The A's owner is backed by 29 other owners. 'F' 'em.

John Fisher ALSO owns the San Jose Earthquakes. Anyone who thinks that he'll invest in the A's after they move really needs to look at THAT team's payroll. There's history here.

The A’s drew 2 million people in 2014 (in 80 games). This isn’t a failed franchise. It’s a torpedoed franchise.

@Foul Territory. Pleassssse keep reporting on this topic. Oakland A’s fans appreciate your exposure and opinions.

What makes me even more sick is that EVERY SINGLE other owner approved this move. Just shows their greed.

I think it’s high time for the United States Congress to get involved and pass a bill that does two things: 1. Get rid of MLB’s antitrust exemption so MLB is more accountable to the fans and so teams are less likely to relocate on a whim. 2. To end all public subsidies for stadiums because new stadiums do not benefit the wider economy in anyway and as such sport teams should be getting their financing from sources such as investment banks, banks, becoming a public traded company, other businesses like the Walt Disney Company Walt Disney Company(Owns 80% of ESPN and fully owns the ABC Television Network), Hearst Communications (Owns 20% of ESPN), Comcast (Owns the NBC Television Network), Paramount (Owner of The CBS Television Network), Fox Corporation (Owns Fox Broadcasting Company, and Fox Sports) and Target, and from friends and family members. That way the taxpayers are not on the hook for the construction of the stadium if something goes wrong. It might even end the practice of teams relocating to other markets because a city, county or state are unwilling to give public funding. It would also end the practice of mayors having to backtrack and support public funding because they base wants it and if they don’t backtrack they could lose the next election. So these are the two things that Congress needs to do in a Bill that regulates sports teams in the way they get funding for stadiums. The current model is unsustainable and could even lead to cities, counties and even states to go bankrupt because they cannot afford basic costs because they have spent so much on stadiums for billionaire owners. So this needs to be done ASAP. However I am not holding my breath.

As a Met fan, I can truly say that if the Mets left NYC, I would not become a Yankees fan.

I can not believe the MLB Owners are foregoing the relocation fee.

As a A’s fan I will NEVER support or go to Giants games.

If that's how MLB owners are, that's it. No more MLB for me.

Ty for getting scott on! One of the few columnists in the bay area whose been very critical of the Giants & A’s

The last thing the super rich want is an educated populace. Educated people are far harder to exploit.

Why can't these billionaire's paid for their own stadiums? They sure as hell make enough money.

Joe Lacob was robbed from buying the A's... The city of Oakland should sue MLB. St Louis got millions back from the NFL

Just more proof Manfred is without a shadow of a doubt, ruining baseball gear by year and it’s just being allowed!

As horrid as John Fisher is, and you can throw Arte Moreno in there to some degree, I can't believe that MLB owners actually believe John Fisher is going to change a damn thing in Las Vegas. Instead, I prefer to believe this is the MLB owners washing their hands of all responsibility for John Fisher's incompetence/indifference. I would much rather believe this is MLB telling John Fisher they're calling his bluff (Vegas pun totally intended) and leaving it completely in his hands to fuck up the whole deal. John Fisher will not be able to finance the stadium, which will be a completely inadequate design anyway given the site limitations. John Fisher is a joke, and MLB has moved the spotlight focus to the failure that John Fisher will continue to be. MLB would never vote to force a sale directly because of the valid "what if I'm next" fear. Now John Fisher is free to expose his incompetence completely. Nothing about this will grow the game of baseball. You have an owner that will not spend, moving into a proposed stadium that CAN NOT meet the attendance goals they have presented, in a market that will not support the garbage that the A's are, and isn't big enough to provide 1/10th of the TV deal the A's are abandoning. Angels fans will remain Angels fans. Dodgers fans will remain Dodgers fans. D-Backs and Padres fans will remain D-Backs and Padres fans. The only fanbase that will change in the A's. They will disappear.

It wasn’t that long ago the Frank McCourt was ousted as Dodger owner. Why can’t this be done to Fisher?

All parties in this deal are the losers, the MLB Oakland, the A's fans, State of Nevada, Clark County, and the City of Las Vegas. John Fisher however just pulled off a great grift. FYI, I'm not an A's fan, but am a baseball fan. FYI II - For those that don't know, Las Vegas is full of Dodgers, Angel's, Padres, and D-Backs fans. In fact, the Dodgers store in Las Vegas sells more stuff than any of the stores in Southern California except the Top of the Park store at Dodger Stadium. Think about it...

MLB just completed the least-watched World Series ever. I'll bet most Americans don't even know which teams were in it. So how does MLB follow this up? By alienating thousands of the best fans in MLB.

You guys need to get both Brodie Brazil and Casey Pratt on here too!

This is an embarrassment for baseball… MLB should have forced him to sell the team

RIP MLB

Fisher is like the clown owner that killed the Expos and nearly killed the Marlins…..Jeffrey Loria

I might have to convert to being a Guardians fan. Go Stephen Vogt!

sf giants owner voted yes. 'Nuff Said. 😡😡

Enjoy your cookie cutter stadium and 100+ losses, Vegas. You've been warned. No sympathy from me

Thank you guys for telling it how it is!

This is so corrupt that Kennesaw Mountain-Landis just farted in his grave

Avid A's fan here. I will never be a Giants fan. Never.

Why would A's fans support the Giants now? The Giants owner voted for the move. Eff the Giants.

You guys should talk to Brodie Brazil, Casey Pratt, or Damon Bruce. They can shed a lot more light on the situation and fan perspective here in the Bay Area that the nation should be aware of.

As the father of an 8 year old boy who's an A's fan, he has been going to games since he was 3. He was totally gutted by the news of the unanimous approval for relocation. He's sworn off the team from next season on, and refuses to jump on board as a Giants fan. Fortunately, he does love the Cubs, which is gonna be a mini vacation for us to attend any games. We will be attending an Opening Day boycott in the parking lot of the Coliseum. Just to add to the energy, and stand in solidarity with our town, OAKLAND.

There is no way As fans will root for the giants, that's like saying raiders fans rooting for the niners lol

There is no viable plan for a stadium in Las Vegas. Seems like the entire affair will be a shitshow. Thinking, unless they move to a different site, no stadium will be built. I heard fans in Vegas do not want a Fisher team. What a mess.

NO! THEY WERE ONLY $80 MILLION APART AT THE HOWARD TERMINAL SITE! GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!

don't forget the city of oakland spent hundreds of millions in the mid 1990s to renovate both the oakland coliseum and oakland arena & those two deals basically blew up in their faces which the city is still paying for til this day coliseum renovations - 200 million, 375 million in today's dollars arena renovations - 120 million, 235 million in today's dollars basically 600 million in 2023 dollars money spent to renovate two sports venues in a few years span of one another and two teams were leaving even before the a's chose their waterfront site in nov 2018 you can see why oakland city govt was hesitant to spend anymore public money on another sports venue yet they've raised what the a's initially asked for in infrastructure money in public grants to get the ballpark built, 400+ million, with more on the way and when the a's did finally pick a ballpark site in oakland in nov of 2018 instead of fremont or san jose which are two areas of the bay area they set their eyes for almost a decade previously since 2006, the pandemic hit and delayed everything for almost 2 years what then changed? like most things now everything got more expensive and more importantly GAP stock has plummeted so this idiot cheap owner can't afford his massive 12 billion dollar project anymore that he initially wanted, even though he could've downsized the waterfront project near downtown oakland to make it cheaper and more affordable as the city of oakland has made it clear and stated if all the a's wanted was a ballpark with a smaller baseball village and development surrounding the venue they were more than fine with that option and if later the entire full development could've been built out when it made more financial sense, then again do it but when vegas came in throwing hundreds of millions of free public money at him ... the nepo baby finally found his new sugar daddy to help pay for a new ballpark that again he can't afford on his own be it in oakland or even las vegas blame the real reason why the a's are leaving oakland ... this cheap nepo baby owner who hasn't done anything to attract or keep fans to the ballpark for nearly the 20 years since he's owned the team telling his GM to sell off star player anytime they became too expensive hell look at the MLS team in san jose that he owns and how they've been routinely in the bottom 1/4 in team payroll and in the standings since he bought the team even after getting a new stadium in the 2015 which recently the org said is "outdated", again who's fault is that they came up with an outdated design ... again don't blame oakland and certainly not the a's fans locally who've dealt with probably one of the worst if not the worst owner in all of pro sports here in the USA ... every fan base has their breaking point and a's fans have had many over the last 20-25 years with multiple cheap ownerships who did nothing to build and keep consistent winners around and were more interesting in the bottom line of fattening up their wallets as much as they could

Aye foul territory you got. New subscriber from a Oakland A’s fan now a sf giants imma Bay Area boy thanks for covering and sticking up for us

Makes me sick to lose my beloved A’s. All we needed was a new owner. My heart is broken.

This is a sad day for all baseball fans. It showed how easily the owners will conspire to get their way. To approve this with no idea where the team will play when they leave the Colosseum, no renderings of what the Vegas stadium will look like, no media deal in Vegas and no real enthusiasm in Vegas for this move in nonsensical and a grift. How long will it be before we see this in other cities? Is Milwaukee next? Very sad day for the fans.

What you guys are missing is even citizens of Las Vegas and its surrounding suburbs don’t want the A’s.

Am I wrong to believe that way back in the early days of MLB owners buildingt their own yards The Oakland debacle was an example of a good entertainment getting way too large for its own good. Oakland can now address more important issues such as homelessness and Fisherr will still be trying to get Vegas to bail him out with a stadium.

The economic impact this will have on Oakland will be disastrous.

People actually expect Fisher to start investing... Yeah the people in Vegas are about to be disappointed and demanding a new owner. Cant say they were warned.

The only thing I disagree with what Scott said, was that the giants would like the A's to say, the biggest opponents to the A's building at HT were the giants. They their people out there at city hall talking against this. Look up and you will find this.

Scott Ostler fails to mention that Oakland, CA is a dangerous place. Plus the fans have left long before MLB decided to leave. When he says that the City of Oakland could tell the A's to take a hike when it comes to the next 2 or 3 years, speaks to his lack of understanding of the dynamic of a crumbling city and it's dealing will all sport franchises. Make a stand? Oakland isn't getting an expansion team under any circumstances. Viva la revolution Scott.

Speak! We been saying this for years but now after the move has been approved people are finally noticing

Fisher, Dolan, Snyder. Every sport has at least one.

It worked out ok for Toronto play in Buffalo for two years

Devastated

This will make thousands of A’s fans give up on MLB. Like myself. I’m done if they move. They have no loyalty to me why should I have loyalty to them?

Fisher takes the A's to Las Vegas. As a favor to waiving the relocation fee, the organization takes on a new identity & name (that Vegas would prefer) A's play at the Coliseum while the construction goes on in LV MLB allows a new owner to emerge (Lacob?) to buy in on the A's. While the Fisher waits for LV to complete, new ownership (for Oakland) forms an organization, and even takes advantage on the near complete negotiations for HT park (if wanted). 2028 Las Vegas has their team (formerly the A's, now the Blue Men Group...I dunno, some Las Vegas sounding name). Oakland gets a reboot under new ownership. Win - Win - Win Las Vegas wins Oakland wins MLB wins Why can't this be discussed? So doable.

John Stanton of the Seattle Mariners is another piss poor owner that could be included in the equation of bad owners.

Fisher promised during his "Rooted in Oakland" fraud tour, to build a ballpark using private funds. Then came purchasing the Coliseum properties from the County and City . He would redevelop the property to pay for the new ballpark. Renderings showed a reimagined ballpark sans Mt. Davis and upper decks to a 10K ballpark for minor or little league quality, housing, retail, new neighborhood appeal like Brooklyn Basin in Oakland. County sold its half on the premise. Then came the demand for infrastructure money (public) from Fisher. Needed $500-600 million that should come from Oakland pulling from redevelopment and transit but would get intermingled into his so-called "private funding". When Oakland asked for cost estimates for construction of the ballpark at HT, Fisher comes back with the 12 billion dollar development of towers, lux apartments, office space, hotel and retail... across active train tracks that goes to the very active shipping port. The two BART stations, West Oakland and 12th Street/City Center offer "not friendly neighborhoods" to go through and having thousands of people crossing active tracks. Then Fisher got his buddy Manfred to deem the Coliseum "not viable". No one argued that the existing stadium...and frankly the arena were not viable venues in the 21st century. The arena is over 55 years old with a 30 year old touch up. If it were about being Rooted in Oakland, a new ballpark in a timely manner and not using public dollars, then the Arena could've been demolished and new 30-35k ballpark constructed in that space. The estuary is nearby and restore the view of the Oakland hills. The only infrastructure needed would've been replacing the BART and Amtrak access ramp(s). If they wanted to keep the Arena for a while, then construct on the A&D parking lots (66th Avenue side), move parking to B&C lots (Hegenberger side). or vice versa. More options at the Coliseum properties than stupid Howard Terminal. Fisher just wanted to copy the Raiders cash grab in Vegas.

A’s fans hate the giants and blame them. I only know one A’s fan who is becoming a giants fan

As a St Louis nfl fan, kronke is worse

crazy that even notorious a’s hater scott oslter is even recognizing how bad fisher is

As a Red Sox fan living in Wyoming, i refuse to root for my local region Rockies because of their incompetent owner Dick Monfort. Now the Rockies don't even have a TV deal to watch them even if i wanted to. My point is, fans won't put up with greedy owners, we will simply move on to either a new team or abandon the game completely

Ostler hit the nail on the head, Fisher doesn't have the resources to be an effective owner.. . including the Cash !

They want to follow the NFL into Vegas, that is obvious

Oakland should say eff off and go find someplace else to play!

To Ostler's point about the other owners and their unwillingness to deal with Fisher and his POOR handling of this team, failure to confront this issue simply means that they are complicit. He says that they wouldn't want to be told what to do with their ball clubs, so they just accept it. Where's the integrity? Where's the concern of how this will affect the brand? How this will affect the league? They ALL ought to be ashamed.

leverage is a cool synonym for balckmail

If Fischer can’t make it work in Oakland, how is he going to make it work in Vegas.

Manfred just wants Oakland and Tampa Bay stadium issues set so he can stsart on MLB expansion

At this point every city that had a team threatened to leave should just let that team leave. There is only so many places you can go that will happily accept a sports franchise. Let these franchises burn their bridges and go bankrupt because nobody would actually want them.

Scott you'll be the 1st person begging for a Press Pass to attend Opening Day in Las Vegas...

Oakland losing the A's is complete asinine

Oakland has a common denominator Fisher for Baseball, Davis for Football,. and not in a good way. Is the problem with the city or the owners it attracts?

Mayor of Oakland apparently ready to drive a hard bargain if Fisher wants to play in Oakland until the new Vegas ballpark ready.

Well said Scott!

Why have Ostler on your show. He’s ripped the A’s since day one.

I will be following Scott. Refreshing to see this kind of an old-school style reporter working for the Chronicle- this is a good thing! I may just need to subscribe. Love the coverage, unbiased by the years of SF Giants obstruction.

I live in Tampa Bay and half the people here cheer for teams out of market. It's ridiculous, I could never. If the Rays left though, I'd be a Marlins fan in a heart beat. And that's way further than Oakland to San Fran

Scott knows.......

What's funning is that I was a New York Nets fan back in the 70s when the played in the Nassau Coliseum and then lost interest in them when they moved to Jersey. Now that there in Brooklyn... meh .. Go Knicks!

So is aj working as a radiology tech or what

LMAO Topic owner, how about how toxic the city of Oakland has become where the thugs run wild and absolutely NO LAW & ORDER.

have you gotten Brodie Brazil on to talk about this? He has been covering it pretty closely out there as well

Terrible news.

The A's will thrive in Vegas for 1 simple reason. The letter A is on the Ace playing card. So a playing card with A's logo on it will sell like hotcakes in jerseys, hats and shirts. - WW

I will never be a Giants fan! 😂

Boycott the A's

Oakland had nearly a Billion dollars to give to the A's and that wasn't enough. The Angels and Dodgers, Mets and Yankees and White Sox and Cubs, so the argument the Giants can't handle the A's in the Bay Area is bogus. edit; how close are the Phillies, Orioles and Nationals to each other for that matter?

I’m all for the A’S staying in Oakland but the politicians dragged their feet for years. The Mets and Yankees got new stadiums in a matter of a few years no political nonsense was involved.

Prediction. Oakland plays in Vancouver for 3 seasons

Sadly the A’s won’t fail in Las Vegas.

why won’t you guys mention and bring up the discussion about trying to take away major league, baseballs, anti-trust exemption and putting pressure on our senators and politicians to take away that exemption which is something that we truly have leverage on them and that we could take away from major league baseball, which could actually cause damageplease start mentioning the antitrust exemption

The Warriors left town, the Raiders left town, the Athletics left town. Oakland his to take some responsibility here.

New owner or MOVE the team. Oakland is DONE with Fisher.

The A’s had 97 win seasons in 2018 and 2019 and were at the bottom of attendance. Is the owner suppose to print money? What am I missing?

Let’s be real guys, the As left because it’s so ghetto there.

Fisher is a bad owner yes, but Ostler is a tool for blaming it only on the owner. The fans never showed up even when the had winners. The stadium was by FAR the worse venue in sports. Lastly, look at how many teams have left Oakland. Warriors, Raiders and now A's

Oakland lost all pro sports in 5 years. Couldn't happen to a nicer place.

i was gonna say something about welcome to vegas here...but the thing is i really dont know if i want these guys here after all. now, i'm from seattle, so i know all about the a's when they came up to safeco field and back in the day at the kingdome. hell...the tacoma tigers right down the road is where i saw canseco, big mac, and others who were on their way to oakland come through. i gotta say that this is a damm shame for everybody. i really dont have faith in anything manfraud has to say or the other owners. the commish is not really the boss, just a yes man who is a shill and a fraud. hopefully there is expansion soon

im glad to see the A's go. Oakland has never been a good home to the team and they will be able to succeed and fill their stadium in Vegas.