Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred’s gaslighting of A’s fans and Oakland officials shows why it’s time for the city to quickly extract itself from this abusive relationship.
The fate of the team seemed sealed on Thursday when Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed a bill granting $380 million in public subsidies for the construction of a new ballpark in Las Vegas.
And then Manfred turned around and tried to blame the fans for the team’s poor attendance and the city for its departure.
“I think that the real question is, ‘What is it that Oakland was prepared to do?’ ” he said. “There is no Oakland offer. They never got to the point where they had a plan to build a stadium at any site.”
Anyone who has paid attention to the negotiations knows what a distortion of reality that is. It wasn’t the city that stood in the way of the team getting a new East Bay ballpark. It was A’s billionaire owner John Fisher’s greed.
Thanks to Manfred and Fisher, this is turning into an ugly divorce. Rather than continue being a victim, it’s time for Oakland officials to pay hardball, to evict the team as soon as possible and to regain control over the Coliseum, with its potential to revitalize East Oakland.
It’s time to move on.
Sure, there’s still a question of whether owners of three-fourths of MLB teams will sign off on Fisher moving his team to the desert.
Perhaps they will recognize the stupidity of relocating from the No. 6 media market to No. 40. Perhaps they will recognize that the reason A’s fans no longer show up at the Coliseum is that the team has the lowest MLB payroll and, as a result, as of Friday morning, the second-worst record — even after a seven-game winning streak.
But even if the owners recognize the folly of the move, the question Oakland officials should ask is, do they really want the team back. Or, more precisely, do they really want Fisher and his sniveling sidekick, Dave Kaval, back?
The answer should be a loud and unequivocal no. Even if MLB owners reject the move, the city should balk at any attempt by Fisher to return. The city should make clear that it’s only willing to deal with a reasonable owner who will bargain in good faith and invest in the team.
The fans and the city have endured years of bogus promises from Kaval that the team was “rooted in Oakland.” But the A’s refused to pursue the most obvious location for a new ballpark, the Coliseum site, which is teeming with space to accommodate a new ballpark and access to public transportation.
Instead, Fisher insisted on a $12 billion development deal wedged between Jack London Square and the Port of Oakland. Two of the buildings in the project would have been 600 feet high, about 50% greater than Oakland’s current tallest building. And, oh yes, it happened to include $1 billion for a new ballpark.
Not surprisingly, when Kaval and Fisher were proposing the most massive development project in the city and insisting on roughly $1 billion of taxpayer subsidies, officials were rightly concerned about the details, and negotiations were tough.
At the same time, Fisher and Kaval were double-dealing, pursuing a ballpark in Las Vegas. Only a ballpark. Not a $12 billion development deal.
If they had wanted just a ballpark, they could have had that deal in Oakland years ago. But Fisher wanted to make a development killing here — and when it couldn’t bully the city to accept his demands, he made plans to take his team elsewhere.
Make no mistake. Libby Schaaf, who was Oakland mayor during most of the negotiations, enabled Fisher and Kaval’s childish behavior by continuing to raise expectations that a deal was near. Rather than set realistic boundaries at the start, Schaaf bought into, and promoted, Fisher’s grandiose plans.
Credit Mayor Sheng Thao with cutting off negotiations when she learned of the A’s deal in Vegas, although even she held the door open if Fisher wanted to come crawling back.
It’s time to close the door on Fisher for good.
First, if the A’s want to stay at the Coliseum beyond the 2024 expiration of their lease, the city should block it. The fans and the city have suffered enough.
Second, there’s the issue of the future of the Coliseum site, which was equally co-owned by the city and the county until the latter foolishly sold its portion to Fisher without requiring that he keep the A’s in town.
As a result, Fisher can still control the destiny of the prime 112-acre site, where city officials envision housing and commercial development and a refurbished sports complex.
The city should move quickly to undo the damage of county supervisors’ deal with the team. The city has the power to acquire the A’s portion through eminent domain, and it has a deal with a business group waiting in the wings that has signaled its willingness to cover the cost.
It’s time to move on. To say goodbye to the team, which brought decades of excitement and joy to the Bay Area. To recognize that, as long as Fisher owns the team, there’s no hope for reconciliation.
This game is over. The city and the fans gave it their best shot. But Fisher wasn’t interested in staying unless he could leverage billions in profits.
The sooner this divorce is final, the better.
Source: www.mercurynews.com