OT: Oakland no longer in play? MLB approves Athletics' relocation intentions
Nashville Athletics just rolls off the tongue, no?
(Always had a soft spot for the A's since that was my little league team name, and our white uniforms were rather sharp with the green and yellow trim; 9-year old Vlad patrolled CF like a boss).
I'm googling "Young Vlad Putin and Baseball in Mother Russia" to no avail...
My little league team was the Expos so I am already there!
This sucks for Oakland. I want to see the Coliseum, mount Davis, rogue sewage, wind chimes and all before it is gone. Hope they can figure out the waterfront stadium.
Anyone else find Jeff Passan annoying? Yes I know he is always right but he gives off weasel vibes.
We were the Toronto "Trash" - named by the players as we were 0-12. Our head coach had his pointer and middle fingers missing on his throwing hand and tried to teach us how to throw...
But, he was out there! Years later, after coaching six years of Little League (before kids) and then 25 years with my kids, I've come to greatly appreciate the men and women who volunteer to coach little kids. 99% of these kids won't play in high school and they are just out there for fun.
The Coliseum is dreadful. An awful place to watch baseball. An awful place to purchase food. And most definitely an awful place to relieve yourself.
Last time I was there was 2005 and it was a shitbox then. Don’t imagine it’s gotten better.
Damn. Oakland is a great sports town. It's a shame these teams are all leaving.
It was always a mystery how the Bay Area could support 2 football teams and 2 baseball teams. It was amazing that it lasted as long as it did.
You can also look at it this way:
MI+WI+MN+IL+IN = 41M people = $2.4T GDP = 5 MLB teams+5 NBA teams+5 NFL teams
CA = 40M people = $3T GDP = 5 MLB teams +3 NFL teams+4 NBA teams
California has a lot of money and a lot of a lot of people. The Bay Area accounts for about 1/4 of population and GDP. You can probably assume they get 90% of the fans from the area to the north and split the fans between LA and SF with LA, then its easy to see how they can support 5 pro teams. They probably also pull fans from Nevada and for baseball, Oregon.
Excellent point. If you look at where younger leagues have teams now, it’s more reflective of today’s mobility trends. MLS has 2 teams total in those five Midwestern states.
Oakland is a great sports town, but it's also been one of the only cities to show some backbone and stand up to billionaire sports owners' stadium demands. Considering the cost of new stadiums, and the experience of some cities like Atlanta/Cobb County, that's probably a smart move.
Got to give a tip of the hat to the Illich's on the Detroit stadium. I believe that was built with one of the highest percentages of modern stadiums.
I am surprised it took this long. Oakland ballpark and market have been a liability for the team for many years, particularly with the SF Giants so close. Billy Beane has held that team together with brains and duct tape for years.
Nashville sounds like a good fit.
I think they should move to Vegas and be called the Las Vegas Rat Pack.
Move them to Doha, let Billy Beane splurge with Manchester City money-ball for a change, start a new space race with the Steinbrenners and use those controversial World Cup stadiums. Does Putin agree?
Move to Portland, OR. It will never happen but I would love have an MLB so close.
I would not be surprised at all if it is Vegas. The AAA stadium was designed and built to be expanded for a pro team.
I've heard Portland was a great town but with roaming gangs of anarchists burning the downtown every night I don't see MLB ever moving there. Aren't a lot of people moving out?
I would assume Charlotte would be the choice for relocation but it appears both them and Nashville recently opened new minor league stadiums for a AAA team - I have been to the Nashville stadium and it was quite nice. I am not sure how the city would feel sinking more money into a new MLB stadium when they've recently opened new minor league stadiums.
The Charlotte (in nearby Kannapolis actually) stadium is also very nice
That's a low-A stadium. Probably a nice place, but I think the downtown park where the AAA Knights play is a better fit. Even then, seating (etc) would need to be doubled to reach an MLB scale.
I'd rather see MLB in Raleigh-Durham where the Bulls have 10x more identity than anything in Charlotte.
Nashville’s AAA stadium is a downtown stadium and built in a way (and on a plot of land) that can be expanded to MLB levels easily. This was intentional. The current AAA team can relocate or use their former facility.
I think the draw of Nashville tourism and the size of the MSA (and that it’s still growing like crazy) makes Nashville a solid choice.
In the mid 80's I worked for a company called Agency Rent-A-Car (competed with Enterprise) and was their District Manager for Northern California. My Oakland office at the time was the old Raiders HQ which was directly across from the coliseum on the other side of the Nimitiz. And while it was pretty cool to say i had Al Davis's old office the place was a complete dump.
Maybe they renovated the snot out of it since then back in the day the stadium was a horrible place to watch a game and it was in a pretty dicey section of town. The A's struggled to draw fans back when they had the Bash Brothers and it's only gotten worse since then. Not surprised they're wanting to move.
Next up will be my Indians I'm afraid. Lots of rumors out there they will be in Vegas sometime in the next several years when Dolan cashes out.
I was in Oakland a few years ago and it's a dump (like a lot of big cities). There was some renovation by the water, but it looked dicey a few blocks away. Mid morning on a beautiful day and no one was walking around outside.
Oakland's economic extremes are fascinating. There are large chunks of poverty and decent-sized chunks (thinking of Rockridge at the moment) of prosperity. It's maybe the distribution (more bimodal than most places) that stands out.
Oakland not in play - I see what you did there +1
Players would love TN vs. CA from the income tax perspective. The A's spring training facility in Arizona is better than their regular season home. The Bay Area really doesn't make sense for two MLB teams (or NFL for that matter), and the city of Oakland hasn't made it easy for teams on their side of the water.
The city of Oakland has taken a really hard stance against helping build a stadium for both the Raiders and the As. It is there right to do so but it's also the teams right to find a place that will. Suck for the fans caught in the crossfire.
I'm not familiar with the details of the proposed ballpark but the ESPN article states that the proposal is to have it be privately funded. To me, that makes it seem like Oakland officials are just being difficult and power hungry.
Yes, the same things was said when the Raiders and the Warriors wanted new stadiums. That's why the Raiders are now in Las Vegas and the Warriors are now across the bay in San Fran.
To me, it seems like Oakland officials are being fiscally responsible
Agreed. I’m not a fan of financing billion dollar stadiums that they want to throw away after 20 years.
Is the proposal to include public financing? The article says its privately financed.
Do you know the facts of the proposed financing? Or are you just assuming?
Nashville is a metropolitan area on the rise. Not a bad choice if they end up there. Just several hours north in Louisville too is a great baseball town
They could have rivalries with St. Louis and Atlanta. As much as I hate the local sports teams, they draw a big crowd. If they put the stadium near Nissan Stadium and Bridgestone Arena, you have a booming bar scene and hotels galore.
My best guess is they build up the Sounds stadium to MLB standards. That’s a perfect location for it and would create a triangle between the major sports venues with everything in between.
I've heard that calling themselves "Oakland" basically cuts off half (or more) of their potential fanbase, because people from the SF peninsula won't identify with an Oakland team - sort of like how basketball fans in New York wouldn't cheer for the New Jersey Nets. How true is this?
I know all the fans of the Golden State Warriors think this is complete nonsense.
I fear this entire site is under a Russian bot attack at the moment.
That's a nice pipeline you got there, Rich. It'd be a shame if anything happened to it.
What else did you like about being a 9 year old?
Butterscotch cookies, Steppenwolf, and drawing.
Putie, (can I call you Putie?) I would have assumed you played little league OMG Shirtless.
Not a big baseball fan...but I wonder if they are angling to move to Vegas. They could do a small stadium, luxury boxes with poker/roulette and slots with excellent views.
I wonder how often leagues look at the potential to having a team in a small market..like Omaha for example. (Or an NFL team in Alabama/Mississippi.) There will be widespread support from the surrounding states that have no professional presence in the sport. If people fill Nebraska's stadium every week..and Iowa...and Iowa State, could a pro baseball team do something similar, especially with very little else in terms of sports entertainment over the summer?
One problem with a small market is the local tv deal tends to be small. And, nowadays in baseball everything is TV-oriented.
Plus it takes a sizable population base to support pro baseball. They have to be able to draw thousands of fans 81 nights per year in order to remain financially competitive. The NFL has only 8 home games per year and NHL/NBA teams have far fewer players to pay.
A couple of notes, comments on what’s been posted so far:
-This may just be a means of pushing the Oakland city council to approve the plan that’s been percolating for half a year.
- Nashville already has a group ready. For awhile Dave Dombrowski was in line to run the team if it got an MLB franchise, but he left the group during the 2020-21 offseason to become President of Baseball Operations for the Phillies. I don’t know the situation in Charlotte, or in Buffalo or Portland. All three of them have been runners-up during past expansion battles. Notably, Buffalo will have an MLB quality baseball facility within weeks - the Blue Jays expect to be playing there for at least a couple of weeks beginning in June. Of course, Buffalo might be deemed to be too close to Toronto once the Jays can return to playing there. Montreal might be an option too. Note that Tampa has been talking about playing a split home schedule. Florida in the spring; Montreal in the summer. Pandemic has put that idea on hold - and it’s not clear how the MLBPA would like that idea.
- Moving a team out of Oakland makes scheduling a bit of a chore, since there will only be two west coast AL teams. You’d have to move Minnesota or KC to the West division - unless you moved an NL team to the AL, or the A’s went to Sacramento or San Jose. San Jose is where the A’s wanted to move a couple of years ago, but were blocked by the Giants who apparently have the territorial rights
- Billy Beane may need to relinquish his role with the A’s soon. He’s in an ownership group that reportedly is close to buying the Red Sox.
I want Montreal to have baseball again but that split proposal is just crazy. You can't have half a franchise.
There is some precedent for it: The Steagles
I don't understand why Sacramento isn't talked about more as an option.
The Giants are always going to block San Jose (screw the Giants), but Sacramento is a decent-sized market in its own right (1.9MM people) plus you would keep a decent chunk of the East Bay fans.
As you mentioned, MLB has a bit of a problem if Oakland moves from the West Coast entirely. Who do you then move into the AL West? Colorado and Arizona could theoretically move from the NL, but neither would go very easily. Both teams love having the Dodgers and Giants in town for 18 games a year.
Move the Royals to the West and/or put Tampa in the Central depending on where the new city is.