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Could Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher be forced to sell the team?
It appears it could be a possibility after he backed himself into a corner with no place for his team to play in 2025.
Fisher opted to move the Athletics out of Oakland following the 2024 season, but a previously planned move to Las Vegas now appears rocky at best after comments from mayor Carolyn Goodman.
“I thought, this does not make sense, and so why is it happening?” Goodman said of proposed move to Las Vegas, specifically at the site of the Tropicana. “And then I thought, well, because they really want to stay in Oakland, they want to be on the water, they have that magnificent dream. Yet they can’t get it done.”
The comments came on a Front Office Sports podcast. The podcast hosts then followed up and asked Goodman if she felt the A’s should move to Las Vegas.
“I personally think they’ve gotta figure out a way to stay in Oakland and make their dream come true,” she responded.
But that may well be impossible.
Oakland Athletics Owner John Fisher Angered Oakland And Las Vegas Mayors
Fisher also managed to anger Oakland mayor Sheng Thao by rejecting several opportunities to keep the team in Oakland.
“The reality is the A’s ownership had insisted on a multibillion-dollar, 55-acre project that included a ballpark, residential, commercial and retail space,” Thao said. “In Las Vegas, for whatever reason, they seem satisfied with a 9-acre leased ballpark on leased land. If they had proposed a similar project in Oakland, we feel confident a new ballpark would already be under construction.”
So that leaves Fisher and the club in limbo.
Now a year out, the A’s have nowhere to play in 2025. Oakland fans are still furious with Fisher. Las Vegas doesn’t seem to want the team either.
So the only move left may now be for Fisher to sell the club and hope new owners can sort out the mess he made.