NFL
By: Brock Vierra
It’s official, the Oakland A’s are coming to Vegas. The team announced the purchase of land near Allegiant Stadium, the now home of the former Oakland Raiders while the city of Oakland has ceased negotiations over a new stadium deal. The new stadium will be the MLB’s crown jewel as it’s clear that the league is dead set on putting a team in Sin City. The blind eye exercised by the league as the A’s continuously trimmed their payroll to line their owner’s pocket acts as a proverbial middle finger to the diehard fans in Oakland who have supported their team since they initially arrived from Philadelphia.
The goal for the A’s is to build a new stadium and use the excitement of a new team to pack the stands and potentially be the catalyst for a successful postseason run, something that has alluded the A’s in the 21st century. The A’s are betting on the ticket sales success of the Raiders and Golden Knights to boost their opening season and I’m sure the Vegas fans will show up and show out for their team but when baseball reaches the 115-degree days of summer, the stands will be as bare as they currently are in Oakland.
Now the reason isn’t that Vegas fans are flaky, in fact, the A’s Triple-A affiliate, the Las Vegas Aviators continuously pack the house for their team all year long. The difference is that Aviator tickets are affordable, the stadium is easily accessible and away from the strip and there was an established fanbase from when the Aviators were the 51s.
If the A’s are serious about building a fan base, they need to splash the cash which is something the owner has never done. In fact, the biggest contract ever from the A’s went to Eric Chavez which was two years before the current owner bought the team. The issue is that the plague that has affected Major League Baseball has been burying itself in the A’s since the mid-2000s. Cheap owners are allowed to remain cheap. By fielding a team whose entire payroll is less than Max Scherzer’s yearly salary, the A’s are already in the profit from MLB’s revenue-sharing program. Now many have suggested a cap floor or a minimum amount a team must spend on players to help with the competition aspect and thought it would help, but it also wouldn’t make much of a difference. The A’s would continue to spend a minimum amount while other teams are shelling out deals to be competitive.
And let’s not act like the A’s are broke. Oakland would show up and show out for baseball games if the team cared to put an acceptable one on the field. You don’t need a tremendous budget to be successful, just ask Tampa Bay but having the willingness to acquire or retain talent is the difference between contenders and well…the A’s.
This philosophy will not work in Vegas. Vegas loves winners. The reason the Golden Knights have been so successful in their post-inaugural season is due to the fact that they’ve only missed the playoffs once. They’ve made three Western Conference Finals in their short history and were screwed out of a fourth appearance in their second season. On the flip side, the Las Vegas Raiders continue to fail in having their own fans in the stands. High ticket prices and a bad team have turned Allegiant into a visiting team’s best friend. Now only having 8 home games per season means that when an opposing team comes into town, a lot of that team’s fans are gonna spend the money to see them. Baseball works differently.
Due to so many games, it’s rare to see a large group of traveling fans constantly attending road baseball games. So if the road fans aren’t coming and the home fans don’t want to support a team that isn’t good, who’s coming to the game?
All the A’s will have is a beautiful, empty ballpark and themselves to blame for this failure. Unlike the Golden Knights and WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces, there isn’t a connection to the city that would entice fans to continually support the franchise.
Overall it’s a big risk and with a cheap owner, a risk that is doomed to fail. Las Vegas loves bright lights and superstars, Las Vegas loves things that will entertain and produce. The A’s are not built to be this. As long as the current practices of the A’s continue, they will be a failure whether they play in Oakland or Vegas. Also, I’m sure having both a Major League team and Triple-A affiliate in the same market that has less than a million permanent residents doesn’t sound too profitable either.
In the end, the A’s won’t succeed because they’re the A’s. They think Moneyball actually works, they think the bottom line is all that matters and they fail to see the world beyond their money-hungry visions of tomorrow. The A’s, are another joke in pro sports.
