Former Las Vegas Raiders President Gives His Take on Oakland A's Operations

Marc Badain, former president of the Las Vegas Raiders, said the Oakland A's lacked "honesty and professionalism" during their own relocation.

Earlier this week, Howard Stutz of the Nevada Independent hosted a panel with members of the Las Vegas sports community to talk about the business of sports in Las Vegas. On the panel were Marc Badain, Deryk Engelland, and Nikki Fargas.

Badain is the former president of the Raiders in both Oakland and Las Vegas, and is currently the president of the planned 20,000 seat arena venue that is being built on the south end of Las Vegas Boulevard, which is the potential site of a future NBA franchise when the league decides to expand. NBA expansion could throw a wrench into the A's relocation plans with competing timelines. 

Engelland was a member of the Las Vegas Golden Knights when they came into the league, and upon retirement continued working with the club in other capacities. He is currently a special advisor to the owner. 

Fargas is the president of the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA, who are the defending WNBA champions. 

About 17 minutes into this panel, the subject of the A's potential move to Las Vegas came up, and the responses weren't the most welcoming. 

The question Stutz posed to the panel was "where does a 33,000 seat baseball stadium fit in?" after naming the other capacities of the other sports venues already in Vegas, or that are currently in the works. 

Badain jokingly asked Stutz to start with the other two members of the panel while expressing a little exasperation, directed at previous dealings with the A's. "The issues between the Raiders and the A's are pretty well documented. Frankly, I think Mark [Davis] was diplomatic. This is a small industry. You compete on the field, but you expect a level of honesty and professionalism that just didn't exist." 

There has been a lot of instances throughout this process where MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has spouted the relocation story from his source (A's owner John Fisher) which hasn't matched up with what has been reported out of Oakland. Here we have a former president of a team that has had to deal with FIsher and A's president Dave Kaval, and he says they lacked honesty and professionalism, which matches the reports from the Oakland Mayor's office. 

Badain went on, "I went to the Sphere last night. I know what we put into building Allegiant Stadium, and you'd better build something special here. I know what we're doing for the arena. You can't just build some cookie cutter facility."

The arena Badain mentions is reportedly set to cost $10 billion in private money, and depending on when the NBA expands, could be opening within a year or two of the A's $1.5 billion ballpark four miles north. 

"Is there a market for a baseball stadium? I would hope so. I would hope that the work has been done to study the market. I think it's a little more challenging. The economics of baseball are very different than the other three sports. The regional sports television comes into play here. This is not a huge market for that. And you're going to have to sell 2.5 million tickets. That's not easy."

Obviously there is history between the A's and Raiders from their time in Oakland, but the points Badain brings up are valid concerns that many people have been expressing, which has made the entire closed door relocation process frustrating for fans in Oakland and Nevada residents alike. 

Fargas more or less avoided the question and touted some of the work the Aces have done, and jokingly said "Marc's answer."

The A's question was phrased differently for former NHL player Engelland, who played for both established teams and an expansion team. Stutz asked him which would be better for Las Vegas.

"I think at the end of the day you have to put a product out there that's gonna sell." 

This has been another sticking point in the relocation process with A's fans warning Vegas about how Fisher runs the team. The fans are all too familiar with the constant churn of building up prospects, turning them into stars, and then watching them have success elsewhere after they've been traded for the next group of prospects. 

This same method of roster construction won't fly in a new city with so many other entertainment options. While Fisher has said he'd invest in the club once the move is complete, he has shown no willingness to invest in the product on the field in nearly two decades of ownership, and will be paying off his share of the ballpark project as an added expense. 

Why should Las Vegas believe him given his track record?