Where will Fisher place this team temporarily whilea Las Vegas ball park is built?
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, the Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association Tony Clark, Oakland soon to be Las Vegas Athletics’ owner John Fisher and a whole bunch of other people have a problem. Where will Fisher’s baseball team play in 2025, 2026 and 2027 while a stadium is being built in Las Vegas? The Oakland Athletics’ franchise will use the Oakland Coliseum in 2024 but Fisher does not have a lease anywhere after that. He could work a deal to stay in Oakland or go across the bay to San Francisco or play in minor league ballparks in suburban Las Vegas or in Reno, Nevada. There is also another factor, Fisher has a big money TV deal still in place in the San Francisco Bay Area that probably will not be available in the Las Vegas market.
The options are not all that appealing. Fisher’s business fortunes in Oakland have floundered over the past few years and in 2024 business will get worse with the knowledge the team will be gone by 2027 if there is a short-term lease agreement reached between Fisher and Oakland officials. Oakland officials probably would want Fisher’s rent money for 2025, 2026 and 2027 but Manfred has criticized Oakland officials for not having a ballpark solution and blew off the people who spend money on Fisher’s product, the A’s fans. Manfred forgot about the Howard Terminal project in Oakland. Why would the San Francisco Giants ownership want Fisher’s business in its stadium? Giants ownership could pick up rent money. The minor league ballparks would not fly with the Major League Baseball Players Association. The suburban Las Vegas and Reno parks are what they are, minor league ballparks with limited seating and none of the Major League Baseball trappings. It seems Fisher’s planned move has some major faults in it.
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