Manfred has said that they want to address expansion once the A’s and Rays have a stadium deal in place. Now, perhaps the Rays do. Which begs the question: When MLB votes on the Vegas thing, could they also start moving on expansion since the Vegas deal would, if approved, resolve both stadium issues? Could Oakland extract a Cleveland Browns type deal in the process, perhaps by dropping potential legal action? Perhaps grant expansion to Oakland and (probably) Nashville, where Oakland keeps the Athletics name, colors and franchise history?

Sure, stop the Vegas thing if possible. But if that means keeping Fisher as the owner, maybe a Browns style deal with a new owner might be better in the long run, if Howard Terminal can be brought to the finish line?

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/38430468/report-rays-complete-deal-new-stadium-st-petersburg

4 comments

  1. I would be ok with keeping the team name, colors, brand, the history and waiting a couple of years for a restart. And Fisher can take the players and physical assets to Vegas. If that’s a way to get rid of Fisher, it may be worth it.

  2. Now that MLB is even closer to expansion with the Rays stadium “situation,” the A’s do not really have to move to Vegas. If they want to expand ASAP, keeping the A’s (the branding, colors, etc) in Oakland would be easier as they cleared a bunch of major hurdles for Howard Terminal whereas there is still a bunch to do in Vegas.

    John Fisher can just move operations and have a brand new team and Oakland can be guaranteed an expansion team. Just not sure why MLB is so against Oakland aside from Oakland not wanting to give handouts. Which even then Fisher has more money here in Oakland than in Vegas. If I remember correctly Oakland got $530 million in grants for Howard Terminal vs Nevada and Clark County’s combined $380 million

    Oakland is almost right at the finish line to get this Howard Terminal deal done (reported $80 million gap if I remember correctly). Keep the A’s in Oakland and boom the league can start focusing on expansion

  3. A 1.2B stadium and the owner breezily says the Rays will pay “about half” of that, the rest he assumes will be picked up by the city and the county. MLB is turning into a mafioso organization under Manfred.

  4. The Rays are in a very different situation from the Athletics in that the team considered moving north to Montreal, Canada to become the new iteration of the Montreal Expos or even splitting games between that city and Tampa/St. Petersburg, but it proved so unpopular that the ownership decided to stay put and actively pursue a stadium deal which they got. Plus, the Rays are more competitive than the Athletics and have an owner who isn’t hated by the fanbase or city.

    Now as for a Cleveland Browns-style deal, the Athletics are never going to do this because they’ve carried the name and legacy in no less than three cities throughout their entire history and they’re going to do the same with Las Vegas.

Leave a Reply