Everything about the A's beyond next season is pretty murky.
For one they don't have a stadium for 2025 and beyond. Leaving Oakland after next season means that Comcast gets out of its $70mil/season broadcasting deal that's contingent on the A's playing in the Bay Area which is the 10th largest media market in the US. If they play a couple seasons in a AAA park, no matter if that's in Sacramento, Salt Lake City or Vegas, they need a new TV contract that will pay a fraction of what they're getting right now.
Not only do the A's have the lowest payroll in MLB right now, they've never had one >$100mil. Playing in a ballpark with roughly 10k seats and without a meaningful TV deal means there's significantly less money to spend. OTOH when they filed for the move with MLB they talked about a $170mil payroll for their first season in Vegas. Calling that "highly unlikely" might be the understatement of the year.
Re Tropicana site in Vegas, apparently there's not enough room for a stadium with a retractable roof and the planned hotel & entertainment complex. At almost any other site they could suck it up and spend more money to build vertically instead of horizontally. But it looks like that's not possible because they're right next to the airport.
All you need to know about john Fisher in one quote:
Quote:
We’ll release our renderings when you know when it’s the right time to do so