Some, but not many, sports owners prefer to own their own stadiums. Most will happily share part or all of the equity with a public body, if it means the receipt of significant public money, for nothing.
There’s a implicit “or else” when it comes to efforts by teams to get new or renovated stadiums in their current locations with taxpayer funds: Give us what we want, or we will find someone who will.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said the usually quiet part out loud on Thursday, when discussing the efforts of the A’s to get a new stadium in Oakland before following the Raiders’ path to Las Vegas.
“I feel sorry for the fans in Oakland,” Manfred said, via Evan Drelich of TheAthletic.com. “I do not like the outcome. I understand why they feel the way they do. I think the real question is, what is it Oakland was prepared to do? There is no Oakland offer, OK? They never got to a point where they had a plan to build a stadium at any site. . . . The community has to provide support. At some point you come to the realization it’s just not going to happen.”
Here’s how it works, Rob. The community provides support by devoting their time and money to attending games. There’s no inherent obligation for the community to provide the place where the games are played.
Owners expect it, because if they can’t get it in their current hometown, there’s a chance they can get it somewhere else. The A’s did. Teams in the past have. Teams in the future will.
There’s no loyalty. None whatsoever. Professional teams in any sport will pack up and leave if: (1) they can’t get the deal they want where they are; and (2) they can get it somewhere else.
Actually, there is loyalty. It’s the kind that Dwight Schrute explained in the Season 2 Halloween episode of The Office.
“Look, I’m all about loyalty,” Schrute said. “In fact, I feel like part of what I’m being paid for here is my loyalty. But if there were somewhere else that valued loyalty more highly, I’m going wherever they value loyalty the most.”
The difference between Manfred and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is that Goodell would never say what Manfred said. Goodell would tap dance around a question like that, get through it without saying anything that could be used as the basis for pointed criticism, and then wait for the next question. But, still, Goodell would fully and completely believe that which Manfred said.
In this case, the powers-that-be in Oakland dispute the claim that no offer was made, and that no support was provided. They claim that A’s ownership wanted too much -- a 55-acre project that included a ballpark, residential space, commercial space, and retail space. In Las Vegas, the A’s will have a nine-acre leased park on leased land.
This dispute highlights another reality of stadium politics. Sometimes, a team wants to leave a city even if the city is willing to give the team a suitable solution. So the team will play a shell game with the facts in order to eventually say, presumably with a straight face, “We didn’t get what we needed.” St. Louis, for example, was willing to work with the Rams. But Stan Kroenke was hellbent on moving to L.A. And he did, costing the league nearly $800 million for the chronic lies that were told to conceal the intentions and to justify the result.
The current NFL hotspot continues to be Jacksonville. Fans there don’t like to hear this, no more than fans in St. Louis liked hearing it a decade ago, when we were saying “Kroenke is going to move to L.A.” and Rams fans in Missouri kept saying we didn’t know what we were talking about.
Jaguars owner Shad Khan wants a $2 billion renovated stadium and entertainment district that supposedly will be financed with a 50-50 split between private and public money. The team has commenced the effort to secure local support for the project.
So what happens if they don’t get what they want? Ask Oakland. Ask St. Louis. Ask San Diego. Ask Cleveland. Ask Baltimore. Ask every fan in every NFL city where the team wanted something the local politicians wouldn’t or couldn’t give them.
Goodell doesn’t need to say what Manfred said. Goodell presides over a group of owners who have made clear through decades of action that they’re all about loyalty.
And if there were somewhere else that valued loyalty more highly, they’re going wherever they value loyalty the most.