Some days you just want to sit and laugh at Rob Manfred, and today is definitely one of those days. Take it away, Mr. Baseball Commissioner:
The Las Vegas Stadium Authority approved lease, non-relocation and development documents in December to clear the last major hurdles for the A’s to construct a $1.75 billion stadium on the Strip. Details remain to be worked out, such as a development agreement with Clark County, but groundbreaking likely will take place in the spring to allow a 2028 opening.
“I don’t think the timeline has changed,” Manfred said. “I believe we’re going to be on time to go in 2028.”
Hand it to Manfred for once: Instead of mumbling his way through an explanation of the A’s possible move to Las Vegas as is his wont, he gave a simple declarative statement that can be passed off as news while appending it with “I don’t think” and “I believe” to maintain plausible deniability if it turns out he was talking out his ass. (Or out A’s owner John Fisher’s ass, in this case, since that’s who still has one small hurdle to clear in building a Las Vegas stadium.) That’s some quality commissionering, got anything else on any other team owners’ stadium dreams?
“I think that the reality of today’s economics is that either building or renovating a stadium almost by definition has to be a public-private partnership. I give [Arizona Diamondbacks CEO] Derrick [Hall] and [owner] Ken [Kendrick] a lot of credit for trying to be creative, making sure we have a facility here in Arizona that’s good for the long term.”
Does it, though? If a new stadium almost by definition costs more than it will bring in in new team revenues, then what it is about the old stadium that isn’t good for the long term — oh, sorry, you said “I think,” that’s your get-out-of-fact-checking-free card, my bad.
Looks like we have time for just one more:
“The industry owes Hal Steinbrenner a real debt of gratitude,” Manfred said of the Yankees owner. “He put literally tens of millions of dollars into improving Steinbrenner Field and the first people who are really going to get to use it for any period of time is the Tampa Bay Rays.”
Maybe not literally tens of millions of dollars on this go-round — perhaps you’re thinking of the previous $40 million renovation, which was mostly paid for by the state and city? If only you had said “I believe” first, but it’s okay, we have some lovely parting gifts.
>Some days you just want to sit and laugh at Rob Manfred…
‘Some’ days? More like every day. But then, that’s what happens when you have a baseball commissioner who doesn’t like baseball.
Rob Manfred is the Gary Bettman of Bowie Kuhns.
YOU GET CREDIT FOR BEING FUNNY AND RIGHT.
It’s likely my age but the only commissioner across major North American sports still seems to be Pete Rozelle. Of course, the owners are happy to have a useless clown like Manfred in place.
It’s likely my age but the only commissioner across major North American sports who seems to be good for the sport was Pete Rozelle. Of course, the owners are happy to have a useless clown like Manfred in place.
He was among the last of the league commissioners who didn’t explicitly work for the owners. Now the four across the “major” leagues are just paid bodyguards/wealth protectors/extortionists for the franchise ownership class.
Rob Manfred might be the most unpolished speaker/interview to serve as a commish in recent memory, but even those “blunders” serve to deflect from the real villainy at hand.
Anyone who thinks Rozelle was a god doesn’t remember the NFL of the 1980s. Two strikes by the players’ union, teams hopscotching, drug scandals, a collapse in the league’s TV audience. It was so screwed up that Donald Trump turned down an opportunity to acquire the Dallas Cowboys when they were sinking in debt.
I am quite sure he claims he turned down the NFL. In fact there are several hagiographic articles written around/during his first term that state this as fact. But he wasn’t welcome in the NFL in 1984 – just as he wasn’t in 2015.
No sane person (insert your own joke here) would have bought a USFL franchise for $10m when you could own the Cowboys (even then, yes, losing $1m a month…) for $50m.
He is lying when he says that. He does that alot. He might have made an offer of $50m – which was rejected outright. Whether he COULD have actually raised the $50m to buy them is another matter. As with everything else related to his businesses, how much he says they are worth and how much they are actually worth net of obligations are two completely different things.
In the end, as I recall, a group led by Bum Bright bought them from Murchison for $85m. Who knows, if he hadn’t been hurt by the Savings & Loan crisis/scandal/fraud… (or as I like to think of it, the ‘dry run’ for the ’08/09 bust out perpetrated on the citizens of the world by a handful of bankers) maybe he would still own them.
Trump never would have, that’s for sure.
BTW – the closest comparable sales (of the Chargers – who like the Cowboys in 1984 were still quite good – and the Saints) both went for $70m around the same time.
A decade later the Jags and Panthers paid $140m as expansion fees – more or less what Jones had paid for the Cowboys five years earlier.
Trump was linked with the Cowboys in autumn 1988. He tried to acquire the New England Patriots the previous off-season but that fell through.
Manfred is learning from Donald Trump. Make up anything you want.
I WANT TO BELIEVE… Agent Mulder was chasing flying saucers when he should have been on the lookout for inflatable armadillos
RIP Fay Vincent. And Bart Giamatti, while we’re at it.
Those names show how very, very far we have fallen.
… and while we are on the subject of commissioners… from Vincent’s farewell speech/memo:
“To do the job without angering an owner is impossible. I can’t make all twenty-eight of my bosses happy. People have told me I’m the last commissioner. If so, it’s a sad thing. I hope they [the owners] learn this lesson before too much damage is done.”
They didn’t.
What the commissioner did to the people of Oakland and there great fan base is horrible, the fans are the last thing the commissioner and the 30 other owners think of, to leave the perfect weather in Oakland with natural grass for astroturf dome is not the best for baseball, when the A’s had an owner who cared they had one of the best attendance in baseball
They could be supporting Manchester United, who are stigginit to their fanbase for the financial mismanagement of the club’s current owners. United happen to be a “super league” club contending for trophies in England and Europe.
That’s adorable that you think Man U is contending for any trophies.
Man Utd are through to the last 16 of the FA Cup and the last 16 of the Europa League.
Roger Goodell is barely a figurehead who takes his marching orders from Jerry Jerky Jones attorney. Those 1987 replacement players are still a good joke.
The real-life replacements were playing in Pete Rozelle’s NFL. Last time I looked, Rozelle is still dead.
What was Paul Westerberg’s rushing yardage?