After a whole lot of quiet on the Oakland A’s stadium front, there’s suddenly lots happening! Maybe! Sort of! In the wake of three lawsuits challenging the team’s Howard Terminal stadium plan environmental impact report, the New York Post, an alleged newspaper that my browser extension warns me about linking to, published a story entirely attributed to unnamed sources claiming that Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak is balking at the A’s owners and MLB’s demands for $275 million or so in public money for a stadium in Las Vegas:
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred recently discussed the A’s move with Sisolak, signaling that the team has the backing of fellow MLB owners who would vote to approve the relocation, sources with knowledge of the talks said.
“Baseball has already cleared the move,” according to one well-placed source.
Manfred, however, also has signaled to Gov. Sisolak and the A’s that he will not approve the move unless Nevada provides some public financing for a $1 billion-plus, 30,000-seat, domed stadium. That’s because Manfred does not want to set a bad precedent for other owners looking to negotiate their own new stadium deals, sources said.
While Manfred did not set a minimum for the public financing, insiders said it is believed to be in the range of $275 million.
Sure, maybe? That’s an awful lot to be hanging on the word of some “sources” who could be high-ranking MLB or Nevada officials, or could just be somebody’s friend’s cousin who said they overheard somebody from the governor’s office talking about it at the local Applebee’s. When used appropriately, quoting unnamed sources can sometimes be a way of reporting on things that officials don’t want their underlings to reveal on the record; when used inappropriately, which is how the Post generally likes to roll, it’s just a way for people to spread spin and rumors, which could be true or could be hot air.
One reason the Post story is getting lots of attention — aside from the fact that the paper made sure to publish it in as clickbaity a way as possible — is that there’s been virtually no word out of Las Vegas in terms of either what A’s owner John Fisher is looking for in terms of subsidies, or what local officials may or may not be offering. Sisolak in particular, other than saying vaguely positive things about the A’s playing in Vegas and vaguely negative things about going out of his way to make that happen, has been mostly mum on the whole issue, though he did go on the record on Friday that the Post story isn’t accurate:
Sisolak reiterated Friday that he does not support another room tax to finance a new ballpark for the A’s, a position he has stated repeatedly since the prospect of the A’s relocating to Las Vegas first came up.
He also said public financing of a ballpark “has not been an issue” in his conversations with the Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred or the A’s leadership.
That probably qualifies as a “vague or imprecise denial,” don’t you think?
Unfortunately, when all we have are a collection of competing uncredible sources — possibly self-serving unnamed sources on the one hand, possibly self-serving named elected officials on the other — it’s impossible to know what to believe, which is exactly why most journalistic ethics policies have a really high bar for when to use unnamed sources. Not that even more serious newspapers than the New York Post necessarily adhere to that standard all the time, but it is important to take anonymously sourced stories with a huge grain of salt — except for the Buffalo Bills moving to Greensboro, that was totally happening, highly placed bots confirm it.
If I am on the Oakland city council or the Alameda county of Commissioners I am taking notice of the lack of boosterism of the LV pols which indicates some kind of leverage as far how to address the public on HT negotiations.
As far as the NY Post story, the timing is interesting. Libby Schaaf was trash talking Goodman for no apparent reason. My thoughts are that they just they cherry picked anecdotes to give this story more oxygen.
The only 2 news items I see in the coming months are the LV site selection and whether they agree on HT funding before it goes into the mayoral election.
Yeah, I didn’t even get into all of Mayor Schaaf’s “gross desert” rhetoric the last few days, which was just bizarre:
https://knpr.org/knpr/2022-04/oakland-mayor-causes-stir-after-calling-las-vegas-gross-desert
Two thoughts: 1) even with the qaukifier ‘alleged’ newspaper is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Maybe the NYP can be a zone (remember those?).
2) the ‘source’ could be a jig ranking MLB official who is also someone’s cousin who frequents Applebees. IF major leagues execs have organic family (as opposed to just being assembled in a non-union gift factory somewhere-my source says manufacturing takes place in Greensboro.
“He also said public financing of a ballpark “has not been an issue” in his conversations with the Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred or the A’s leadership.”
Other than asking for/demanding public financing, I can’t think of any reason for the commissioner of baseball to meet with the governor. Of any state.
Let’s see, already gave a massive subsidy to get an NFL team, got an NHL team with a privately funded new arena and Oak View plans another privately funded arena to get an NBA team. If this was back in 2005 or so when Reggie Jackson & Stephen Ross wanted to buy the A’s and move to Vegas they probably could’ve gotten anything they asked for. Day late and a dollar short.
So if Vegas AND Howard Terminal don’t happen, then what?
Vegas is totally happening. So is Howard Terminal.
Just you wait and see. But even if you are right (and you are totally not), man, you don’t want to go there. You don’t wanna know what’s gonna happen if we don’t get one (I mean both, of course) of our primary sites fully funded by other people.
I mean, you just don’t wanna know. Whaddyou think yer dealing with a bunch of stupid rich kids here? Huh???
You think we don’t have a backup to our backup’s backup plan? One day we might just let you all know that Vegas was just a ruse all the time. As was HT. Although they are both totally going to happen all the same. Then the other shoe drops.
Look at the way we have carefully assembled a world class roster for this season… does that look to you like we are people who don’t know what we are doing???
Get ready for the OakVegas A(ce)’s!!
I mean, the A’s certainly wouldn’t keep playing at the Coliseum for 15 years after demanding a new stadium OH WAIT
A’s could EASILY build anew at Coliseum site, much like Philly built anew at old Vet site, which isn’t downtown or on inaccessible waterfront. Yet they won’t.?..
They certainly could and it would likely be their best option. But that could mean they own the land and the stadium, and I’m pretty sure they don’t want that.
I understand the “want” to avoid property taxes on their place of business… but there has to be a compromise possible that takes into account the fact that, unlike a big box store or car dealership that is open for 10-12 hours a day 300+ days a year, a privately funded/owned baseball stadium is actually only in use 4-5 hours a day for 80-90 days a year.
I’m not saying it should be a straight pro rated calculation, just that there is some rationale for not taxing them at the same rate as other kinds of businesses. I guess nothing could be better than being taxed at a rate of 0% though?
If only the Nevada Governor’s first name was Moe…