Bad news is coming at — and from — the A’s by the trainload.
Many A’s fans dreamed that this season would be a tipping point for their beloved ballclub. With a dynamic young team, the A’s were penciled in as a contender. World Series? That might be a little stretch, but not unrealistic.
So far the season has been a tipping point, but the wrong way. The A’s hoped to sprinkle stardust, but they may wind up choking on coal dust.
First, some news. The A’s say they might have to push back their plan to open a new ballpark at Howard Terminal for the 2023 season.
The A’s and president Dave Kaval have long held firm on that 2023 date, even in the face of growing political and logistical hurdles.
But Wednesday, Catherine Aker, the team’s vice president of communications and community relations, told me in an email exchange, “The timeline may be adjusted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
It’s no secret, I have not bought into the A’s dreams at Howard Terminal. I call it Fantasy Island. The hurdles, even before the pandemic, are enormous and growing by the day. The virus-related delays, no fault of the A’s, bleaken the picture.
So what’s a year or two delay for A’s fans who have waited decades for that gleaming new ballpark promised by a succession of A’s owners? For one thing, a delay likely threatens the core of the current team.
The A’s say they need revenue from a new ballpark to boost their payroll to competitive levels. No new ballpark — or even a delay in its construction — would represent a loss of revenue and make it hard for the A’s to keep their young stars.
The A’s could pivot at any time away from Howard Terminal and to the Coliseum site. Building a ballpark there would be cheaper, much easier and much quicker. The Coliseum site is Reality Island.
To build at Howard Terminal, team owner John Fisher will need to borrow and spend mountains of money, and with baseball revenue plummeting and the Fisher family’s Gap stock worth half of what it was a year ago, big projects are trickier than usual.
If the A’s are even considering taking a harder look at a Coliseum ballpark, they aren’t tipping their hand, which is not surprising. They are playing real estate chess with Oakland, and no good chess player telegraphs his/her moves.
And while all ballpark plans are on hold, bad news keeps coming for the A’s, some of it self-created, some of it random.
On Tuesday, a federal judge struck down Oakland’s ban on transporting coal through the city. Pending appeal, coal has the green light.
What’s this got to do with the A’s? If trainloads of coal are shipped from Utah to Oakland, even if the trains don’t rumble right past a potential new Howard Terminal stadium, environmental groups say the coal dust will contribute significantly to the already industrially-polluted air of West Oakland. Howard Terminal is less than two miles downwind from where the coal would end up.
Coal pollution and added train traffic wouldn’t be the A’s fault, but they would be negative to the HT ballpark site.
On the same day as the judge’s ruling, the A’s announced widespread staff furloughs and salary cuts — more fallout from MLB’s coronavirus shutdown. The A’s aren’t the only team to furlough staffers (the Giants have also done so), but it’s not an encouraging sign that a team planning to spend huge on a new ballpark can’t afford to pay the scouts who helped build the current dynamic team.
The A’s have also declined, so far, to pay their $1.25 million annual rent to the Oakland Coliseum. The team claims that because of the pandemic, the Coliseum was not available for them to use.
The issue is being hashed out by legal people. But regardless of the outcome, it’s not a good look for a team that brags of being “Rooted in Oakland” to be withholding funds from a cash-strapped city over a legal fine point.
The more bad news and delays and roadblocks, the more doubt descends on the whole picture. But somewhere in here might be cause for optimism for A’s fans.
We don’t know a lot about the reclusive John Fisher, but from outward signs, losing games doesn’t bother him much, but losing money probably does.
The team has been Fisher’s golden goose. He bought the A’s in 2005 (with a minority investor) for a bargain-basement $180 million. He took over sole ownership in 2016.
In 2019 Forbes said the A’s were worth $1.1 billion, meaning Fisher had roughly sextupled his original investment.
With annual profits dwindling — as well as the A’s annual fat revenue-sharing checks — and Howard Terminal plans on hold, might Fisher be willing to unload the club? Until fairly recently, according to my sources, Fisher has answered queries about selling the team with a clear message: The A’s are not for sale.
But like wise people always say, never say never.
The selling price of the A’s would surely be lower now than six months ago, but perhaps it’s time for Fisher to bail out.
There’s always chatter that MLB would allow an owner — Fisher or the next guy or gal — to move the team. That might be posturing. Many sports/business people see Oakland as a vibrant city full of sports fans.
A new A’s ownership group would likely re-root the A’s right where they are now, at the Coliseum.
For now, even without the coal dust and coronavirus, the future is hazy.
Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostler
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May 28, 2020 at 07:58AM
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