It is hard to believe Manfred is uniformed on the Oakland and California stadium negotiations and offer.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is not a stupid man. Manfred graduated from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, which coincidentally is the school National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman attended. In 1983, Manfred received a law degree from Harvard. Manfred has been employed by Major League Baseball since 1998. It is rather puzzling that Manfred said that the city of Oakland had not worked with Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher to build a stadium-village on the Oakland waterfront. Manfred claimed that there was no offer. But there was money raised for the project, environment approvals were secured and the state of California was on board with the plan. In June, Manfred said something that defies commissioner-talk which gives an appearance of caring for fans, guests or consumers when discussing a potential Oakland A’s business relocation to Las Vegas. He trashed the consumers.
“I feel sorry for the fans in Oakland. I do not like this outcome. I understand why they feel the way they do. I think the real question is what is it that Oakland was prepared to do? There is no Oakland offer. They never got to the point where they had a plan to build a stadium at any site. It’s not just John Fisher. The community has to provide support, and at some point you come to the realization that it’s just not going to happen.” Manfred claimed the failure to get a stadium in Oakland was upsetting. “That’s No. 1 on the disappointment list.” There is a relocation committee meeting that will figure out if Fisher should be given a green light to move his business to Las Vegas. But the bigger question is why did Manfred say what he said about the Oakland stadium negotiations?
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