WHY CAN’T THE A’S ESCAPE MENACING OAKLAND AND GO TO VEGAS ... NOW?

Allowing angry fans to boycott outside the Coliseum, without going inside, should send messages to John Fisher and MLB: Consider an early move to Las Vegas and playing in a dazzling minor-league park

     Security? Police? A Whac-A-Mole device? My trips to the Oakland Coliseum always concerned law and order, from my departure off a BART train onto a rickety bridge, which passed over dump trucks and included souls selling cold hot dogs from home, and then into the decaying entrance of a ramshackle ballpark.

     Now, I must ask a bigger question of John Fisher and Major League Baseball. Do they care about thousands who arrive for home games of the long-gone Athletics — and never go inside the Coliseum, preferring to boycott and drink beer and eat and hear music in the parking lots — and whether their block party might result in crime?

     Fire trucks? Ambulances? Blowups of caricatures that include Fisher, owner of the team, and president Dave Kaval?

     Something mean and ugly will happen as Fisher continues to play seasons in deadsville, while couples rush to the altar and magicians say farewell at the Tropicana Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The famed establishment closes Tuesday and will be demolished in October, according to Bally’s Corp., making way for construction of a nine-acre, $1.5-billion, 33,000-seat ballpark that resembles a “spherical armadillo,” a green daze from “The Hangover” or — in a dream — the Sydney Opera House. It didn’t take Fisher long to worship his projected palace, calling it “a truly innovative and bold design while ensuring an unmatched fan experience.”

     Unmatched, huh? Wait until the Coliseum crashers rally around that. A glass wall provides a view of The Strip, with architect Bjarke Ingels saying of his project, “Our design for the new Vegas home for the A's is conceived in response to the unique culture and climate of the city. Five pennant arches enclose the ballpark — shading from the Nevada sun while opening to the soft daylight from the north. A giant window frames a majestic view of the life of The Strip and the iconic ‘New York New York’ hotel skyline. All direct sunlight is blocked, while all the soft daylight is allowed to wash the field in natural light.”

     Natural light, you say? Compare it to the darkness in Oakland, where 9,000 might have been in the park to see the A’s lose their first of 100-plus games. Will there be evenings when they draw in the hundreds? Nothing in sports is more lawless than allowing a franchise to remain in a cesspool while a new armadillo is built in a desert town. Fans are tortured by losing their team, remaining loyal from the glory days of the 1970s and the “Moneyball” years of Billy Beane, and then are asked to pay ticket money to watch death. The Vegas stadium doesn’t open until 2028, meaning Fisher has too much time to deal with arson and whatever else happens in the ruptured infrastructure. I always have to do commissioner Rob Manfred’s thinking, so I’d advise a quick meeting on whether Fisher should renew a Coliseum lease for NEXT year when THIS year has 80 more games of an inferno.

     Is there a way for MLB to stop this nightmare? Fisher is staying because he makes $67 million each year in local media rights from NBC Sports California. If he leaves the Coliseum, he loses some of that money and a preposterously cheap annual rent payment of $1.2 million in a property he co-owns. He has tried to rent Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, but that isn’t happening. He also has looked at minor-league ballparks in Salt Lake City, which has an eye on MLB expansion, and Sacramento — but he’d lose the TV rights money in either case. Before the Coliseum is blown up, Fisher and Manfred need a new plan.

     Why not Vegas?

     I’m not going to suggest Allegiant Stadium, though I recall when the Los Angeles Dodgers played at the Memorial Coliseum from 1958 to 1961, because it won’t happen beneath Al Davis’ Memorial Torch when Raiders owner Mark Davis is no fan of Fisher. What I might suggest is Las Vegas Ballpark in downtown Summerlin. Once the new stadium is constructed early next year, imagine if the A’s got started in a dazzling minor-league ballpark that drew 12,111 fans when it opened in 2019. It has 22 suites, 400 club-level suites, party decks, a center-field pool, seats made of breathable mesh and a huge video board. If the A’s drew 12,000 a game — with possible temporary seating sections raising the number — that’s more than they’ll draw in the East Bay, where they drew 10,276 per game last season. They would have to share with their minor-league affiliate, the Aviators, but so what?

     It sure beats an attempted murder at the Coliseum.

     Baseball has enough problems to deal with repeated Oakland dismay. How many more times can we hear cries from the clubhouse, where young players have to deal with this nonsense? “Just to put a uniform on and to have this opportunity to be a big leaguer, to manage a big league club — I’m honored, regardless if there’s one fan or 60,000 fans,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said.

     “My heart goes out to the fans and people of Oakland, obviously the organization as well,” said new Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt, who played for the A’s and beat them in the opener. “They’re in a tough place right now and hopefully they’ll get some answers and some clarity soon.”

     The only clarity for baseball and its most embattled owner is to forget the $67 million and leave Oakland. Baseball is about creating fantasies, and in Vegas, 2028 sounds so far away that an NBA expansion team will set up before then. Give fans a chance to see kids, such as second baseman Zack Gelof, who had 14 home runs with an .840 OPS in 69 games last year. At some point, Kaval says he wants to add one or two series a season at Las Vegas Ballpark. “It’s not finalized, but I think it’s something to build momentum and excitement as the team comes into Las Vegas in 2028,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

     Think about it for 2025. Salt Lake City and Sacramento don’t need to see the A’s. Certainly, you cannot have fans waving “SELL” signs by Hegenberger Road and 66th Avenue. The continuation of the Athletics in Oakland is human plight. Each day they hear Kaval talk about Vegas, and he says: “This is the most important MLB venue since Oriole Park at Camden Yards.”

     Or he says, “We have a stadium that’s going to be climate-controlled. It’s hermetically sealed. Even though we have this curtain glass wall, it’s going to be 70 to 72 degrees for all fans. It’s going to be a great environment to take in a game.”

     Then move to Vegas.

     Now.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.