Inside The As

Oakland A's Ballpark: No Oakland Grant Money, Vegas Site Selected

Not a great day for Oakland A's ballpark news, but could there be something else at play here?

Jason Burke

Oakland A's Ballpark: No Oakland Grant Money, Vegas Site Selected
Oakland A's Ballpark: No Oakland Grant Money, Vegas Site Selected /

The last couple of days there hasn't been much positive news coming out about the A's Howard Terminal project, both directly and indirectly. 

First, it was Tim Kawakami of The Athletic tweeting that John Fisher's camp is becoming increasingly doubtful, and that MLB is more focused on Las Vegas being a site for a team to relocate, rather than the future home of an expansion club.

The point that really sticks out from these tweets is that MLB wants to use Las Vegas as a relocation site instead of an expansion venue. Whether or not that's the right play is up for debate. On Sunday it was reported that Raiders owner Mark Davis is frustrated with the lack of home field advantage when other team's fans flood his stadium, showing that they haven't really latched on among the Vegas locals. The Golden Knights in the NHL on the other hand were an expansion franchise and have done pretty well for themselves. 

Then this afternoon it was reported that the Mega Grant application that the city of Oakland was waiting on for the Howard Terminal project was rejected, meaning that they won't be receiving $180M to help bridge the infrastructure gap. 

It's possible that both the city and the A's already knew about the grant money situation, which is what was leading to Fisher's camp saying they're doubtful about Howard Terminal. 

The capper here is courtesy of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Mick Akers is reporting that the A's are down to one site in Vegas, according to sources. 

The A's had been negotiating with both Phil Ruffin who owns the Las Vegas Festival Grounds site, and Bally's Corporation, which owns The Tropicana site. Aker's source says that talks between the A's and Ruffin have gone quiet, leaving The Tropicana as the last site standing. 

No deal has been agreed to, with everything being contingent on what happens with the A's in Oakland. 

It should also be noted that the A's have not announced that they have chosen a site in Vegas, this is through sourced reporting, and Mick Akers is the go-to guy for ballpark news in Vegas. Also worth mentioning, the A's had officially announced Laney College as their Oakland site in 2017, so picking sites isn't necessarily a done deal for this team, either. 

One has to wonder about the timing of all of this, however. As I am writing this, Sheng Thao has been mayor of Oakland for under one day. We went from no news on the A's ballpark search for a couple of months outside of quotes from the Commissioner, to all of a sudden the day after Oakland gets a new mayor, the grant rejection is public and the A's have a Vegas site picked out. 

Feels like the A's could be trying to grab some of Thao's attention early on. She has said that she supports the Howard Terminal project, but wants to make sure the financial aspects make sense so that the Oakland taxpayers aren't left holding the bag. Apparently that hasn't been good enough for John Fisher, a billionaire, but at the same time he hasn't left for Vegas yet, even though the process in Oakland has taken awhile. 

The feeling I get is that John Fisher wants to stay in Oakland, or he would have left already. MLB has waived the relocation fee to move to Vegas, but Fisher is still here. 

This could ultimately come down to him finally deciding to do what it takes to stay in Oakland and build his own legacy with the city, or as Tim Kawakami wrote last week, potentially selling the team to someone that would. 

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Jason Burke
JASON BURKE

Jason is the host of the Locked on A's podcast, and the managing editor of Inside the A's. He's a new father and can't wait to take his son to his first baseball game at the Coliseum. 

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