I’ve been steering clear of the news of the FBI raid on Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home last month, because it’s at best a stadium-adjacent story. But now that people are openly speculating that if Thao is removed from office it could lead to A’s owner John Fisher reopening talks to return his team to Oakland, I guess we should do one of those fake Q&As that everyone loves so much:
Why did the FBI raid Mayor Thao’s home exactly?
The agency isn’t saying. But at the same time they raided Thao’s home, they also raided the homes of the owners of a recycling management company that has a history of questions about campaign-funds money laundering and maybe shooting at a former business partner, so people are connecting the dots.
Does this mean Thao will have to step down?
No, but it certainly doesn’t help her chances of surviving a recall election that opponents just got approved for the November ballot.
Why the recall vote?
According to those behind it, they’re upset about crime, the A’s leaving, and Thao’s firing of police chief LaRonne Armstrong. Brenda Harbin-Forte, the former police commissioner who launched the recall push, says it has absolutely nothing to do with Thao declining to reappoint her to the police commission after police reformers called for her removal.
What does any of this have to do with the A’s?
Fisher’s decision to cut ties with Oakland came after Thao’s administration pushed him for increased rent payments to keep playing at the Oakland Coliseum while awaiting a Las Vegas stadium deal. Last week, San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist Scott Ostler suggested “there is a scenario in which the A’s, who swear their plans to move to Las Vegas are on schedule, could flip a U-turn and come back to the Town where they belong” and reported that “sources close to Oakland politics tell us that if the Town were to get a new mayor, the change might provide an opportunity for the A’s and Oakland to discuss a reunion.”
Isn’t that pretty weak tea?
Ostler calls this a “long shot, sure, but a shot,” so, yes.
What’s going on with Fisher’s long-term plans to move the A’s to Vegas and short-term plans to move them to Sacramento?
Glad you asked! There’s still been no real activity on a new Las Vegas stadium, while Fisher figures out whether he can raise $1 billion by selling team stock or borrowing it from lenders or asking his family members for it. (Fisher also just got turned down yesterday in his attempt to intervene in the suit charging that Nevada’s funding for the stadium is unconstitutional.) The move next year to Sacramento, meanwhile, remains on track, though people are increasingly clowning on Fisher for not having noticed what daytime temperatures in Sacramento are like during baseball season.
So that’s all we’ve got? A mayor who might get recalled and some “sources” and one columnist speculating?
It’s a holiday week, you take what you can get. Speaking of which, unless something major happens in the next two days, no Friday roundup this week, the news was too light to warrant rounding up, see everyone back here on Monday!
Finally! A light news week in welfare for billionaires (well, at least the sports franchise owning ones…)
I guess most of us are probably wondering about the old “where there’s smoke there’s fire” adage in relation to this story. Having said that, I think we all are keenly aware that where ‘someone important and/or rich’ wants there to be fire, they will make sure there is a lot of smoke and associated press coverage.
I don’t know what Thao and her people did or didn’t do. I guess one day we might find out, or her reputation might just be so tarred with this that she gets booted out of office and is not heard from again regardless of whether she did anything wrong or not. Because democracy.
I take issue with the notion that Failson Fisher cut ties with Oakland in any way because of Thao’s election or negotiating position. He has done nothing but trash Oakland as a host site since he bought the team. He was no less adamant about leaving when Schaaf was in office, he just didn’t have some suckers on the line in Vegas willing to pay him to move his pathetic franchise there. The only thing the present administration in Oakland did in any way differently is they drew the line on HT at $495m. Schaaf pretty much did that too, but did also pretend to “keep looking” for extra cash.
Once Fisher and his chief incompetent strategist Kaval had negotiated their ludicrously bad deal with Vegas (and for less money than they had on offer in Oakland), Thao’s staff did take a hard line on negotiations. Why shouldn’t they? Once Fisher had announced he was leaving, as the Oakland reps said, “we are under no obligation to house you”.
To say anything else would be to allow someone who is divorcing you to continue living in your house while you pay their bills. Madness.
I think Ostler is grasping at very, very flimsy straws and he knows it. It doesn’t matter who the Oakland mayor is (unless it’s Oscar Goodman… it’s not going to be Oscar Goodman is it?), Fisher is not coming back and would not be welcome if he did.
A different owner would be a completely different story. That could lead to a deal in Oakland (regardless who the mayor is) in short order. But that is not going to happen either.
John Fisher and sideshow dave are Sacramento’s problem now. Whether they ever leave Sacramento is another matter.
Good luck and good riddance boys! No-one in Oakland will miss you or your staggering dishonesty and bad faith dealings.
I don’t think Fisher gives two craps about who is the mayor of Oakland. I do believe he’s using the Thao news as a face-saving excuse to come back to the negotiating table with Oakland as a hedge on Las Vegas. That’s all. If Vegas falls through – and we’ve gone over all the ways it can before – then Oakland remains an option. Or, maybe more accurately, Oakland remains an option to whoever is owning the team at that time. If Vegas falls through and he needs to sell, his club is more valuable even in a decrepit possum hole in Oakland than in a AAA park in Sacramento or Vegas. I wouldn’t put it past him to float this out there just to say the door isn’t entirely closed on the East Bay. But like everything Fisher does, it’s incredibly ham-handed.
The other, much funnier, theory is he thinks he can somehow sway an election against a mayor who insulted them by dangling the A’s in front of Oakland voters. Which, hoo boy, if he really thinks he has any political capital in Oakland he must be truly delusional.
I don’t think Fisher is using this for anything, or else Ostler would have said “sources close to the team” rather than “close to Oakland politics.”
Ah, missed that part, thought it was a “team source.”
I just realized that starting next year, news outlets are going to begin referring to the team as the (formerly Oakland) Athletics, much like they still refer to X (formerly Twitter). And the team’s performance will all-too-likely reinforce that parallel.
If we don’t see movement on Fisher selling his 50% of the Coliseum by the end of the year, I’m going to start to think that he’s holding onto it as a parachute option for the [s]sucker[/s]future owner who buys the team off him to begin resolving the trainwreck. The sale of the city’s interest to AASEG was Thao’s baby, as she emphasized during her press conference. Although I can’t see how her potential removal would shake that up; that’s money on the city’s books no matter what.
“Live from Tustin, we present the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim!”
Man, I can’t tell you how sad I am the Tustin move didn’t happen… but we still hold out hope for Torrance or the city of Industry… there’s always Irvine, El Cerrito or Temecula… the world is Arte Moreno’s oyster… so long as it’s outside of Los Angeles proper.
The last time I was down there, they had some big sign up at the city limits with Irvine advertising TUSTIN LEGACY. Legacy of what??? The biggest landmark I was there to see was the sole West Coast outpost of Micro Center…
Planned community/ neighborhood. That’s where The District is.
The Tustin Legacy is a planned development on the site of the former Marine Corps Air Station. That Marine base also included two hangars that at the time of construction were the largest wood structures in the world. Since the Marine base closed, the hangars have been used for filming (the first Kelvin timeline Star Trek movie was shot there), airship servicing, raves, and other uses. Sadly, one of the hangars burned down last year. The other one as far as I know does not yet have a permanent reuse plan.
John,
Leave El Cerrito out of this, it’s more of an Albany thing.
LOL!
“The sale of the city’s interest to AASEG was Thao’s baby….” That’s not entirely true and I respectfully disagree. I witnessed nearly all the meetings. The potential sale was floated in front of City Council as early as 6/10/21. The ENA was approved on 11/16/21. The sale was initially proposed by Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan; subsequently CM Noel Gallo added his name as a sponsor. They also represented the City in the controlling JPA along with reps from the county. CM Thao had no significant involvement. This all went down when Schaff was mayor and pimping the pipe-dream Howard Terminal park. Thao was voted in as mayor a year later, 11/22, and took office in 1/23.
As with Oakland’s crime problems, homelessness and escalating debt, Thao did not create these problems. They were dumped in her lap. Fisher and his team ceased meaningful negotiation with the City during the prior administration. Ex-Mayor Schaff and her shadow puppets (ex-CM Loren Taylor, ex-spokeman Justin Berton, etc.) have been actively sabotaging Thao’s administration from the very start and are aligned with operatives with questionable motives.
There’s a hell of a lot of racism involved in the anti-Thao campaign, including racism from directions one may not expect. The majority of the recall rallies are staged press events, yelling to a crowd which simply does not exist. What I read in our local press rarely tallies with reality. It’s all pretty ugly. If Fisher follows pattern, his continuing policy will be full-on Les Grossman scorched-earth. Fortunately we have a wealth of other entertainment options and the weather here is pretty good.
Have a nice weekend.
I stand corrected.
I had wondered when we might hear about Schaaf angling for higher office, and lo and behold, I just discovered she’s running for CA state treasurer. How about that?
That is correct. Currently unopposed, but that election isn’t until 2026. And she’s under financial hanky-panky investigation herself. Big machine politics, foxes and hen-houses, don’t get me started.
FWIW, the mayoral recall campaign has itself been sued for refusing to comply with records-disclosure requests from the city’s Public Ethics Commission
https://oaklandside.org/2024/07/01/recall-sheng-thao-campaign-ethics-commission-lawsuit/
However this shakes out for Oakland politically, Fisher managed to get a place to play for at least 2-3 years FOR FREE, so I’d be surprised if they returned to the negotiating table for any circumstance short of the Vegas $$ getting tossed out in court (or via referendum?).
Unsurprising. The people pushing to recall Thao seem far more shady than Thao herself. I suspect the ultimate outcome may simply confirm that Thao, a relative neophyte, was the victim of working without a significant political machine backing her up. This is going way off topic for this blog, but if anybody out there believes that the FBI isn’t political, they’re ignoring a lot of history.
Agreed that Fisher himself never comes back to the table in Oakland. His big land grab failed, and that was more important than the fate of the team. It would have to be a new ownership group who’s turned off by both Sacramento and Vegas.
I don’t know much about Thao, but I believe two things can be true at once:
– the Mayor may be involved in corruption. She certainly wouldn’t be the first, nor the last.
– the recall campaign against her, like the vast majority of recall campaigns, is powered by jilted, deep-pocketed insiders with an ax to grind who don’t really care about the public good.
The FBI indeed has a checkered history, but politicians also have a long history of getting caught for corruption in the dumbest ways possible.
“…Thao, a relative neophyte, was the victim of working without a significant political machine backing her up.” That is correct, and you could go further – a significant political machine has been actively stabbing her in her back.
And per Ian below, “the recall campaign against her, like the vast majority of recall campaigns, is powered by jilted, deep-pocketed insiders with an ax to grind who don’t really care about the public good.” Jilted insiders, yes, but the shady recall campaign appears to have received substantial contributions from outside sources and are under local investigation for refusing to divulge their donor information. The ongoing FBI investigation into illegal campaign funding goes way beyond Thao and every local politician knows this.
Well again, this all kind’a was started by the NFL and it was from Oakland that it got going.
The Rams, Dolphins and Cowboys started the new stadium talk and actually moved then Al Davis owner of the Raiders got it going with lawsuits and court battles.
The NFL tried to force him to stay in Oakland but now both the MLB and NFL are helping to take Oakland’s pro sports teams.
The MLB knows how ridiculous this move to L.V. is! a stadium on nine acres of land?- really!?
The A’s don’t want anything more than a way to make the team more valuable in case the Fischers/ Wolfes want to sell it. MLB is thinking Sac or Vegas new stadium they know its’ a terrible move to go to L.V. but they don’t want to be in Oakland. If they’d stay in Oakland the A’s could pay for a great stadium there and maybe make it fun for fans to visit.
Oakland has a lot to offer and it was the place where most of this “franchise free agency” started.
Hey Neil, don’t know if you saw the details of the proposed deal between SLC and SEG over the proposed $900 million half-cent sales tax increase, but I’d love to hear your thoughts:
https://www.ksl.com/article/51061494/delta-center-renovation-timeline-other-key-details-released-ahead-of-possible-salt-lake-vote
The ticket fee surcharge to go into a city fund to pay for affordable housing almost seems too cute by half for me to understand. Why not just use the sales tax revenue to fund it directly? My concern over these sorts of trade backs is it seems like SEG gets the sales tax revenue no matter what, but if the teams stink and ticket sales fall through the floor then the city is left holding the bag on a funding shortfall.
I believe that is the point of these ticket tax deals. If all goes well, the fans are paying for the arena. But if not, the public picks up the slack.
It keeps getting worse, for Mayor Thao:
Sheng Thao’s Romantic Partner Now Appears Ensnared In FBI Investigation, Too
https://sfist.com/2024/07/08/sheng-thaos-romantic-partner-now-appears-ensnared-in-fbi-investigation-too/
Ensnared is one of those words only used in headlines.
Gee whiz. “I read the news today, oh boy” is now passing as journalism. These two articles may be more informative:
https://oaklandside.org/2024/07/08/fbi-subpoena-oakland-mayor-duong-california-waste-solutions/
https://oaklandside.org/2024/07/08/oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-recall-fbi/
This has very, very little to do with ballparks apart from this nugget of hearsay:
“She cannot be held responsible for the A’s,” said [Former Oakland City Administrator] Lindheim, who recalled previous owner Lew Wolff telling Jerry Brown, when he was mayor in the 2000s, that the team was already on its way out.
(PS – Sorry to hear about the Covid, Neil. It’s still traveling around, get well soon.)
“there is no Oakland option” Lew Wolff, c2009
and that was less than 5 years after buying part of the club with the express intention of keeping it in the Bay Area.
That was when he was trying to go where was it, Fremont?
All public owner pronouncements are at least in part PR gambits, so it’s hard to know how much to take them seriously.
It’s not about the mayor, it’s about the crime. Last weekend, a gas station/C-store near the Oakland Coliseum was looted in a flash-mob robbery. Police didn’t respond for nearly 9 hours because they were dealing with a 100-car sideshow near the airport. All that happened 2 weeks after a Juneteenth celebration at Lake Merritt was shot up.
The A’s will be glad they’re getting out of Oaktown while they can.
Or, you know, not:
https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/heres-what-latest-data-says-about-oaklands-crime-rates/
Crime *fears* are definitely up, as are property crimes like theft. Everything else is down.
“WTH is going on with Oakland’s mayor (and the Athletics’ future)?”
1) Thao will be removed from office via a recall vote.
2) Fisher doesn’t care because he is too busy pitting Sacramento against Las Vegas to get as much stadium subsidy, public and/or private, as he can get. Vegas seems oblivious to the threat of Vivek Ranadive putting up the money to keep the A’s in Sacramento, but it is a real threat.