A's Owner John Fisher Sells Large Amount of GAP Stock

The sale is Fisher's largest since at least 2009

A's owner John Fisher is trying to build a ballpark in Las Vegas, Nevada, but nobody quite knows exactly how he's going to pay for it. We've heard that it'll be a blend of debt and equity financing that will account for the just over $1.1 billion he's on the hook for, but what amount of the loan is debt and how much equity he's giving up are very big questions.

GAP stock has been on the rise of late, reaching a high that hasn't been seen since it's five-year peak in 2021 when it hit $35.41 per share in May of that year. By September 2022 the stock had fallen to $8.21. 

Since the beginning of October, the stock has been on a steady rise, currently sitting at $21.30. On December 7, John Fisher made his biggest transaction since 2009, selling 1,500,000 shares of GAP stock, valued at $21.59 at the time of the sale, netting him $32,386,727. This information is all available online. You can even see previous transactions, most of which have been sales of his stock, but there was also one purchase back in 2015 of a little over five million shares valued at $32.99. This was a year before he bought out Lew Wolff's 10% ownership stake in the A's. 

That purchase was made on September 1, 2015. It was also the same year that his MLS team, the San Jose Earthquakes, opened up their brand new stadium. The playoffs, which the Earthquakes missed, began on October 29th. His big purchase came right after the season ended. Coincidence? 

While Thursday's sale of $32 million in stock isn't the biggest transaction listed, it's the biggest one in which he has shed stocks. 

The big question on everyone's minds has to be why. 

Unfortunately, I don't have a concrete answer to that question. That doesn't mean that there isn't an educated guess. Thursday also just so happened to be the day that Alameda County officially told Fisher that they were going to demand payment of the remaining $45 million that is owed for their portion of the Coliseum site that he bought back in 2019. The total cost is $85 million, to be paid in installments, unless the billionaire declared that the team is moving. 

Well, it sure seems as though that is the case. That $45 million is due by May 14th. 

Now, this doesn't cover the entire cost of the land deal, so the money could be for something else entirely, but Fisher could also have the other $13 million tucked away in a hollowed out book somewhere, too. 

The timing makes sense for the money to be for this expense, but with the dollar figure being short, as well as the money not being due for months, it's not a guarantee. 

Fisher still has nearly 46 million shares in GAP left at his disposal, even after the sale. One thing that taking this $32 million out did do is knock him out of owning over a billion dollars in GAP stock. At the price that he sold it at, the remaining 45,833,878 shares he owns would be valued at $989,606,196. The A's franchise is also estimated to be worth around $1.2 billion, so he's doing just fine. 

The one thing that everyone has been wondering, however, is how liquid Fisher's money is. He is worth an estimated $3 billion, and with roughly one billion tied up in GAP stock and $1.2 billion in the A's valuation, that would leave $800 million that could potentially be liquid assets. 

And that is why people are so intrigued as to how he's going to finance any ballpark. 

H/T to Josh on Twitter for pointing out the sale