Oakland------>Las Vegas

Duh!

“I want to go to see my baseball team play in Oakland.”, said nobody ever. No one in NYC or LA flew to see the Yankees or Angels play the Oakland A’s in Oakland.

Finally, the A’s ended the drama and signed a definitive agreement to move to Las Vegas following the Raiders. They will build a new retractable dome stadium near the Strip.

It’s the right move. Look at the Vegas Golden Knights. They make money hand over fist. You can find all kinds of things about Vegas you don’t like but on my first trip here back in the early 1990s what was smarmy and lovely about it is that capitalism rules. If you have the money, you can get whatever you want.

When I was growing up, the A’s were one of the best franchises in baseball. Charlie Finley was cheap and wouldn’t pay his players, and since then they have been mostly down. They had a few good years when Tony LaRussa managed them, but even back in the early 1970s people thought their stadium was a hindrance, not a help.

I just went to Dodger Stadium for the first time to see my beloved Cubs and it was a pretty nice ballpark. It’s a huge ballpark and because it is so big, the Dodgers have a lot of money to spend on players. The biggest problem with Dodger Stadium is the driving in and driving out.

The sight lines are really good. We sat in the Loge. The upper deck at Chavez Ravine looks pretty steep. Different to be in a ballpark with a lot of room on the foul lines as opposed to Wrigley or even the other ballpark in Chicago.

If I were the A’s, I’d swap my Triple-A team and major league team next season. The Las Vegas Ballpark holds roughly 10k people. The A’s averaged just 9,973 fans in 2022 and 8,767 in 2021 – well below the 20,521 average the team posted in 2019. Move the Aviators to Oakland, and the A’s to Vegas. The past couple of nights at A’s games, there were less than 5000. They were playing the Cubs too, and the Cubs swept them. The Cubs have a large national fanbase. It’s not as big as the Yankees but having an NL team that doesn’t play that often in your town should be a draw. Now that the A’s have signed the deal to move, attendance will dwindle further. The city of Oakland also has zero incentive to do anything to keep its ballpark in good working order.

To be clear, it is not A’s fans that are the problem. It’s the governments of Oakland, San Franciso, the counties they reside in, and the state of California. They are intentionally running that state into the ground. It’s becoming unlivable for normal humans.

"For more than 20 years, the A’s have focused on securing a new home for the club, and have invested unprecedented time and resources for the past six years to build a ballpark in Oakland," the team said in its statement. "Even with support from fans, leaders at the city, county, and state level, and throughout the broader community, the process to build a new ballpark in Oakland has made little forward progress for some time. We have made a strong and sincere effort to stay here.

Just like hundreds of thousands of people and other businesses that are fleeing the state, the A’s are following.

Nevada is a 0% tax state, which should be a draw for major league players since their “all in” tax on salary will go down. The same can be said for employees of the A’s.

The A’s could set up big screens outside the park for fans that couldn’t get tickets and have a party. Sell merchandise, food, and bands, and have the mascot come out and take photos with kids. They have a pretty crappy team right now, but once the ballpark is finished and the cash flows start changing, I suspect that will change too.

One tip for the A’s. Build a big ass parking garage that is attached to the stadium. The Raiders totally screwed that up when they built Allegiant Stadium. Keep this logo. Perfect for Vegas!