A's Owner John Fisher Finally Speaks
John Fisher bought the Oakland A's back in 2005, and on Wednesday he spoke to the media for the first time. Only it was the Las Vegas media, as he attempts to move forward with his plan to relocate the team to Southern Nevada. The big takeaway from his talk was supposed to be that the A's had finished their relocation application--heck, that's the headline--but for fans in the Bay Area, there was a lot of other stuff he said that really stood out.
The first is that he has not considered selling the team, even with the chants urging him to do so on a nightly basis. He also said of his ballpark idea in Las Vegas, "We think it’s going to be great for the community, and which we think is going to be great for not only the A’s and our fans, but for all of baseball and really of sports."
Wow, this new ballpark is going to be great for all of sports? This is coming from the team that brought you ballpark renderings just ahead of the Nevada Legislature's deadline in order to turn in something for their homework assignment and receive partial credit. That partial credit resulted in a $380 million handout from the state. Since, those renderings have been deemed trash and developers have been told to come up with something else.
All of the reporting out of Nevada has said that this ballpark will be either a retractable roof, or a partially retractable roof up to this point. Fisher was asked about the possibility of a fixed dome for the project, since the nine acres allotted to them could make a retractable roof literally impossible.
"We haven’t made a final decision yet. Even if it’s a fixed-dome, it will have large openings and a lot of clarity in the roof structure and walls, that it will have the feeling of being outdoors even though you have a roof over your head."
This will be a sports-changing, world-class...dome? The fact that he's even entertaining a dome for this project as they have completely gone out of style in favor of the retractable roof is very on brand. A fixed dome would be the less expensive option.
When my family went to Disneyland years ago, I went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride with my siblings. My sister, then twelve, was in awe. "We should get this outside look for our backyard!" This is an actual quote. This is also the vibe that Fisher is putting out there with his quote.
I'm aware that the Vegas Strip has lots of lights and ballyhoo, but the A's will need clearance from the FAA on their project, which could also potentially limit the number of "large openings" this dome could have as light from the field pours through them at night.
The most notable quote for many fans has been that Fisher says the team will lose $40 million in 2023 with a $60 million payroll. As I said on Twitter, if you're set to lose that much with the lowest payroll in baseball, then something is wrong with your process.
Here is Fisher's process: Trade away all of the best players on the team, or anyone that has even a little value. That usually includes all of the fan's favorite players. Then, be pretty bad for a couple of seasons as the next group of prospects rises the ranks to the Majors. When they reach the big leagues, the timer has started on how long it will last, because all of the best players will be out the door before they reach free agency, or even achieve their potential, because the cycle needs to start over.
That's not how you build a winning ball club, and that's not how you build a fan base. This has been the cycle ever since Fisher took over in 2005. Some fans became numb and still rooted for the team anyway. Most just left entirely after the second or third time going through this churn of heartache.
One less egregious comment, but one that shows his complete disconnect from the club is when he said, "A lot of games have not gone our way. We’ve lost a lot of one-run games." That's one way to put it for a 36-90 team that's bordering on one of the worst seasons in MLB history.
The A's are 18-24 in one-run games, good for a .429 winning percentage. If they played that well all season, they'd have 54 wins right now instead of 36. One-run games are not the problem.
The San Diego Padres are 6-19 in one-run games, good for a .240 winning percentage. The reason that San Diego has struggled this season and hasn't been the team we thought they'd be is because of those one run losses. Yet, the Padres have the third-highest payroll in baseball at $252 million and because of the excitement they've created around the team, they rank third in attendance and draw 40,531 per game. Doesn't seem like it's the one-run games that are hurting the team's finances.
Earlier this season the A's donated the ticket proceeds from the first "reverse boycott" game in order to seem like a good community partner for Las Vegas while the bill was being pushed through in a special session. In announcing the dollar figure, they also let people know that they made about $30 per ticket sold.
If you take that $30 and apply it to the Padres, they're making $1.2 million per game just on ticket revenue. That doesn't include parking or concessions or merchandise or anything else that you spend money on at the ballpark. It certainly doesn't include the brand deals and sponsorships. They may ultimately lose money this season, but they're building a fan base.
John Fisher isn't a builder. Check the Gap stock. He couldn't build a ballpark in Oakland even though the city far exceeded what he asked for to get the job done. He couldn't build a fan base in Oakland. There is not one thing that you can point to since he took over ownership of the club that is something that he has built.
But you can find plenty of examples of the destruction he has caused.