Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred turned up the heat on Oakland officials Tuesday, saying the City Council’s vote next week on the Howard Terminal ballpark project “will determine the fate of baseball in Oakland” and that to consider relocation a bluff would be “a mistake.”
Manfred, speaking to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America before Tuesday night’s All-Star Game in Denver, said a negative vote on July 20 by the council could spell the end of baseball in Oakland.
“John Fisher has done everything I’ve asked him to do in terms of keeping the A’s in Oakland and more than I asked him to do in terms of financial commitment,” Manfred said, referring to the A’s owner. “So we’re going to know one way or another what’s going to happen in Oakland in the next couple of months. If you can’t get a ballpark, the relocation process, whether it’s Las Vegas or a broader array of cities that are considered, will take on more pace.”
City leaders said in meetings last week that they want more assurances from the A’s on the matter of affordable housing and community benefits. But Manfred framed next week’s vote in black-and-white terms:
“This is the decision point for Oakland as whether they want to have Major League Baseball going forward,” he said.
“MLB has once again made it clear that the only path to keeping the A’s rooted in Oakland is a ballpark on the waterfront, and we agree,” Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf said in a statement. “We are continuing to work closely with the A’s on a deal that is good for Oakland, good for the A’s, and good for our entire region. We plan to have a non-binding term sheet for City Council to put to a vote on July 20.”
Requests for comment from other local officials had gone unanswered by the close of business Tuesday. City council president Nikki Fortunato Bas declined to comment.
Longtime sports executive Andy Dolich, who spent 15 years in the A’s front office, responded in terms as stark as Manfred.
“This is a blunt-force instrument that is supposed to scare Oakland into doing something it couldn’t do — even if it could,” Dolich said. “Right now the A’s are putting as much pressure as they can on a city which has pressure from so many different areas — none of them having anything to do with baseball — that every city is facing. You’re supposed to be focusing all your energy on a time when life has changed for citizens of the city in so many ways.”
Oakland officials have asked that as part of any deal, the A’s agree to stay in Oakland for 45 years. To date, the A’s have been willing to commit to only 20 years. The A’s also asked to waive a requirement that 15 percent of the housing built at the ballpark be affordable housing.
“I’m surprised that’s even being asked,” Councilmember Loren Taylor said last week.
Councilmember Dan Kalb went a step farther. “To me, that’s a shocking element of this I have difficulty swallowing.”
A group that includes Fisher and president Dave Kaval explored possible sites for relocation in the Las Vegas area last month and made another trip last week. The group also has plans to visit Las Vegas on July 21, the day after the City Council vote.
“If they don’t get a yes, they need to figure something out,” Manfred said.
Kaval said in May that the A’s quest to build a ballpark and development at Howard Terminal is on a “parallel path” with their search for a viable location in Las Vegas. The A’s have identified at least 20 viable sites in Southern Nevada to build a ballpark development, according to reports.
On Tuesday, Manfred warned that these fact-finding missions are serious and the A’s could soon be told to explore other markets.
“Las Vegas is a viable alternative for a major-league club, and there are other viable alternatives that I haven’t turned the A’s loose to even explore at this point,” Manfred said. “Thinking about this as a bluff is a mistake.”
The A’s and MLB have said the Coliseum site where the current ballpark sits is not a viable site to build a new one, and Manfred explained the league sees the joint tenancy between the A’s and the city as the biggest complication because the city is hosting other suitors for the other half of the property.
“There’s more than location involved in the viability of the site. Let’s start with the fact that the county and city were joint tenants there,” Manfred said. “Twin tenancies are a very complicated situation. The city’s gone down a different path in terms of entertaining sale of their piece of it to other bidders. It’s just not viable at this point. You’ve got other people looking to develop the site. And most fundamentally, John Fisher is going to invest over a billion dollars. He thinks the place he has the greatest likelihood of success is Howard Terminal.”
