A's Sue Educators

What's going on and what could it mean?

In a recent press release, the group "Schools over Stadiums" announced that they are being sued by a group with ties to the A's in an attempt to stop the educators' referendum efforts. 

Schools over Stadiums is targeting the public funding that the A's secured in June for their proposed 33,000-seat ballpark in Las Vegas. When the group filed their referendum earlier this month, this was their reasoning: "Nevada’s priorities are misguided and when we launched Schools Over Stadiums in June, our goal was to ensure that public funds go to the services Nevadans depend on like our public schools, not to a California billionaire for a stadium.”

The attorney representing the A's, Bradley Schrager, gave the Nevada Independent the reasoning for the lawsuit. "Collectively, material omissions and misstatements render it impossible for a potential signatory to make an informed decision whether to sign the Petition." Lawyers on Twitter seem to think that this lawsuit means that Schools over Stadiums could just re-word the referendum and continue as planned, but would likely need to throw out any signatures they already have. Since the collection of signatures was able to start just a few weeks ago, this likely isn't a large total. 

Schools over Stadiums needs to collect 102,586 signatures, with 25,467 from each of Nevada's four congressional districts in order to get their referendum on the ballot next November. Signatures need to be collected and submitted by July 8.

That's the general synopsis of what is going on, but there are so many other questions that have come up in this process. One of the main questions being: How is this good PR for the A's as they attempt to call Las Vegas home? They touted their community benefits while begging for public money and now, just months later, are suing educators in a state that is in dire need of funding for schools. 

When Schools over Stadiums was first forming and getting things together, those that support the A's ballpark venture in Las Vegas told the media not to worry about the referendum because it was small and nothing would come of it. If it was such a small effort, then why sue them? If it's so inconsequential, then they wouldn't be able to fundraise, and they wouldn't be able to get the 102,000 signatures they need to get it on the ballot. 

By suing the educators, there is a lot more focus on Schools over Stadiums, presumably leading to more donations being made, which would be the opposite of what the A's need in order to keep this off of the ballot next year. 

The only reason that makes sense here is that the calculation was to try and essentially price out Schools over Stadiums. The A's have money to pay for lawyers. Schools over Stadiums is being run on volunteer hours and donations. The thought has to be that if they can make the educators spend some of that money on high-priced legal representation, then they can silence them that way. 

It's not like the A's, who were represented by two lobbyists that were not defined as lobbyists, one of whom is now getting a big payday for his own company, are super concerned about the wording of something or keeping the appearances of being on the up and up. 

The only other feasible option then this is self sabotage. The only other reasonable answer would be that the A's are trying to muddy the waters for themselves in Vegas only to throw up their hands down the line and say "we can't build anywhere!" The end game on that one could be a little fuzzy, but best guess would be that John Fisher would have to sell. Heck, this could all be to distract the public from the fact that he doesn't have the financing locked up, so he's looking to be stopped.

Regardless of that the intent here is, this definitely isn't a great look for the A's and John Fisher. One would think that with the owner's vote on relocation just a couple of months away, suing teachers would be just another reason to vote "no" on Fisher's Las Vegas quest. 

If you would like to donate to Schools over Stadiums to help them pay for fancy lawyers, you can do so here.