Baseball fans react to stadium funding agreement being reached for Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas: "Vegas beware, shadiness is afoot"
The Oakland Athletics have reached a tentative agreement with state and local officials in Nevada for a stadium funding plan. The understanding comes after weeks of wrangling and negotiating over how much public assistance the team will receive from the state in order to build a $1.5 billion ballpark in Las Vegas.
However, the tentative agreement is remarkably bereft of specifics. The handhake between the Athletics, state treasurer Zach Conine and Clark County officials merely notes that a funding bill will be introduced in the Nevada Legislature in the coming days.
The funding bill will have to be approved by both the Nevada Senate and Assembly, with just two weeks until the sessions end for the legislature.
An agreement has been reached on how much the public will assist in funding the new $1.5 billion stadium.
Statement from all parties - @JosephMLombardo, @ZConine Legislature, Clark County and @Athletics
Agreement reached, bill coming to bring the A's to Las Vegas
@TheNVIndy https://t.co/v7JbNfD9ji
Much of the "agreement" between the state and the Oakland Athletics amounted to a lot of statements, including one from Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, who said:
"This agreement follows months of negotiations between the state, the county, and the A's, and I believe it gives us a tremendous opportunity to continue building on the professional sports infrastructure of southern Nevada. Las Vegas is clearly a sports town, and Major League Baseball should be a part of it."
@MLBONFOX The Oakland A’s are officially gone
@DaveKaval: "We look forward to advancing this legislation in a responsible way."
Too late asshole, there's barely a week left to vet your "agreement" and you're forcing attention away from community issues that actually need it twitter.com/howardstutz/st…
@MLBONFOX Why does the public have to assist in poverty? @Athletics
The Oakland Athletics organization purchased 35 acres of prized real estate at the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip on which to build a planned 30,000-seat stadium. Athletics president Dave Kaval said in a statement about the tentative agreement:
"We're very appreciative of the support from the State of Nevada and Clark County's leadership. We look forward to advancing this legislation in a responsible way."
Uprooted from Oakland, just like @DaveKaval promised twitter.com/howardstutz/st…
@MLBONFOX Building a stadium on the strip is such a terrible idea though. I get it, it's a money decision but the congestion on the strip is going be insane if there's a show/game at TMobile Arena and a baseball game at the same time. Absolute madness
Considering everything about this deal, it will make John Fisher slightly richer, but not anywhere close to what the value of the A's could have been in Oakland. Ultimately the biggest losers in this are the people of Vegas who once again, will be fleeced on a stadium deal. twitter.com/howardstutz/st…
A move to Las Vegas would be the fourth geographic shift for the Athletics in the 123-year history of the team.
The Athletics began life in Philadelphia in 1901, playing in the city until 1954. In 1955, the Athletics began a brief stint in Kansas City as MLB teams began to move off the East Coast into the wider reaches of the United States. The team only lasted in America's heartland until 1967, when the move was made to Oakland.
And now, the Athletics appear poised to begin moving east.
@MLBONFOX I don’t really understand why the public has to pay any of it. This isn’t a necessity. It’s just something a bunch of rich folks want. Make them pay for it. The public will pay enough just to attend the games and at the Concession stand.
The much-anticipated announcement has been made, and there aren't exactly any groundbreaking quotes in any of this. Still no specific numbers, still no renderings. Just more warnings of a bill coming.
Vegas Beware; shadiness is afoot.
#Athletics #RootedInOakland #FisherOut twitter.com/howardstutz/st…
@howardstutz @JosephMLombardo @ZConine @Athletics @TheNVIndy The statement from the legislature seems to be "we weren't involved in the negotiations, and don't know what the deal is yet"
A move to Las Vegas would mean moving to the smallest TV market in MLB.
@howardstutz @JosephMLombardo @ZConine @Athletics @TheNVIndy @JosephMLombardo why get MLB’s most frugal and uninvested owner to run a Las Vegas team that needs to be exciting enough to sell out every seat for 81 games to meet the proposed 2.5 Million guests. He didn’t invest in Oakland and won’t in Vegas. He’s a bad business billion-heir
Oakland Athletics suffering a long, slow death in the Bay Area
WIth a roster resembling a Triple-A team, the Oakland Athletics are by far the worst team in MLB with a 10-40 record entering Wednesday's game.