The worst-kept secret in baseball is that the A’s are moving to Las Vegas. With the A’s purchasing land near the Vegas strip and Rob Manfred openly talking about how great this move will be for A’s. It would be more surprising if the A’s didn’t end up in Vegas. Now you can have whatever opinion you want about this move. You can love it or hate it. Hating it seems to be where most people are. However there is one good thing that will come out of this, it could change the way the A’s operate.
Reports are coming out about the negotiations going on between the A’s and state lawmakers, and making the A’s look good. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the two sides are working towards a deal where $380 million of public funds would go towards the $1.5 billion ballpark. The A’s would end up paying the rest. If this deal goes through the A’s would end up paying $1.12 billion. Almost 75% of the cost.
How Vegas is Causing This Change
The A’s could end up doing something, that they are famously against, spending money. I mean there is an Academy Award-winning movie about how cheap the A’s are. But things seem to be different here. The A’s seem to be willing to spend money in order to get this thing done. Perhaps A’s owner John Fisher is about to have a change of heart. Perhaps the move to Vegas will make Fisher more willing to open up the checkbook than he has been.
Not bogging down negotiations by wanting more public funding is a good first step. Whenever a team is negotiating with a city, the biggest disagreement between the two sides is public funding. Owners want the city and state to pay a good chunk of the cost. This type of disagreement is the main reason the Chargers moved out of San Diego. Not trying to milk Vegas for every last cent could be a sign that Fisher has changed.
The Impact the Vegas Move Will Have on the MLB
If John Fisher is truly changing and willing to invest money into his club, this would be a major positive for the MLB. The MLB has an apparent problem with its owners. Sure every league has problematic owners, but it seems like most MLB owners have the same issue. They’re not willing to spend money. I mean the lockout we had a couple of years ago was mainly caused by the owners not wanting to spend money. Most MLB labor problems can be traced to that issue. Yes, this isn’t good for the MLB, but there isn’t a clear solution. Manfred can’t force the league owners to sell. Manfred is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the owners.
The only thing that can solve this problem is that all the bad owners just decide to sell their teams, which seems like something that could take decades. Or these owners wake up one day and decide to put winning ahead of the bottom line. Wishful thinking yes, but it is something that could happen. It happened with Mr.I and the Tigers in the early 2000s. Who’s to say that it can’t happen again with John Fisher and the new Las Vegas A’s?
Now will the A’s relocation cause Fisher to start throwing money around like Steve Cohen, no. But could it cause him to spend more than Max Scherzer‘s salary, that’s a possibility. Not only would this be good for A’s fans. But it would be good for the entire league. So if there is any positive to take out of this move, this glimmer of hope might be it.
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