slide Vancouver Grizzlies relocation history into a thread and not expect me to bring up the attempted push at making them the Dixmoor Grizzlies.

[tBBP]

3 minutes ago, Sodboy13 said:

Look, @tBBP, you can't slide Vancouver Grizzlies relocation history into a thread and not expect me to bring up the attempted push at making them the Dixmoor Grizzlies.

 

I forgot all about that. Good hit. 

[GDAWG]

RIP Major League Sports in Oakland.  1960-2023.

[~Bear]

Moving out of Oakland aside, is moving TO Las Vegas even sustainable long-term? I know the city has grown quite a bit, but they've gotten 3 professional sports teams really quick, and the NBA seems to have their sights set on expanding there in the near future. I know that the A's wouldn't be directly competing with the Golden Knights or the Raiders most of the year...but still. There's only so much disposable income people have to go to sports game and buy merchandise. Beyond that, the city is growing almost too quickly for the amount of water they have access to. They aren't a very big media market comparatively to other metropolitan areas.  

 

The Golden Knights have been incredibly successful and helped the city heal after the horrible mass shooting. There's a deep bond there. The Raiders are an NFL team, and the NFL is always going to draw. The A's operate under a shoestring budget and are in the midst of what's probably going to be a long rebuild. If any of these teams are going to be the odd one out, it's going to be the A's.

[MiK]

The thing about Vegas is the draw of away-game fans. Is that a sustainable business model? No. But it's definitely a bigger factor there than most other markets.

[BBTV]

1 hour ago, OnWis97 said:

Las Vegas Rolling Bones

 

I'd be the first person to order a t-shirt.

 

25 minutes ago, who do you think said:

I'd head in to use the restroom then leave and bomb

 

I read this as "I'd head in to use the restroom and leave a bomb".

[tp49]

1 hour 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?

Everyone forgets the Sacramento Kings who kept the name when they moved from Kansas City/Omaha.

[Walk-Off]

1 hour ago, who do you think said:

[S]urely this Vegas development blows up the Utah proposal, right?

 

I doubt that.  If Big League Utah is anything like the Portland Diamond Project and/or the Music City Baseball consortium in Nashville, chances are that those in charge of the Salt Lake City group would be at least as satisfied with an expansion team as they would be with a relocated franchise.  Besides, every expansion-related public statement that I have seen or heard from any MLB official over the last few years has been that MLB will keep waiting until both the A's and the Rays gain new ballparks before expanding again.  Furthermore, among the comments that I have read outside this message board since the emergence of this tentative agreement has been a bit of speculation that the recent launch of Big League Utah and its MLB bid put a fresh wave of pressure on officials in the Las Vegas area to clinch a deal with the A's.

[BBTV]

2 minutes ago, MiK said:

The thing about Vegas is the draw of away-game fans. Is that a sustainable business model? No. But it's definitely a bigger factor there than most other markets.

 

I don't thin it's relevant.  Football is an event that people plan road trips around.  I don't think a significant amount of people are going to plan a trip to LV to sit and watch some run-of-the-mill Tuesday game between the Rolling Bones and Cleveland Guardians. 

 

That's why I'm suggesting they retire the A's name and go with a whole new brand.  They'll need more local connection, and in 2023, that's more important than anything historical (10 years ago me is slapping current me in the face for even suggesting this, but I've changed my views on this.)  If I'm a kid in LV who was born in 2000, Jimmie Fox and Reggie Jackson mean nothing to me.

 

10 minutes ago, ~Bear said:

There's only so much disposable income people have to go to sports game and buy merchandise.

 

You're assuming there's significant crossover between fanbases.  There's a difference between being a Knights fan and being a "sports" fan.  For example, between tickets and merch, I probably spend thousands on Phillies and Eagles each year, and 0 on Flyers and Sixers.  I simply don't care (unless the Sixers are in the finals, in which case I'll claim to have been a die-hard since day one.)

 

Even if the Phillies moved to Oakland (oh, the irony), I'd still spend 0 on the Sixers and Flyers.  At least in my case, there's no competition for my dollar.

[SCMODS]

The city of Oakland and the Bay Area in general have a whole lot more to deal with than sports teams staying or leaving. Not to get to political but it's becoming a dangerous place. 

[The_Admiral]

Crime is up everywhere, the entire country is going to hell in a bucket.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

It's true that no one is going to make a trip to Las Vegas to see an A's game; or, more precisely, the number of people who will do that is dwarfed by the number of people who will do that to see a Raiders game.  But, if the A's ballpark is walking distance from the casinos, then it will attract vacationers who go to Las Vegas for the usual reasons, and who decide once they are there to take in a game.

 

Also, any talk about changing the team's name is downright offensive. Civilisation needs to be protected from baseball "fans" who openly declare that they don't care about history. The move of the team is sickening enough; but trashing the team's long history would be compounding the crime.