Kurtenbach to A’s owner John Fisher: Good riddance!
The A’s — baseball’s worst team and the worst-run organization in professional sports — decided they could not build a new ballpark in Oakland, so they’re heading to a truck stop in Nevada.
Good riddance.
The news that the A’s had bought land in Las Vegas to build a new ballpark (that the A’s will ask someone else to pay for) is a gut punch to fans of the green and gold and the East Bay community as a whole. Only a few months ago, there was an optimism that things just might work out.
But squandering hope is all this A’s organization seems capable of doing.
And while it’s ridiculous that the East Bay will be left without a major professional sports team, it’s also ridiculous to pine for the A’s to stay.
Yes, there’s a great history here. There was a dynasty, Rickey Henderson, the Bash Brothers, the Big Three, the Streak, and 21 postseason berths. But anything worth remembering came under different leadership. The A’s that were worth saving — worth a fight — ceased to exist when John Fisher took over as the team’s full owner after the 2016 season.
Fisher has proven, time and time again, that he doesn’t care about Oakland, the East Bay, or the A’s. The team is merely a political pawn for real estate deals.
Under Fisher’s leadership, executed by team president/lackey Dave Kaval, the A’s have dismantled the goodwill between the fan base, the region, the city and the organization. He returned the A’s to the laughingstock status Charlie Finley achieved in Kansas City before moving the team to Oakland in 1968.
Fisher and Kaval are unserious people. They’re perfect fits for an unserious place like Las Vegas.
You need no more evidence of that than the duo’s plan to build a $1.5 billion retractable-roof stadium on the site of the Wild Wild West truck stop. It’s not so much on The Strip as it is “strip-adjacent.” And by that, I mean there are several seedy strip clubs in the neighborhood. It’s also catty-corner from Budget Suites motel — where you can surely rent by the hour.
It’s a far cry from the waterfront in Oakland. It makes the Coliseum area look classy.
But it’s cheap land and free money, and, truly, that’s what the A’s are all about. The Nevada Independent reported Wednesday that the Silver State will pay for the new ballpark on the wrong side of I-15.
Even with someone else’s cash, it’s a crapshoot if Fisher and Kaval can build something.
But, of course, while they fumble around with putting a shovel in the sand, they’ll consider the “unviable” Coliseum to be more than good enough.
The A’s say — hope? — their new stadium will be ready by 2027. Their lease at the Coliseum has one more year, expiring after the 2024 season.
So what happens in the meantime?
The city and Alameda County should learn from the Raiders’ exit. Even after the team had made its intentions clear, even after the NFL had ratified the move to Las Vegas, the Raiders were allowed to stay in the East Bay. They played at the Coliseum and practiced in Alameda for three more seasons. Oakland didn’t have enough self-respect to kick them out.
That can’t happen again. Not after the way the A’s played the East Bay community.
At the command of the silent Fisher, Kaval said anything and everything to make Oakland and the East Bay feel like they were the only place for the A’s. “Rooted in Oakland” was the slogan, even as Kaval took countless Southwest flights to Vegas. Frankly, the A’s incompetence was the only thing holding them back from making this move to the desert earlier.
So it behooves Oakland and Alameda County to kick the cheaters out of the house as soon as possible.
If that requires some lawsuits, so be it. If it means waiting until the lease expires in 2024, that’s how it is. At the very least, the city and county should match Fisher’s actions, at the very least, and jack up the rent when the Coliseum lease expires.
If the A’s are done with us — as they announced in the most passive-aggressive way on Wednesday night — then we should be done with them. It’s an act of dignity. Fisher and Kaval can reap what they have sown and go play at a Triple-A ballpark in the Vegas suburbs for a few years, a decade, or an eternity.
I want to say that the Oakland A’s died on Wednesday night, but the truth is that Fisher and Kaval killed them well before any land was bought in Nevada.
No, this moment — while regrettable — is one of liberation for Oakland and the East Bay.
Deep down, we know that even if Fisher had been given what he wanted here — free land and a whole bunch of free money — he would always build the minimum-viable ballpark (see: PayPal Park, home of Fisher’s San Jose Earthquakes) and field the cheapest possible team.
That’s his business model. It works for him and no one else.
Give Fisher what he wants or he takes the team away. The blackmail went on long enough. Oakland and the East Bay have deserved better than Fisher’s A’s for a long time now.
So if Las Vegas is naive enough to want to take on this mess, I say let them. But make sure they do it as soon as possible.
I want Las Vegas to find out that in order to be a big-league city, you have to have a real big-league team. And so long as John Fisher owns the team, it will always be a bush-league operation.
Questions, comments, or criticisms that demand answers?
Email Dieter. You could be featured in his next mailbag.
View more on Silicon Valley