Two months into the job, and new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred still lacks his predecessor’s penchant for issuing broad ultimatums to scare cities into submission on stadium issues. Here’s Manfred yesterday on the Oakland A’s stadium situation:
“When I think about the five longer term issues that I feel need to be resolved, the stadium situation for the A’s is right at the top of that list,” Manfred said Monday. “It’s one that does need to get handled.”
You call that a threat? Now this is a threat.
Manfred also said he’s going to be investigating the A’s stadium situation himself, rather than appointing blue ribbon commissions that never actually issue reports. So maybe he’s approaching this that his job as commissioner is to try to come up with a stadium solution that works for all parties, and not just to wave threat sticks around in order to increase team owners’ leverage. Poor, deluded Rob Manfred.
Manfred is only partially the coward Selig was, he knows full well a BRC would be disaster as I am sure he already read the report that was thrown in the trash by Selig when it had things he did not want to hear.
In the end 1 of 3 things need to occur for anything to happen at this point:
1. The Raiders leave and with the Warriors as a lame duck it leaves Oakland on their knees with Lew Wolff laughing his ass off. Now he has leverage as Oakland has only 1 team left and he can demand anything he wants. Right now he has no leverage as the Oakland has made their bed with the Raiders and must lie in it until the bitter end. This is what Wolff, MLB, and Manfred want. Wolff wants the entire site, the Bay Area recovered from the recession, his quotes from 2010 were when things were still in the gutter. Now Wolff sees a golden opportunity to do what he proposed in Fremont but at the Coliseum site. In San Jose, he only gets a ballpark, no development.
2. The Raiders build in Oakland thus leaving the A’s homeless. Now Wolff has no choice but to share with the SF Giants indefinitely. The issue with a temporary ballpark is it will cripple the team revenue wise to the point where their revenue sharing subsidy will go through the roof. Sharing ATT Park allows the team to stay competitive and allows for new revenue streams from club/suite seating they lack now. The Giants would get a piece but the A’s would easily add 30M-40M in payroll. The “San Francisco A’s” would sit on the Giants heads until they screamed UNCLE allowing them into San Jose. Imagine an A’s WS parade on market street? It would make Larry Baer cry like a baby….
3. San Jose is granted cert in October for their case to be heard by the Supreme Court. This would force Manfred to open up San Jose and tell the Giants “sorry, we did what we could to drag this out”. In this case Wolff has to take the SJ option regardless of what happens in Oakland as SJ took MLB to the bitter end and won, it would be the honorable thing to do.
What do I think?
I think the Raiders and Oakland are stuck together and are too dumb to know it. The NFL won’t allow 3 teams into LA. The Rams proposal is far better as it has a development piece built in while the Chargers/Raiders do not.
The Raiders made no friends when they refused to share with the 49ers in Santa Clara, it was a colossal mistake by dumbass Mark Davis.
I say the Rams/Chargers share in Inglewood and the Raiders are stuck at the Coli for the next 5 years doing nothing.
Perhaps a renovation to the Coli for football only? 500M anyone?