If MLB is serious about contraction, Oakland could lose its team
By A.J. Hayes
Several seasons ago, before performance-enhancing drugs started dominating baseball's off-the-field news, an equally troubling situation was starting to take hold in the perpetually hand-wringing sport - contraction.
In 2001, back when team owners claim they had no clue about baseball's growing steroids problem, Commissioner Bud Selig floated his scheme to eliminate two major league clubs - his choices at the time were Montreal and Minnesota - to help stave off baseball revenue problems.
For any number of reasons, the contraction plan fizzled and has rarely been heard from since.
But now in 2008 don't be surprised if talk returns to putting one or more of the game's 30 clubs on the chopping block - if for no other reason than to divert talk from exactly what pharmaceutical products were injected into Roger Clemens' buttocks.
With Montreal relocated to Washington and ground broken on a new ballpark in Minneapolis, the Oakland A's would probably be at the top of the list.
Late last year, Oakland A's owner Lew Wolff officially filed plans to build a "baseball village" complete with a 32,000-seat ballpark in Fremont. But that plan is no sure shot, especially without any current form of mass transit, such as a BART line, to access the park.
If the Fremont deal falls through, Wolff has vowed not to remain in Oakland. But where would the team go? The truth is, there's no other viable option for a major league club in the continental United States. Portland was passed over in favor of D.C., Sacramento is also too small and while Las Vegas has the population it has too much of the other stuff baseball doesn't want.
The only other option would be contraction. Wolff and co-owners the Fisher family (of Gap fame), would profit nicely if the other clubs were forced to buy them out.
And Wolff isn't taking any chances that the A's might turn things around in Oakland. At every opportunity he's had Wolff has made the A's as unappealing as possible to its current fan base.
Last year Wolff had the Oakland Coliseum's upper tier cordoned off, eliminating a popular family-friendly area. This off season, the club has dealt two of its most talented and popular players, pitcher Dan Haren and slugger Nick Swisher for a bus load of untested prospects. The club is almost destined to finish in the cellar this season.
Would a team owner shoot himself on purpose cashing in down the line?
Ha -- this is major league baseball after-all.
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Comments (5)
Don't be surprised if readers protest when the read a column filled with utterly ridiculous speculation about their baseball team.
Really, do you have any evidence that there's even a remote possibility that this could happen? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Posted by Chip | January 15, 2008 09:30 AM
I have never seen this blog before, is whoever wrote this, A.J. Hayes or Marke B, actually a journalist?
If so, they should be fired immediately.
Posted by lll | January 15, 2008 12:03 PM
You (writer of article) obviously didn't research this very well. The upper deck was tarpped off to drive up demand for tickets and to test the market for a stadium with less seating. Also, a few upper deck sections are being reopened this season and will be "all you can eat seating".
http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/oak/ticketing/ayce_seats.jsp
Posted by Mickey | January 15, 2008 01:05 PM
You should look at census metro area populations before making a stupid statement about Las Vegas having the population while Sacramento and Portland are too small. If you had done so you would see that both Sacramento and Portland are larger metro areas than vegas and are projected to be bigger through 2025.
Journalism? Hardly.
Posted by Jeff August | January 15, 2008 04:44 PM
The A's won't be at the top of a contraction list, if there was to be one. The A's have plans in place for a new stadium, and have a large enough market to play in atm. And if the A's do fail in Fremont, they might retry San Jose, and there are still other places; Portland, Vegas, Sacramento, Nashville, Oaklahoma City and even Mexico City or the like.
The team at the top of the list, obviously, is the Florida Marlins, who are being run by the same owner who ran the Expos into the ground. After that, the next one might be Tampa Bay, though they have a new stadium deal in the works. Tampa Bay and the Marlins both have severe attendance issues, dwarfing the A's problems.
Posted by Zibus | January 15, 2008 05:02 PM