The A’s keep using the word 'binding' — I do not think it means what they think it means

Geez, if you didn’t know any better, you might get the impression that John Fisher, and Dave Kaval don’t know what they’re doing.

Last night, stories began to come out that the A’s were already looking at new patches of land in Vegas apart from the one at the former Wild West Casino, one they said they were “locked” into. They’ve apparently gone back to the owners of the Rio, who have offered them space on their resort for just $1. But the A’s previously turned that one down for the one they said they were locked into because they were worried about traffic patterns there. One other possibility is a party, two others might just be a cock-up.

The problem stems from the lack of confidence A’s ownership now has that they can get the $550 million they want from the state legislature in tax breaks and rebates and such. The legislature’s argument has been that the team hasn’t given them anything to review. When you’re trying to rob the public blind, governments do tend to prefer that you at least outline for them how you’re going to do it. Which is probably why they’re circling back to The Rio, because if they get land for free they’ll need less money from the government. Though if they need any, they might want to actually get something in front of the legislature next time.

(Update: They’ve apparently reached a deal with The Tropicana, which will lower the public funding cost to $395 million, but that’s still no sure thing and the Nevada legislature is still wondering what it is they’re talking about)

This is not new for Fisher and Kaval, who have had a habit of announcing they’ve found a new site for a stadium without actually having a site for a new stadium and just hoping merely putting it out into the universe would make it come to life. The A’s owners said they would build a new stadium at a community college in Peralta. That was news to the school. They said they were going to build a new one in Fremont, until that one went balls-up, though that was under Leo Wolff’s guiding hand. Same deal for the stadium in San Jose they wanted, until the Giants thwacked them back to the Coliseum. And then there was the interminable haggling over…Howard Terminal (sorry). The A’s kept moving the goalposts on the city of Oakland, wanting more and more in both money and what would be built that wasn’t the ballpark.

This is what Fisher and Kaval do. Dive headfirst into the pool without checking how much water is in it. It’s been pretty clear that their hope has been to get something built and then sell the team, the Jeffrey Loria school of baseball ownership. This shouldn’t be that hard. Even a king dumb fuck like Mark Davis of the Raiders got Nevada to shower him with cash for the giant black toilet that sits south of the Strip. He at least gave the state something to mull over. These two fuckwits can’t even match that.

It would be best for all if Fisher just sold up now without a new park to play in, as even this version of the Athletics is worth $1.2 billion. But no matter how much these guys trip over their own dicks, the one thing they can never do is admit defeat even when defeat keeps giving them a swirlie. There are so many other lots that Fisher can proclaim are a done deal, after all.