MLB commissioner blames stadium situation, not owner, for A’s woes

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred on Monday personally vouched for A’s owner John Fisher and his desire to field a competitive team in a meeting with members of The Associated Press Sports Editors.

If the Athletics move to Las Vegas from Oakland, Manfred said he was confident that Fisher will do what is necessary to put a competitive team on the field. That is at issue given the A’s decision to trade many of their best players in recent seasons to reduce payroll, resulting in a 5-18 record to start this season.

“I think the A’s baseball operations staff is as good as any in the game,” Manfred said. “John Fisher wants to win.”

Manfred said the team’s ballpark saga in the Bay Area played a big role in its woes.

“The situation in Oakland … John (Fisher) spent at least $100 million trying to get a stadium built in Oakland,” Manfred said. “That drains your resources. You look at their attendance. You can say chicken or the egg. But their attendance has never been outstanding, let me put it that way.”

Even if fans were showing up to Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in droves, Manfred is not convinced the team’s earnings would be on par with other teams because of the age of the stadium and its outdated facilities.

“Even if they were filling that ballpark, they would not have a revenue base like other teams,” Manfred said. “That ballpark, it just doesn’t have the kind of revenue features that are common at most all of our ballparks.”

With Las Vegas now looking like a real opportunity for the team, Manfred sees it as a potential plus not just on the revenue side but also for the team’s performance.

“To me, I think (a potential move to Las Vegas) should be all positive on the competitive front,” Manfred said. “You have smart baseball operations people. You have an owner who wants to win, and I think Las Vegas presents a real revenue-enhancing opportunity.”

With key aspects still needed to be figured out before the move to Las Vegas is definite, Manfred hesitated to put a timeline on when the A’s could begin play in Southern Nevada.

“The answer is I don’t know,” Manfred said. “There is wood to chop still in Las Vegas in terms of having an overall deal. But there are interim arrangements that could be made in Las Vegas, prior to the new facility being ready. All that needs to be decided, and a lot of that depends on the timeline to get the new facility built.”

A’s president Dave Kaval said last week that if all goes as planned, the franchise hopes to break ground on the Las Vegas ballpark site located at Tropicana Avenue and Dean Martin Road next year, with the $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat stadium opening in time for the 2027 season.

One of the interim arrangements Manfred hinted at is where the A’s might play once their lease at the coliseum is up after the 2024 season. One possibility is having them share a stadium with their Triple-A affiliate, the Aviators.

The 10,000 fan-capacity Las Vegas Ballpark is an option for the 2025 and 2026 MLB seasons, Kaval said. Manfred said he plans to visit the minor league ballpark soon to get a firsthand look at the facility.

“I’ve had some of my people there,” Manfred said. “They are very positive about that ballpark. It will not be a sticking point in terms of getting a deal done. … I think scheduling-wise, it could be done.”

And he’s optimistic about a move.

“There is real momentum in Las Vegas to get something done,” Manfred said. “From 2014 to 2021, 2014 when I got elected, John Fisher negotiated exclusively with Oakland for seven years, spending $100 million in an effort to get something done. … Fisher’s commitment was to privately finance the stadium. It was all infrastructure that the city understood it needed to do but never found the money to do it.”

One city’s loss could be another’s treasure, but Manfred said he still feels for A’s fans in the Bay Area if they lose another major league professional sports franchise.

“I feel sorry for the fans in Oakland,” Manfred said. “But for the city of Oakland to point fingers at John Fisher is not fair. … We have shown an unbelievable commitment to the fans in Oakland by exhausting every opportunity to try to get something done in Oakland, and unfortunately the government doesn’t seem to have the will to get it done.”

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.