The whole timing aspect of the Oakland A’s proposed/threatened/wishcasted move to Las Vegas has been weird: Team owners announced they were buying land in Las Vegas, instantly ticking off Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao to where she cut off talks on a new stadium in Oakland; they said they wanted to be have a new stadium in place by 2027, despite not having the money for one or even significant talks about how to get it; and they declared that they faced a January 2024 deadline for stadium approval, though on further examination this just appears to be the deadline for being eligible for $50 million in MLB revenue sharing that they won’t get if no stadium deal is in place.
Now, it turns out, A’s management’s timeline also doesn’t match up too well with the Nevada legislative calendar:
- Nevada Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager told the Nevada Independent that A’s execs haven’t submitted any “concrete” stadium funding plans, and noted that the state legislature adjourns on June 5 and doesn’t meet again until 2025. “If something was going to happen, it really should have been in place last week,” said Yeager.
- Gov. Joe Lombardo’s chief of staff, Ben Kieckhefer, said if “we can get it done during this legislative session, we would love that. If that’s not possible, then we’ll have to consider other options” — which presumably would involve calling a special session.
None of this is particularly alarming, and in fact is right in line with the classic Two-Minute Warning gambit: A’s owner John Fisher and his stadium czar Dave Kaval can pressure Nevada to act now, without much public oversight, because the legislative session is running out and that revenue-sharing “deadline” is coming up — then, if the legislature doesn’t act, they can instead ask for a special session, or have MLB revise the deadline, or just punt on the $50 million because it’s chump change compared to what they’re asking for from Nevada. Setting deadlines and then re-setting them as many times as necessary is classic stadium-grubbing behavior: Florida Marlins owner Jeff Loria and his stadium czar David Samson used to do it every year, until finally after a solid decade the city of Miami caved and gave them an $800-million-plus check.
In fact, Fisher and Kaval seem to have already prepared an out clause for themselves if Nevada talks don’t go well: They can back out of their land purchase if they don’t win legislative approval for whatever they eventually demand from the legislature. At which point they would be free to go back and beg Oakland’s forgiveness, or possibly seek out other cities to threaten to move to, though none of them have stadium funding plans in place, either.
As for what the A’s execs are asking for from Nevada, that’s still somewhat blurry: It’s been reported as worth “around $500 million” but also “$150 million of transferable tax credits and an undisclosed amount of development tax incentives as well as Clark County-issued bonds that will be repaid using proceeds from the creation of a new special district in the area surrounding the site,” which could be more or less than that. Even Yeager seems confused:
“There hasn’t been a concrete plan that’s been presented to the Legislature,” Yeager said. “And I read in the media too, and it seems like every story talks about it in a different way. So in my mind, until there’s some kind of concrete ask, there’s really not much to discuss.”
The only deadline pressure here, really, is that the A’s lease on the Oakland Coliseum expires after 2024, so Fisher needs a place for his team to play in 2025, and presumably won’t want to commit to moving to Vegas, even on a temporary basis, until he gets his stadium boodle. He could always try to get a lease extension from Oakland — temporary lease extensions are super-common in the sports world — but he presumably first would need to rebuild some of the bridges he’s burned with Thao, which is going to be hard while he and Kaval keep talking about how he’s dead set on moving to Vegas. Which leaves A’s execs with a high-risk game of chicken: They need to convince the Nevada legislature that it’s on the clock to provide them with a new stadium, when in fact they’ll be the ones facing headaches if funding isn’t passed soon. It’s a kinda crazy plan, but it just might work.
So if the team can back out of their “binding agreement”, it isnt exactly binding, now is it?
And what kind of state legislature doesn’t meet for 18 months? I want that job!
Texas also conducts business this way. It’s silly and dates back to these state’s founding.
They also pay next to nothing. Nevada legislators make $9,000 a session. Texas ones make $7200 a year.
It’s a crappy system because you only get people who can afford to do it, shutting down a business for 4 months or asking for a leave of absence just doesn’t work for most people.
This goes back to the 1800’s and fear of carpet bagger Reconstruction gubmint.
We actually had some Black legislators in the 1870’s! Well, the kkk and the texas rangers fixed that real quick. The saying for years after that was:
“the lege isback in town! Lock up the alcohol, your daughters and the barnyard animals!”
Texas has a dark Empire Strikes Back origin story…..
How you do it Brian is you set up a media company to produce all your campaign advertising and merchandise (paid for by donors) which your marriage partner owns and runs. Profit stays in the family.
My friend the texas legislator did it.
Quite legal of course…..
Even with the seeming incompetence of the A’s “brain”trust, I feel as though this will still come to pass. Because when doesn’t it?
Most likely true. I would guess that the only way Nevada doesn’t vote for some vague cost-unknown & public revenue-unknown plan to give a GAP heir somewhere between $1.5bn and $2bn over the next 30 years is if any of the people able to vote on this actually talk to the general public and/or constituents to find out if they even want major league baseball (and at what cost).
I would argue that if they do want major league baseball, any kind of deal with John Fisher and Dave Kaval is unlikely to provide that in return.
So really, whether Nevada wants MLB or not, voting in favour of a deal with the A’s is not going to be any more helpful than voting against it.
The Rays don’t play in Montreal, the Marlins don’t play in San Antonio, the Twins don’t play in North Carolina. Lots of times this doesn’t come to pass, at least not immediately.
The Marlins would have been better off in San Antonio. Hispanics are super brand loyal……
Oh, and South Florida is full of Cubans not Hispanics…..
I would hope Mayor Thao is looking hard at the lease language for next year. Given the ‘product’ Fisher is putting on the field, it would behoove Oakland officials to find a way to invoke an early termination clause and leave the Athletics without a stadium to play in for 2024.
They never had anything more significant than an option to purchase the former casino lands they think they can build on in LV.
Given the pay scale that the state leg has (thanks for the info, Al) it seems likely that being recalled for a special session will be seen as a financial windfall for the legislators… one wonders if that will be an inducement to vote in favour of the imbeciles who caused the special session to be convened, regardless of how vague and pathetic their plans actually are. “Hey, if I vote for this thing, whatever it is, that will cost Nevadans at least $2bn over 30 years, I get $9k cash in hand!”
Sometimes democracy really is like poetry in motion. Bad poetry, but still…
If they are like texas pols, they will hate it. They are usually professionally employed and would lose a lot of money. You don’t want to be asking pols for favors who are in a bad mood because of the favor askers. Doing there “duty” for six months is their limit. Then they can go home and tell (not rxplain) to the votes how they stopped everyone else from destroying the voters way of life because “freedom.”
One day Fisher will exert pressure someplace and something will actually happen as a result.
In the meantime he keeps huffing and puffing away and getting nowhere.
Every story about an arena, a stadium, a rink being built or proposed to being built west of the Rockies should include a paragraph about the where in the hell the water is going to come from.
There is a major disconnect between the US government threatening to cut every Colorado River state’s allotment because of drastically falling water levels and city officials in Tempe and Las Vegas talking about building a giant concrete sinkhole.
Because scientists (who they hate because environmental studies) will come up with solutions…..
I was just thinking. There’s a little town outside of Orlando called … Oakland.
Maybe the guy who wants to build a stadium in Orlando would consider that location.
Then the As could move there and not even have to change their name.
Problems solved!
My guess is that Fisher already has this thing wired so that it gets pushed through very quickly late in the session. Just because Oakland politicians have wised up doesn’t mean that Nevadas have.
Nevada isn’t New York. Or is it?
Anybody surveyed the mafia yet?
Fisher thinks he’s got it done because the Governor is onboard. The problem is that the state legislature has a near Dem super majority and the Clark county commission is all democrats. While I know Nevada Democrats are way more open to publicly financed stadiums than Bay Area ones- the stadium fatigue in Vegas is very real.
Lombardo’s base is rural conservatives, they hate Las Vegas stadium deals. Calling a special session for a stadium subsidy is not the best politics for him, but I don’t think he realizes it yet.
The timeline to get a bill passed during the legislative session is a Herculean task. There’s just not a lot of time, and the budget is a more pressing priority.
Appropriate for Vegas, Nevada is holding all the cards here and Fisher really isn’t holding any.
Fisher want to get out of Oakland yesterday and he doesn’t have a plan B. Oakland called his bluff and so now he’s trying to negotiate a deal with the only possible partner available.