The Oakland A’s, a major league baseball team, have announced they will play the next three seasons in Sacramento. The team requires a place to play because their new stadium in Las Vegas is not yet finished, and their lease at their current location (in Oakland, of course) will expire at the end of this season.
The announcement set off rounds of joyous celebration hereabouts. Local politicos and sports enthusiasts pointed to magnificent economic benefits, including the now almost-certain rejuvenation of downtown Sacramento (!). Indeed, according to the locals, the arrival of the A’s heralds the stalled but now almost-certain construction of a Major League Soccer (MLS) stadium in the Railyards (!), and certainly makes it more likely that Sacramento will now be home to a Major League Baseball (MLB) expansion team (!). Sacramento’s Mayor was over the top, expounding on how this brings Sacramento that much closer to being a world class city. (!)
Our leaders can be excused for being excited and focusing on the positive. We are talking, after all, about sports. Sports is fun, and it’s healthy, and we encourage our kids to participate because it teaches them life lessons, like teamwork, and how to be a good loser. Because, you know, our entire democratic system is built on being a good loser. Just ask Al Gore, or Richard Nixon.
Sports doesn’t lose its luster just because it gets big. Friday night high school football becomes Saturday big college football becomes the National Football League (NFL) on Sunday, but the thrill remains. Competition. Excitement. Fun.
Sports is also a business. It is a legitimate business, and we admire the owner of a successful sports business operation just as we stand in awe of those who run other major companies. People like Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, who was awarded a giant stock bonus on top of his more-than-a-million-dollar salary last year. Mr. Calhoun is gone now, leaving behind a few problems that you might have heard about.
About that sports business. Owners of sports franchises tell us we’re their partners. After all, a sports business is, in large part, about the fans. Fans who pay to attend games, buy food and drink and memorabilia. Fans who turn on the television to watch games, thus providing advertising revenue, thus providing money to pay players. Fans who are the very basis for the increase in team values.
Not every business succeeds, and in America a poor business eventually either goes out of business and disappears or is sold to someone who thinks they can do better. Sports operations, though, are a special case. While fans may measure success by the results on the field of play (or court, or pitch), the owners can have a much different perspective.
There is, of course, an annual accounting of revenue, but the value of the franchise itself cannot be ignored and can increase exponentially regardless of a team’s performance. Factor in that most pro sports owners are fabulously wealthy, and operate in an oligopoly, and analysis becomes complex.
Some owners are loved (I’ll cite Walter O’Malley of the Dodgers, though the Mexican-American families who were removed from their homes in Chavez Ravine to make way for Dodgers Stadium in the 50’s might not be cheering.) Some owners are hated. (I’ll cite Art Modell. Modell was the owner who put the Cleveland Browns in financial ruin during the 1990s and then relocated them to Baltimore. He claimed Cleveland did not have the money or political will to build the team a new stadium.)
Relocating a team after pumping up attendance via appeals to fan loyalty aside, there is another type of professional sports owner that draws criticism. In this case, the focus is on the product. I mean, if Mr. Calhoun of Boeing is criticized when his planes have problems in the sky—the very essence of the product—then it is understandable that fans might object to poor performance by “their” team. (“Their” team only until relocation to another venue.)
Unlike futbol arrangements in almost every other country, in America we have no system for removing poor performers from top leagues. MLB, NBA, MLS, NHL: lose for years and your place in the league is sacrosanct. Rely on the restriction in the market (number of teams) and the allure of big-time stars (on the visiting team, of course), and the basis for team value is secure. A rising tide of team value raises all boats…er, teams…er, owners.
The City of Sacramento has invested heavily ($273 million) in the downtown arena in which the Kings (NBA) play. The arena is the venue for other events, including concerts. There is no question but that it brings people downtown that would not otherwise frequent the neighborhood. The city has contributed its time and attention to a MLS stadium (yet to be built) with the hope of invigorating a giant vacant parcel and a gritty neighborhood just to the north. So, we are familiar with sports as a (purported) economic energizer.
It is possible the A’s will come to town and have a very positive relationship with Sacramento and West Sacramento, the actual locale of the stadium. It is possible that the presence of major league ballplayers and fans creates a new dynamic in downtown, generates substantial new revenues for the cities (without incurring substantial expense), and eventually attracts a MLB, as well as a MLS (and why not a NHL?) franchise as well.
There is, in fact, reason for optimism amongst the politicos and boosters. There is also, however, reason for caution. If you have the time, look up the negotiations that have occurred over the past ten years as the City of Oakland tried to reach a deal with A’s ownership. I’m not saying this was the owner’s fault, but A’s fans certainly had hope:
Before the deal with Nevada was announced, Oakland leaders believed they were close to reaching an agreement on an open-air 35,000-seat ballpark along the waterfront at the Howard Terminal, an unused 55-acre location in the Port of Oakland near downtown that would include 6 million square feet of mixed-use development, including commercial buildings and high-rise residential units. The estimated price of the entire project was $12 billion. (Nevada Independent)
These are the early days of the A’s in Sacramento. But the Triple-A field where the River Cats play, and that is intended to host the A’s, will need substantial upgrades. The capacity of the field, at 16,000, is far less than expected in a major-league park, and is something that will not only be noticed, but must somehow be accounted for.
Right now the only news, though, is good news. That could change once requests (demands?) are made by the A’s to help them bring the benefits of major league baseball to what was, as recently as just twenty years ago, labeled by some a cowtown.
There are plenty of fans in Oakland that are bitter about all this. It may be, despite the certainty of the relocation announcements, that Oakland may yet end up with the team. If the A’s come here, though, you can depend on bright smiles from the boosters.
As with most arrangements with major league stuff, don’t expect any of these arrangements to go to the ballot. Especially funding. Funny thing, but most of the population fails to see the claimed benefits of major league sports. Most of them don’t attend games (or concerts). Best, you know, to keep them out of it.
It is, to rely on a sports analogy, in the early innings of this relationship. Hoopla will dominate the news while the fine details get resolved, but we should know who we’re dealing with—someone who doesn’t want to be in Oakland--and plans to be in Vegas as soon as he can. Just passing through, but that doesn’t mean it won’t get expensive for the locals.