Its always made sense my dude. The way this whole thing has gone down is so tragic. My family have been Oakland baseball fans since the 1920’s. Grandpa had season tickets for 25 years. Refusing to spend any money for years.. The intentional tanking of attendance, the lying about the city’s resolve to make a deal happen. MLB sitting on their hands and just letting it happen. It feels like my first love (baseball) is breaking up with me.
John Fischer aint just cheap- Fischer is also a decades-long Giants season ticket holder. He should have never been named owner of any MLB team- let alone the A's.
Bruh, he OWNED 10% of the Giants at 1 time. He wanted to ensure that they stayed in SF when they Giants were in danger of moving. He sold his interest in the Giants when the A's went up for sale. Dude hates the A's in Oakland from forever. MLB allowing this scam to happen is just unforgivable.
@@someguy7222 unrelated- the crazy thing is that crackhead Dave Kaval DID have one excellent idea that kinda resurrected the ballclub pre-covid: FOOD TRUCKS
@@DAILYBLUNTATHON Nah, not really. I mean it was a nice touch but in reality they also used that as an excuse to reduce in house food services and staff. Instead of providing better and more (options at the Coli) they kind of outsourced it and don't think those trucks got to just post up sell food and be good. They had to kick a percentage fee back to pimp Kaval and overlord Fisher
John Shay, national baseball correspondent with the SF Chronicle, stated in an interview with Brodie Brazil on his podcast about six months ago that the irony of the Giants' "territorial rights" to the South Bay is that after A's owner Walter Haas gave away Santa Clara County, which had been A's territory, when Bob Lurie was trying to find an alternative to San Francisco because voters there had defeated public funding for a new Giants ballpark, Santa Clara County became Giants territory, with the stipulation that if the Giants didn't build a new ballpark in the South Bay within a specified period of time, Santa Clara County would revert back to A's territory. When A's owner Lew Wolff wanted to build an A's ballpark in San Jose, he was blocked by the Giants because Santa Clara Co. was Giants "territory," and Bud Selig backed the Giants up on that claim. However, because the Giants never built in Santa Clara County, the county should have gone back to the A's. Meaning, that when Wolff wanted to build in SJ, he should have been allowed to do so, except for the fact that MLB, in the persona of Bud Selig, either conveniently forgot that the A's should have been given Santa Clara County back, or he outright lied when he backed the Giants claim that Santa Clara is and was Giants territory. All that's needed for Santa Clara Co. to become a possible site for an A's relocation is for the Commissioner to enforce the stipulation that the county revert back to the A's if the Giants failed to build there. This is the kind of thing which makes me think that MLB, through Selig, and now through Manfred, want the A's out of the Bay Area. They've been playing a long game, and will resort to lying to make that objective happen.
The fact is John Fischer is a deadbeat who cant even maintain his own life and therefore should definitely not be owning a MLB team. Period. So while a problematic ballpark situation has existed continuously since the NFL renovations to the Coliseum- it was the Oakland Raiders picking up and moving to Vegas which has caused everything to simply go haywire. And the problems can be traced to John Fischer. What happened is Fischer has been able to foster a situation where he doesnt put very much money into the team at all- at least compared to the average owner of lets say the Cleveland Guardians or Minnesota Twins or Arizona Diamondbacks. You see Fischer was able to collect competetive balance taxes from the big league teams while the Raiders took care of the renovations. What happened is both those free money opportunities ended and he wants to get thise benefits again in Sacramento- where for example the owner of Sutter Health Park is going to take care of maintenance like the NFL Raiders did in Oakland. Also playing in Sacramento will let them recieve the competetive balance taxes- which have just run out in Oakland because the commissioners office had tied these benefits to new ballpark 👈
Here's my conspiracy theory: John Fisher is such a deadbeat that the major decisions about the team aren't being made by Fisher, but by Rob Manfred. My theory is that Manfred is running, and ruining, the A's. Bud Selig famously stated that allowing the A's to move from KC to Oakland was a mistake, that the Bay Area should have only one MLB team, and that team should be the Giants. Manfred hasn't been that obviously biased against the A's, but I think that Selig's desire to move the A's out of the Bay Area is still a goal of the Commissioner's office. Fisher famously can't run anything successfully. He has tanked the team, cries "poor," and has received (according to Google's A.I. Lab) about $60 million a year on average in revenue sharing from MLB, which is considerably more than what Fisher spends on payroll -- and combine that with the $60-$70 million the A's get from NBC Sports CA to televise their games, the A's get a boatload of money even if no one shows up to games. MLB has put Fisher into a corner, and I can imagine the Commissioner's office using strong-arm tactics to get effective control of the A's, while Fisher remains the dolt puppet. Fisher botched the building of a stadium adjacent to Laney College, and when he focused on Howard Terminal, he failed at getting what the Commissioner wanted -- a sizeable portion of a new ballpark paid for with public money from the City of Oakland. Fisher fumblings and failures have, by my theory, caused the Commission to step in and tell John Fisher that MLB will be making decisions on the future of the A's. Fisher has to go along with this because his soul has been bought with years of revenue sharing from MLB. The Commissioner owes John Fisher, and by extension, the A's. It was the Commissioner who, in the middle of the effort to get preliminary approval for a new ballpark at Howard Terminal, told John Fisher to adopt a "parallel path" for a new ballpark by opening negotiations with Las Vegas. It was, I believe, the Commissioner who, after Oakland refused to finance a large part of the cost of building a new ballpark, abruptly ended the A's talks with Oakland and made a formal decision to move the team to Las Vegas. Fisher is incompetent, but his "ownership" of the A's is perfect cover for the Commissioner to move pieces on the chessboard to get a favorable deal, including public money, to fund a new ballpark in Vegas. And this isn't the Commissioner trying to save the A's from a bumbling owner, but to set a precedent with a city targeted for relocation that would be favorable to all other MLB owners should they want to move their teams and get public funding for new ballparks. This is just speculation. I've been following this sad drama for over two decades, and to me this theory makes perfect sense. The Commissioner won't allow Fisher to sell the team until the Commissioner is finished using Fisher as his puppet. I think that if the A's actually move to Vegas and get that monstrosity built, the Commissioner will order Fisher to sell, and a new local ownership group can take over the A's and make them a success in Vegas. Of course, the Commissioner is proving to be just as incompetent as Fisher, and it all could come crashing down if no investors come forward to pump money into a Vegas ballpark. Ironically, the Nevada law which authorizes $380 million to build a ballpark in Vegas didn't specify the A's as the owner of that ballpark. If the Commissioner comes to the place where he knows Fisher is no longer useful, and that his own machinations toward a move to Vegas have also been a colossal failure, he could force Fisher to sell the A's to an ownership group who wants to stay in Oakland, and a new ownership group of an expansion team in Vegas could, quite likely, be easily and quickly formed in Vegas, and the $380 million could still be used for a ballpark under an expansion team plan.
I have been an A's fan since they moved to Oakland in 1968, when I was in high school. Yes, I'm that old. I have followed this saga for decades. I know more about it than I wish I knew. I'm 72 years old, and while 70 is the new 50 (or so I'm told...I guess that makes 50 the new 30, and 30 the new 10), I don't expect this whole mess to sort itself out before I give up the ghost. My beloved A's will be in baseball limbo for, quite likely, the rest of my lifetime. And if in the afterlife I have anything to say about it, I will urge the Judge of the Universe to rain hell down upon John Fisher and Rob Manfred.
The only thing I hope for out of this whole saga is simple: For it to blow up and fail miraculously enough to get John Fisher out of baseball while also costing Rob Manfred his job. Oakland deserves better and so does MLB as a whole.
Also, treat the owners like franchisees. If a McDonalds franchise is underperforming and not meeting basic requirements, they get the axe. Clearly MLB/Manfred is manipulating the league and ownership group enough to do this weird Oakland to Vegas pipedream (and like you said, eliminating free market), so let the sword cut both ways (I'd argue this oust of Fisher would actually be more in line with the free market).
Exactly attendance has been terrible ever since they arrived in Oakland. Only time they had good attendance was when they have the bash brothers and early 2000's with giambi and tejada
Mets fan here, I gotta say I love the A's uniforms and colors. Really Sharpe looking especially the snow white unis with green n gold caps. The drummers in the bleachers are way cool. Way to go with you all representing. Very creative and cool fan based way to root the team. You guys deserve better from ownership. The only positive thing if they move is the giants are a cool team too. Best of luck you guys.
Really enjoyed tis post, Sully! Love your plea to Fisher. The only thing is - and it's not really recognized - is that Fisher is (and always has been) an agent of the Giants. Money under the table for Fisher. Manfred probably on the take too. Call me nuts but this is where I go when things don't add up.
What makes the game of baseball so magical is that it is about grown men playing a kids game. And within this kids game you often see these elite athletes display the infectious emotions of joy and excitement and enthusiasm that kids have when they are playing their favorite sport. What I'm tryna say is that MLB needs to lean into the timeless aspects of the game and lean AWAY from the ways this great ballgame has been mutated from its pastoral and schoolyard and stickball origins. MLB must move away from this over-reliance on strikeouts and walks and homeruns, pitch clock, silly extra inning rules, too much night baseball, too much emphasis on OBP, downplaying world series and all star game, catcher and pitcher communication gadgets, dumb changes to base runners that favor the very tall (?), robo managers, preplanned game strategy, etc. Etc. Etc. the game is in CRISIS, folks !!!!
Staying in Oakland DOES make the most sense. Selling the team to someone who would commit to staying in Oakland makes the MOST sense. If only sanity were allowed in the room.
The players association will force them back into OCo in 2026. Maybe sooner. Imagine what the reaction of the league will be when Aaron Judge is out for heat related reasons.
Players union can't make the A's go back to Oakland only the owners can. They only gonna play like 10 day games in Sacramento they gonna play mostly night games
😐 it takes money and resources and the investment in sports and entertainment from local government to get big peojects done. Expecting the prince of dubai or some tech billionaires to privately fund a ballpark was never going to happen. You get what u vote for
MLB needs to fix the mistake it made decades ago with the territorial rights. Take a page out of the Nationals playbook: the league buys the team, pays the Giants off for the territorial rights and sells to new ownership.
@@SteveWuebbens I agree. This has been a perfect storm of mistakes to get us to this point. The first nails in the coffin were territorial rights and Mt Davis.
It's not about doing the cast for free. It's that the Locked network forces you to read some very cringe ads at some very inopportune times. That "network" should allow you some flexibility.
Everything in Las Vegas is working, e.g. progress with Stadium Authority, meeting with hundreds of potential contractors. You apparently don't pay attention, but it doesn't stop you from saying ridiculous things. But it does give you clicks and thumbs up from those similarly uninformed.
By the way, I have no doubt baseball will come to Las Vegas and a stadium built. I am skeptical it will be the A's coming there and frankly, Vegas can do better than them. But I will address this tonight. Thanks for the comment
@@LockedOnAs According to reports from multiple insiders, financing is in place. It is expected to be made public as part of the final Development Agreement.
@@LockedOnAs I don't mean to be rude, but it appears you are not familiar with reports over the months about Stadium Authority meetings, and the recent A's hosting hundreds of prospective contractors. There is no other option than the A's in Las Vegas. Many of us who are extremely familiar with the situation in the Bay Area over many decades as well as the current situation in Las Vegas are quite sure that they will do well. The Bay Area media has not done a service to their fans putting 100% blame on Fisher.
@@Baseball_Fan_NV It will be interesting to see what happens in October. I would not blame Las Vegas for not doing business with Fisher. While I think other cities would be better for MLB than Vegas, my issue is NOT with the city. My issues are with Fisher who has been as dishonest and incompetent as anyone could be in this whole mess. Give Vegas an MLB team and prove me wrong... just do not do business with Fisher. But a lot to be seen in October with the latest meeting. Etc
Its always made sense my dude. The way this whole thing has gone down is so tragic. My family have been Oakland baseball fans since the 1920’s. Grandpa had season tickets for 25 years. Refusing to spend any money for years.. The intentional tanking of attendance, the lying about the city’s resolve to make a deal happen. MLB sitting on their hands and just letting it happen. It feels like my first love (baseball) is breaking up with me.
Should be a rule. When a team moves to a different city, they should have to get a new name, colors and history.
Lol Fisher can't and won't spend money to help the team he doesn't have what it takes to be an owner and should be completely forced to sell
John Fischer aint just cheap- Fischer is also a decades-long Giants season ticket holder. He should have never been named owner of any MLB team- let alone the A's.
Bruh, he OWNED 10% of the Giants at 1 time. He wanted to ensure that they stayed in SF when they Giants were in danger of moving. He sold his interest in the Giants when the A's went up for sale. Dude hates the A's in Oakland from forever. MLB allowing this scam to happen is just unforgivable.
@@someguy7222 holy crap breh. This whole thing is messy as hell wtf.
@@someguy7222 unrelated- the crazy thing is that crackhead Dave Kaval DID have one excellent idea that kinda resurrected the ballclub pre-covid: FOOD TRUCKS
@@DAILYBLUNTATHON Nah, not really. I mean it was a nice touch but in reality they also used that as an excuse to reduce in house food services and staff. Instead of providing better and more (options at the Coli) they kind of outsourced it and don't think those trucks got to just post up sell food and be good. They had to kick a percentage fee back to pimp Kaval and overlord Fisher
@@someguy7222 All I know is that the first owner to get the foodtruck thing right will be a legend. The potential for this idea is crazy.
John Shay, national baseball correspondent with the SF Chronicle, stated in an interview with Brodie Brazil on his podcast about six months ago that the irony of the Giants' "territorial rights" to the South Bay is that after A's owner Walter Haas gave away Santa Clara County, which had been A's territory, when Bob Lurie was trying to find an alternative to San Francisco because voters there had defeated public funding for a new Giants ballpark, Santa Clara County became Giants territory, with the stipulation that if the Giants didn't build a new ballpark in the South Bay within a specified period of time, Santa Clara County would revert back to A's territory. When A's owner Lew Wolff wanted to build an A's ballpark in San Jose, he was blocked by the Giants because Santa Clara Co. was Giants "territory," and Bud Selig backed the Giants up on that claim. However, because the Giants never built in Santa Clara County, the county should have gone back to the A's. Meaning, that when Wolff wanted to build in SJ, he should have been allowed to do so, except for the fact that MLB, in the persona of Bud Selig, either conveniently forgot that the A's should have been given Santa Clara County back, or he outright lied when he backed the Giants claim that Santa Clara is and was Giants territory. All that's needed for Santa Clara Co. to become a possible site for an A's relocation is for the Commissioner to enforce the stipulation that the county revert back to the A's if the Giants failed to build there. This is the kind of thing which makes me think that MLB, through Selig, and now through Manfred, want the A's out of the Bay Area. They've been playing a long game, and will resort to lying to make that objective happen.
The fact is John Fischer is a deadbeat who cant even maintain his own life and therefore should definitely not be owning a MLB team. Period. So while a problematic ballpark situation has existed continuously since the NFL renovations to the Coliseum- it was the Oakland Raiders picking up and moving to Vegas which has caused everything to simply go haywire. And the problems can be traced to John Fischer. What happened is Fischer has been able to foster a situation where he doesnt put very much money into the team at all- at least compared to the average owner of lets say the Cleveland Guardians or Minnesota Twins or Arizona Diamondbacks. You see Fischer was able to collect competetive balance taxes from the big league teams while the Raiders took care of the renovations. What happened is both those free money opportunities ended and he wants to get thise benefits again in Sacramento- where for example the owner of Sutter Health Park is going to take care of maintenance like the NFL Raiders did in Oakland. Also playing in Sacramento will let them recieve the competetive balance taxes- which have just run out in Oakland because the commissioners office had tied these benefits to new ballpark 👈
Here's my conspiracy theory: John Fisher is such a deadbeat that the major decisions about the team aren't being made by Fisher, but by Rob Manfred. My theory is that Manfred is running, and ruining, the A's. Bud Selig famously stated that allowing the A's to move from KC to Oakland was a mistake, that the Bay Area should have only one MLB team, and that team should be the Giants. Manfred hasn't been that obviously biased against the A's, but I think that Selig's desire to move the A's out of the Bay Area is still a goal of the Commissioner's office. Fisher famously can't run anything successfully. He has tanked the team, cries "poor," and has received (according to Google's A.I. Lab) about $60 million a year on average in revenue sharing from MLB, which is considerably more than what Fisher spends on payroll -- and combine that with the $60-$70 million the A's get from NBC Sports CA to televise their games, the A's get a boatload of money even if no one shows up to games. MLB has put Fisher into a corner, and I can imagine the Commissioner's office using strong-arm tactics to get effective control of the A's, while Fisher remains the dolt puppet. Fisher botched the building of a stadium adjacent to Laney College, and when he focused on Howard Terminal, he failed at getting what the Commissioner wanted -- a sizeable portion of a new ballpark paid for with public money from the City of Oakland. Fisher fumblings and failures have, by my theory, caused the Commission to step in and tell John Fisher that MLB will be making decisions on the future of the A's. Fisher has to go along with this because his soul has been bought with years of revenue sharing from MLB. The Commissioner owes John Fisher, and by extension, the A's. It was the Commissioner who, in the middle of the effort to get preliminary approval for a new ballpark at Howard Terminal, told John Fisher to adopt a "parallel path" for a new ballpark by opening negotiations with Las Vegas. It was, I believe, the Commissioner who, after Oakland refused to finance a large part of the cost of building a new ballpark, abruptly ended the A's talks with Oakland and made a formal decision to move the team to Las Vegas. Fisher is incompetent, but his "ownership" of the A's is perfect cover for the Commissioner to move pieces on the chessboard to get a favorable deal, including public money, to fund a new ballpark in Vegas. And this isn't the Commissioner trying to save the A's from a bumbling owner, but to set a precedent with a city targeted for relocation that would be favorable to all other MLB owners should they want to move their teams and get public funding for new ballparks.
This is just speculation. I've been following this sad drama for over two decades, and to me this theory makes perfect sense. The Commissioner won't allow Fisher to sell the team until the Commissioner is finished using Fisher as his puppet. I think that if the A's actually move to Vegas and get that monstrosity built, the Commissioner will order Fisher to sell, and a new local ownership group can take over the A's and make them a success in Vegas. Of course, the Commissioner is proving to be just as incompetent as Fisher, and it all could come crashing down if no investors come forward to pump money into a Vegas ballpark. Ironically, the Nevada law which authorizes $380 million to build a ballpark in Vegas didn't specify the A's as the owner of that ballpark. If the Commissioner comes to the place where he knows Fisher is no longer useful, and that his own machinations toward a move to Vegas have also been a colossal failure, he could force Fisher to sell the A's to an ownership group who wants to stay in Oakland, and a new ownership group of an expansion team in Vegas could, quite likely, be easily and quickly formed in Vegas, and the $380 million could still be used for a ballpark under an expansion team plan.
I have been an A's fan since they moved to Oakland in 1968, when I was in high school. Yes, I'm that old. I have followed this saga for decades. I know more about it than I wish I knew. I'm 72 years old, and while 70 is the new 50 (or so I'm told...I guess that makes 50 the new 30, and 30 the new 10), I don't expect this whole mess to sort itself out before I give up the ghost. My beloved A's will be in baseball limbo for, quite likely, the rest of my lifetime. And if in the afterlife I have anything to say about it, I will urge the Judge of the Universe to rain hell down upon John Fisher and Rob Manfred.
The only thing I hope for out of this whole saga is simple: For it to blow up and fail miraculously enough to get John Fisher out of baseball while also costing Rob Manfred his job.
Oakland deserves better and so does MLB as a whole.
Also, treat the owners like franchisees. If a McDonalds franchise is underperforming and not meeting basic requirements, they get the axe. Clearly MLB/Manfred is manipulating the league and ownership group enough to do this weird Oakland to Vegas pipedream (and like you said, eliminating free market), so let the sword cut both ways (I'd argue this oust of Fisher would actually be more in line with the free market).
What is wrong with East Bay people ? I lived there in the 70s when the A's won 3 strait World Series and even then attendance was terrible.
Exactly attendance has been terrible ever since they arrived in Oakland. Only time they had good attendance was when they have the bash brothers and early 2000's with giambi and tejada
@@jasontapia1032also another point is Oakland voted for 3 mayor's that didn't value sports entertainment. You get what u vote for
Mets fan here, I gotta say I love the A's uniforms and colors. Really Sharpe looking especially the snow white unis with green n gold caps. The drummers in the bleachers are way cool. Way to go with you all representing. Very creative and cool fan based way to root the team. You guys deserve better from ownership. The only positive thing if they move is the giants are a cool team too. Best of luck you guys.
Really enjoyed tis post, Sully! Love your plea to Fisher. The only thing is - and it's not really recognized - is that Fisher is (and always has been) an agent of the Giants. Money under the table for Fisher. Manfred probably on the take too. Call me nuts but this is where I go when things don't add up.
What makes the game of baseball so magical is that it is about grown men playing a kids game. And within this kids game you often see these elite athletes display the infectious emotions of joy and excitement and enthusiasm that kids have when they are playing their favorite sport. What I'm tryna say is that MLB needs to lean into the timeless aspects of the game and lean AWAY from the ways this great ballgame has been mutated from its pastoral and schoolyard and stickball origins. MLB must move away from this over-reliance on strikeouts and walks and homeruns, pitch clock, silly extra inning rules, too much night baseball, too much emphasis on OBP, downplaying world series and all star game, catcher and pitcher communication gadgets, dumb changes to base runners that favor the very tall (?), robo managers, preplanned game strategy, etc. Etc. Etc. the game is in CRISIS, folks !!!!
Yes, I still use the phrase night baseball LOL
Great video! I’m still hoping for a miracle!
Staying in Oakland DOES make the most sense. Selling the team to someone who would commit to staying in Oakland makes the MOST sense. If only sanity were allowed in the room.
The players association will force them back into OCo in 2026. Maybe sooner. Imagine what the reaction of the league will be when Aaron Judge is out for heat related reasons.
Players union can't make the A's go back to Oakland only the owners can. They only gonna play like 10 day games in Sacramento they gonna play mostly night games
😐 it takes money and resources and the investment in sports and entertainment from local government to get big peojects done. Expecting the prince of dubai or some tech billionaires to privately fund a ballpark was never going to happen. You get what u vote for
@sirchi8731 why have other teams had successful privately financed stadiums? And city hall WAS negotiating when Fisher pulled out
@@LockedOnAs those are exceptions not the rule.
MLB needs to fix the mistake it made decades ago with the territorial rights. Take a page out of the Nationals playbook: the league buys the team, pays the Giants off for the territorial rights and sells to new ownership.
Bud Selig and MLB made the mistake of allowing the sale of the A’s to Fisher and Wolf instead of Joe Lacob or even Reggie Jackson.
@@SteveWuebbens I agree. This has been a perfect storm of mistakes to get us to this point. The first nails in the coffin were territorial rights and Mt Davis.
I wish I could listen to locked on podcasts but the ad reads are too much and too cringe. Good luck though.
Sorry that I did not do this for free. Take care
It's not about doing the cast for free. It's that the Locked network forces you to read some very cringe ads at some very inopportune times. That "network" should allow you some flexibility.
@@bayareasportstalk8729 my sympathies to you during this trying time
Oakland is a toilet a literal dumpster fire
@stevesmith756 thank you for the well informed and helpful comment
@@LockedOnAs you’re very welcome. The city is imploding with crime and corruption. The criminals run the city not the police or officials
Everything in Las Vegas is working, e.g. progress with Stadium Authority, meeting with hundreds of potential contractors. You apparently don't pay attention, but it doesn't stop you from saying ridiculous things. But it does give you clicks and thumbs up from those similarly uninformed.
Is the financing in place?
By the way, I have no doubt baseball will come to Las Vegas and a stadium built. I am skeptical it will be the A's coming there and frankly, Vegas can do better than them. But I will address this tonight. Thanks for the comment
@@LockedOnAs According to reports from multiple insiders, financing is in place. It is expected to be made public as part of the final Development Agreement.
@@LockedOnAs I don't mean to be rude, but it appears you are not familiar with reports over the months about Stadium Authority meetings, and the recent A's hosting hundreds of prospective contractors. There is no other option than the A's in Las Vegas. Many of us who are extremely familiar with the situation in the Bay Area over many decades as well as the current situation in Las Vegas are quite sure that they will do well. The Bay Area media has not done a service to their fans putting 100% blame on Fisher.
@@Baseball_Fan_NV It will be interesting to see what happens in October. I would not blame Las Vegas for not doing business with Fisher. While I think other cities would be better for MLB than Vegas, my issue is NOT with the city. My issues are with Fisher who has been as dishonest and incompetent as anyone could be in this whole mess. Give Vegas an MLB team and prove me wrong... just do not do business with Fisher. But a lot to be seen in October with the latest meeting. Etc