Happy Friday! (Happiness provided separately.) While I have you here, is it a good time to remind you that Field of Schemes is on Facebook, Bluesky, Mastodon, Post, and whatever Elon Musk is calling his thing these days? And that by following FoS in any or all of those places, you can get notifications of new posts as soon as they happen — and not only that, by reacting to posts on those sites, you can help get more attention for Field of Schemes, because that’s how social media likes work, it’s a popularity contest where your votes make the things you like more popular? No, that isn’t what you want to hear right now, you just to read the weekly news recap? Okay, ignore all that for now, you can always come back to it later.
- Alexandria held a public meeting last night on traffic and transit plans for its proposed Washington Capitals and Wizards arena, and people came with all sorts of questions about the traffic and transit plans, who’da thunk it? The teams’ owner and the Virginia Department of Transportation issued a new “concept plan” for traffic and transit that mostly seems to be about how arenas generate traffic mostly at peak times (duh) and the state would be spending $200 million to mitigate this through various stuff (okay) — though honestly it’s hard to get much out of the plan beyond its dedication to all-caps type, seriously don’t do that unless you want to make it harder for readers to comprehend what you’re saying … oh.
- Former D.C. councilmember Jack Evans wrote a whole op-ed for the Washington Business Journal saying that the Alexandria arena deal would be a terrible one because it involves “extremely risky” TIFs, which isn’t necessarily wrong but is hilarious if you remember who Jack Evans is and why he’s now a former councilmember. (If you don’t remember Evans, just luxuriate in the part where he cites the more than 20 TIF deals he consummated while on the council as evidence that he knows how awful they can be.)
- Slate’s David Faris, meanwhile, thinks D.C. should let the Wizards and Capitals leave and let Virginia stick itself with the arena costs, because the teams and their limited economic impact aren’t worth it. Mostly I want to call attention to Faris’s suggestion that stadium and arena deals are subject to “a sports version of Fenno’s paradox — the political science finding that people generally like their own representative while disapproving of the job Congress is doing” — which I’m not sure is actually the case, since in my experience people tend to get the maddest about their own cities’ sports subsidies, but it’s an interesting concept.
- Could the Oakland A’s disband for three seasons, leaving MLB with only 29 teams, then emerge fully formed in Las Vegas as a beautiful expansion butterfly? You could take my word for it (hahaha no), or you could read Awful Announcing’s lengthier consideration of the possibility (the players’ union would have to sign off on losing 40 major-league jobs for three years, fewer teams would mean fewer games and would affect TV contracts, hahaha no).
- The actual likeliest locations of the A’s until their Vegas stadium is ready (if their Vegas stadium is ever ready, add Ken Rosenthal to the list of doubters) is thought to be either Salt Lake City or Sacramento, but either would require temporarily rejiggering the A’s TV rights situation, which “is gumming up a resolution,” writes ESPN’s Jeff Passan. I know A’s owner John Fisher claims he fell in love with Las Vegas and really wants to move there, but it does seem more and more like he stumbled into committing to a move through his stadium czar Dave Kaval’s loose lips and is only now trying to figure out how it will actually work.
- Could the Arizona Coyotes move to Salt Lake City as soon as “immediately”? Rumors say so, and just because the same rumors said so last summer and nothing happened then doesn’t mean they couldn’t be right now, right?
- “Levi’s to pay 49ers, Santa Clara $170M to make stadium signs slightly bigger” is a funny headline, but it’s not actually true, since Levi’s will be paying the San Francisco 49ers and Santa Clara $170 million for a ten-year extension of their naming rights deal, which is only partly motivated by wanting to make their stadium signs bigger before the 2026 Super Bowl and World Cup. Good on the city for getting at least a share of the naming rights money when many cities don’t, that’ll help make up for the money they’re losing from the team owners winning their case that they only have to pay half of the property taxes on the stadium.
- State Treasurer Dereck Davis said, “I feel lied to,” after learning that Baltimore Orioles owner John Angelos had agreed to sell his team just weeks after promising he wasn’t going to sell his team in order to get a new sweetheart lease deal from the state, that seems a very valid feeling to have. Maybe the state should have put a poison pill clause in the lease making it null and void if Angelos went back on his word? Oh well, too late now, maybe next time.
- The people who want to bring an MLB expansion team to Portland, Oregon might buy a golf course to use for a stadium that would be paid for somehow for a team that only exists in their dreams. At least they’ll always have their outfield tram renderings.
- A bill to lure the Chicago Bears across state lines to Indiana now has two sponsors in the state house instead of one. Further updates as events warrant.
Events are unlikely to warrant.
It’s not too late for MLB to develop some common sense and finally open up $an Jose to the A’s. Work out a deal with the giants and keep them in the Uber-wealthy Bay Area; end this nonsense once and for all!
It’s also not too late for John Fisher to realize he is an idiot who also hired an idiot to do his big dog power play for him… and that he really needs to go back to the city of Oakland and work something out on the 150+ acre stadium site he sort of kind of half owns if he finally pays out the remaining amount he owes on the half site he doesn’t actually own yet.
Which of the following is more likely?
That Manfred and co pee in their employer’s corn flakes?
Or that one owner who nobody likes (for good reason) is told to make a deal the best deal he can or sell?
Neither is particularly likely, I agree, but I know which one I’d be leaning towards. And there is certainly precedent for MLB compelling the sale of franchise that has fallen into the hands of an owner that is making them all look bad (and, arguably, enriching himself at other owners’ expense). McCourt/Schott et al.
I agree that the manner in which the Giants ‘acquired’ San Jose as part of their territory was dishonest and MLB’s rulings on this matter have not been entirely fair. However, if you read the letter that the Haas family wrote to then-MLB commissioner you can see why it happened.
Any lawyer (even one of you-know-who’s) worth a damn would not have written that letter (I am fairly sure from the language that a lawyer never saw it). The agreement would and should have been structured as a territory exchange – probably with a fixed window to exercise the option – and not a gift.
The Haas family didn’t do that, however. What they actually intended is unclear, but the letter itself effectively gifts the territory to the Giants without condition.
I will concede that the Giants (and MLBs) conduct in this matter may not have been honourable.
On the other hand, if the Haas family had deeded the territory of San Jose (at least in MLB terms) to ME instead of the Giants, I can honestly tell you I wouldn’t have refused it or surrendered it without some compensation decades later.
It seems likely that Fisher won’t go back to Oakland at this point even if it costs him money, just to save face. And other MLB owners understand that motivation all too well, so aren’t likely to force him to do so if he can park the team in Salt Lake or Sacramento or Greensboro for three years.
If the Vegas stadium deal actually falls apart, I honestly don’t know what happens. MLB arm-twisting Fisher to sell the team at that point makes a lot of sense, and then the A’s really could end up anywhere, with Oakland the likely front-runner.
I would say it’s more likely that they build in Vegas, find out after the fact that it’s too small and MLB have to make a special Las Vegas rules specific to the new stadium.
Bettman has his pre-All-Star game presser scheduled for 11:30 EST today.
Will the rumors of relocation hold true?
And make the all star weekend all about the Coyotes instead of the All Star game?
Seems to me he wasn’t very happy with Melnyk when something similar happened in Ottawa years ago…
But it’s the NHL… so you are right, anything is technically possible…
The VGK winning a Cup was literally overshadowed by Coyotes drama, so it could happen.
Hockey has much bigger things to discuss right now. The Hockey Canada thing, the future of international games, and the current season.
I was just thinking that maybe I can build a pickleball court in my backyard that will host some professional tournaments. Then I can get the state to cough up money for its construction. And then I can pay half of the property tax I’m paying now.
Now I’m thinking like a billionaire owner!
How many jobs will it create? (Remember to add “thousand” to whatever number the dart hits.)
At least 10,000! I plan on opening up a B&B too! Smirk.
Just think of the NIMBYs that will come out against this!
You need to start contributing to your local politician’s campaign funds first, you know, just to get things started.
Then, start meeting with them behind closed doors, too.
And, do not forget, as the owner, you need a sleazy, used car salesman as your front man to talk to the public of all the benefits your pickleball court will bring, as this will be a totally privately/publicly funded partnership.
I know David Samson lives in south Florida. Maybe I’ll give him a call.
I’m with the NIMBYs. Pickleball is tennis’s loud drunken cousin. Just about the only sport people play with a wine glass in one hand.
I mean, it’s fun. Tennis is not fun when your tired old ass can barely cover half the baseline. They are actively working to fix the noise and are developing quiet rackets and balls. The only reason people didn’t complain about the noise from tennis courts before is no one uses them. Because squeaky shoes are easily as annoying as pickleball.
Is that Coyotes-to-Utah article AI? It reads weird throughout but particularly here:
“The reason behind speculations of moving to Utah can also be due to the new arena in Arizona reportedly boasting no bearings.”
WTH does “boasting no bearings” mean? And that’s sort of the primary justification the article offers as to why relocation could occur.
I’m guessing it means “nothing is happening on the arena front”. MIA Meruelo and Xavier are silent (as usual), and the alleged ASG deadline is here.
AI would know enough not to think that “boasting no bearings” is not a phrase that occurs in English syntax.
This reminds me, though, that I neglected to call out the Sactown Sports article linked above about the A’s rumored hiatus for including the sentence “Owner John Fisher and the A’s organization were granted $380 in public funding for construction in 2023.”
Joe, you ask a great question.
I am beginning to wonder if this whole A’s to Vegas thing might be some sort of AI derived plan too. It makes about as much financial sense as anything spat out by an algorithm that doesn’t understand (or just ignores) how nothing matters but how much of other people’s money MLB gets.
Moving from the 10th largest market to one outside the top 40.
Moving from a place where a new stadium could be close to free and the infrastructure mostly exists to one where the stadium will cost the owners $1bn net, no infrastructure exists and no-one is certain a stadium will fit.
Moving from a district in which the rsn rights are worth $70m to one where they could well be worth less than half that.
“Check” on all counts.
As a leading AI researcher recently said, “I am less worried about the impact of artificial intelligence on humanity than I am about the impact of natural stupidity”.
Wouldn’t it be funny if (idiot) Fisher’s deal with (idiot) Kaval included a provision that Kaval must indemnify Fisher from any negative financial consequences of a failure (business or otherwise) on the part of Diamond Dave’s master plan to move to Vegas?
The bigger idiot theory, mano-a-mano, toe to toe, head to head…. a battle of wits among two parties that are completely unarmed…
“Well, I got ‘er done, John”
“Yeah, but it’s a total disaster”
“Yeah, but the contract doesn’t say it has to work in any meaningful way, just that I would get you to Vegas”
“But I’ll go broke following this catastrophic plan”
“There’s no language in the contract around that. You hired me to get you to Vegas and I did”
“but….”
Some news reports (AP and others) yesterday that the closing and demolition of the Tropicana is now firmly scheduled for April.
Though you can still book rooms…
The pause that Bettman makes, does not make one very ‘confident’ in his actual statement.
https://twitter.com/leahmerrall/status/1753503836998684834
No, sorry, the idea of the A’s going on hiatus for 3+ years doesn’t pass the smell test. Demonstrating that the league can operate down one team for multiple years in a row is not logically compatible* with the emerging complaints that the actual realized sale price for the Orioles is somehow low. $1.7 billion is cash that’s apparently, for sure, changing hands, not some pie-in-the-sky number dreamed up by a bored Forbes writer! And apparently that deal also includes the development rights for the area surrounding the stadium, which we’re led to believe is oh-so-crucial to a baseball team’s success in the 21st century?
You don’t make that number go up by allowing a team to both be homeless and play hooky for years at a time. If anything, that would tell potential buyers that MLB could stand contraction better than expansion. And I firmly believe that minor-league contraction was already a bid to bolster the valuation of the major league teams.
*I am making the seriously suspect assumption that major league owners operate logically. This assumption is clearly not supported by real-world evidence.
Whenever they get around to it- MLB will have missed the best expansion window. Any expansion cities will be fairly small, much smaller then say the Twin Cities or Phoenix (both without regional TV deals). The Yankees and Dodgers will always have robust local tv money (or streaming money if it comes to that), the other franchises won’t. The streaming future is particularly bleak for an expansion franchise, why should anyone buy a streaming service for a team they have no history with, regional solidarity?
On top of that the Orioles sale is super low if the expansion plan was for $2+ billion per team. The O’s just got a huge subsidy from the state and the rights to develop several parking lots around the park. $1.77 billion is definitely a number the other owners are mad about (John Fisher was rumored to be trying to sell 25% of the Las Vegas A’s for $500 million!).
The 31 team idea is preposterous, as one team will need to be idle. What team is going to willingly surrender Independence Day, Labor Day, etc, much less a weekend in nice weather?
*idle every day of the season*
Sorry, a bit of PEBKAC today
You’re also off by two teams — MLB has only 30 currently. (Agreed on the one idle team being logistically impossible, though, especially in a sport that plays multi-game series.)
So that’s it?
You are just giving up on Greensboro as major sports hub ripe for expansion (to any, err, better make that all, leagues?)
I am looking forward to the natural rivalry they will have with the Fresno Fresnans/Yosemites…
The Sactown Sports article shows where sports radio is in this country (and has been for a bit). Just make stuff up to fill time. It was never realistic, if for no other reason than you can’t schedule with 29 teams. (A minor league I knew once had an odd number of teams, but they were all relatively close and they got around it with doubleheaders that featured three teams – the home team would play one team and then the other – but that would be tedious and impossible.)
But, yeah, the union would never go for it, it makes no sense whatsoever. Can’t be done.
The A’s playing all their games on the road for three years makes more sense. It’s almost certainly not going to happen either, but it’s more likely than going on hiatus.
Finally! The Hartford Road Goats would get their moment in the MLB sun…
In all seriousness, though, there would be some justice in Failson Fisher moving the team to farm the mlb welfare subsidy and then losing a similar amount in RSN or local streaming revenue as he gains in welfare payments.
Would you want to take a guess what LV rsn rights might actually be worth to the A’s?
I am assuming they won’t have to pay any of the existing teams for moving in to their somewhat distant territory, but even so… it seems like a significant money loser for the franchise.
There’s technically not an RSN in Vegas to sell the rights to. So they would have to get someone to start one or start their own.
In the middle of last season, the RSN doing the golden knights stopped broadcasting. This season they’re on a free broadcast station. If the Twins and D-Backs can’t get a broadcaster I highly doubt anyone is clamoring for the Las Vegas A’s. Not to mention that the actual region would be incredibly small (state of Nevada + southern Utah?).
The most likely home for the A’s on TV is Scripps Sports.
As the comment above notes, the cable RSN that operated in Nevada (AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain) stopped operating when WBD exited the RSN business.
Scripps formed a sports division in 2022, bought the rights to broadcast the VGK and now broadcasts them on free over-the-air television on a network that has KMCC Vegas 34 as its flagship but extends to local TV stations in Reno, Boise and Provo/SLC.
They are the most obvious choice for a broadcast partner, as both SLC and Vegas are in their regional focus (so they could play those interim years in SLC and then move to Vegas, and stay on the same quasi-network).
Utah get your hands away from my future NHL relocation team in Houston, Texas.
Footnote: To be called the Houston Aeros and Gordie Howe will come back from the dead to play right wing.
I think Coyotes relocation will hinge on Ryan Smith being a much easier person to deal with then Tillman Fertita.
Eventually time has to run out on the Coyotes at some point. I doubt Ryan Smith would have gone public if the NHL didn’t say it was ok. Otherwise he would have wound up in the same situation as Balsillie.
A’s aren’t moving because they’re in a bad situation, IMO…its’ to either get big money from L.V. or make the team so valuable Mr. Fischer can sell it.
The A’s have made fools of the fans but not themselves, they’re purposely making the team look terrible and the city of Oakland a bad place they aren’t the first A’s owners to want to move but they’re the first in Oakland to ever have a whole coliseum to themselves and, another area if that didn’t work out.
They make motto’s and big talk about Oakland then try to put down on that city, stall out a deal and now want to go where the Raiders are stressing out Mark Davis after saying the Raiders were ruining the coliseum for them. They have a very strange plan to move into a place way to small to be comfortable in.
This is what the MLB is supporting leaving a bigger market for a smaller one in a too small stadium its’ greedy its a bad plan, its unfair to the fans, it doesn’t look like its a comfortable stadium and its’ sad.