Even if the approximate status of the Oakland A was not part of the official winter meeting agenda for MLB officials, the subject was hot during the Winter meetings 2022—in the lobby of the Hyatt, anyway.
We’ll have more on our Winter Meetings experience shortly, but with many reporters fascinated by what’s happening with the A’s, it’s worth a discussion. At conferences, off-site meetings, and casual chats with old friends at the Hyatt, the status of a new Oakland stadium was a hot topic during our time on the MLB side of the meetings, even though it wasn’t on the agenda. the agenda for the winter meetings. Indeed, there is little new on the approximate front. Oakland has a new mayor, but Oakland and the A’s are still negotiating the terms of a new rough and ready deal — talks that will likely remain quiet until a new mayor is in place after the Oakland elections. autumn. There’s nothing new in Las Vegas either: Local politicians stressed there was little appetite for public funding of a new ballpark, and governor-elect Joe Lombardo hasn’t weighed in on funding a new ballpark — likely because he doesn’t have a specific proposal in front of him.
But the baseball press and baseball Twitter abhor a vacuum and are absolutely happy to generate clickbait (Aaron Judge to the Giants! Carlos Correa to the Padres!), so the subject was brought up again before the MLB commissioner . Rob Manfred. Manfred’s response was much the same as in recent years: yes, we would like to see a new home for the A’s; yes, we would like to resolve the issue as soon as possible; and yes, there is a new kind of deadline: January 15, 2024. (And no, despite what has been reported elsewhere on a pay site, the A’s are not forced to move to Las Vegas if a new stadium doesn’t happen in Oakland. Indeed, even A’s ownership has discussed deals alternatives if the team had to move.)
We’re at this point because the A’s totally botched their approach to developing Howard Terminal – when it comes down to it, Oakland’s rough situation isn’t really a rough story, it’s a development story. Instead of pointing out that team owners are offering a $12 billion investment in Oakland in exchange for a very modest public investment in infrastructure – oh, and by the way, fans get a new ballpark for free! – the team decided to let the tail wag. the dog. Discussing the new ballpark while downplaying a one-time transformation of a waterfront storage facility gave development opponents a chance to disparage the entire project based on ballpark alone. But big development takes a long time, a fact that often seems to get lost in these discussions..
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