Nevada: Just Say No to Fisher and Kaval
A's owner John Fisher and Dave Kaval have badly mishandled this Vegas stadium roll-out. The foul PR stench swirling around this debacle-in-wait will be impossible for Nevada leaders to remove.
On the same night last week that Nevada legislators met to consider giving $380 million to the A’s, team owner John Fisher reportedly was touring an Alameda property that he might buy.
As Fisher strolled through the $35 million facility that sits six miles from the Oakland Coliseum, he was brazenly showing Nevada taxpayers exactly how he will mistreat them.
He will take their money and spend it elsewhere, all while not even bothering to show up in Carson City to answer key questions they might have about all that taxpayer money he wants from them.
That is just one of many reasons why Nevada legislators should reject Fisher’s stadium plan at the Tropicana site on the Las Vegas Strip.
Amid an almost unprecedented wave of harsh criticism from national and local sports media, any chance of success for the Tropicana stadium would be dead on arrival.
That’s not to say it won’t be approved – that part remains unclear, as it’s still pending a vote by Nevada legislators.
But, the PR on this deal has been so bad, it truly faces a steep uphill climb if it wants to avoid becoming a prolonged local embarrassment.
I mean, a nation of baseball reporters and fans have recently rallied around Oakland and against Fisher. Those same pundits and potential customers will respond to a legislature “Yes” vote with a mixture of laughter, derision, fury, and – did I mention the laughter?
Because even if it passes, the bumbling arrogance of Fisher and A’s exec Dave Kaval has unleashed a rising wave of harsh public criticism - the likes of which baseball hasn’t seen in decades.
This growing, red-hot national ire has ensured that working with THIS ownership to move THIS A’s team to THIS site at THIS time will be a fiasco for Nevada for years and years to come.
I repeat: Approving this deal for Fisher and the A’s will be an unmitigated disaster for the Silver State.
That’s not the fault of Nevada or Las Vegas – they’re great places. It’s Fisher’s and Kaval’s fault.
Often unprepared and clumsy, Fisher and Kaval have so mishandled this stadium site roll-out, it should be rejected on principle.
This debacle-in-wait already has such a stink on it, the foul public relations odor will be impossible to remove.
Vegas runs on perceptions of hip, well-heeled fun and positive buzz. But even Sin City’s best hype machine can’t spin-doctor the slow-motion train wreck that is this A’s-Vegas stadium plan.
Just look at last week’s Nevada senate hearing, when Senator Fabian Doñate grilled Kaval over stadium plan details. The A’s exec badly stumbled over his answer, leading Doñate to end his question period by calling Kaval “disingenuous.”
A little later, former A’s employee and current Nevada resident Steve Pastorino openly insulted Kaval - his former boss – by calling him a “walking, talking bobblehead.”
“You cannot trust Dave Kaval,” Pastorino continued, telling the Nevada senators in the public forum that was broadcast online.
A’s Twitter erupted in cackling schadenfreude, gleefully watching Kaval – a guy they no longer trust – get publicly exposed on camera in real time.
Kaval might have been able to defend himself at that moment, but he had already bailed on the meeting and was not available, as he had already fled the building in humiliation after Doñate’s verbal clotheslining.
The performance was such a disastrous embarrassment, The Nevada Independent’s John L. Smith reported that Kaval’s Nevada critics have begun privately calling him “Kavalanche.” As in, a natural disaster.
Fisher, of course, was not available to defend the team because he was in Alameda, touring the aforementioned East Bay site with the $35 million asking price. Rumors have swirled that Fisher is currently cash poor but anyone – even a supposed broke billionaire – can plan to spend tens of millions when you’re on the verge of getting $380 million in tax breaks.
There’s more: Part of the delay in getting approval from Nevada lawmakers reportedly stems from the half-baked nature of Fisher’s stadium plan.
The Nevada Independent has reported that the A’s have barely spoken to the state’s Department of Transportation, even though many expensive infrastructure issues must be solved for the site. Fisher and Kaval also reportedly have spoken little to Clark County officials, even though the county might be on the hook for up to $120 milllion for the A’s Vegas stadium.
Also, the A’s stadium deal wasn’t introduced in Nevada’s congress until its legislative session was just days away from expiring. One state lawmaker has referred to the rushed legislation as a “ram-jam” deal.
It’s no wonder that sports reporters and op-ed writers from The Athletic, The New York Times, USA Today, Defector.com, Sports Illustrated, and The San Francisco Chronicle, among others, have all torn Fisher and Kaval to shreds, repeatedly writing that the A’s owner and executive are unserious people presenting a clumsy, ill-conceived stadium plan that should be rejected.
Here's another reason why Fisher has been the target of media barbs:
He clearly has gutted the A’s roster on purpose by slashing payroll and trading fan favorites. This has produced an A’s squad that’s one of the worst in Major League Baseball history. At the same time, Fisher and Kaval raised ticket prices in Oakland, making A’s games among the most expensive in the league. In short, East Bay fans are being asked to pay a lot of money for one of the worst teams of all time. No wonder attendance is an issue.
When an athlete tanks a competition for extra money, it’s called “match fixing” that harms the integrity of the game, and that player is banned for life.
When an owner like Fisher does the same thing and harms the game’s competitive integrity, he … might be rewarded with nearly half a billion dollars?
Calling that a double standard might be the understatement of the year.
This hypocrisy lies at the root of the anger that journalists and fans have directed at Fisher and Kaval.
Many sportswriters have indeed echoed the pleas of Oakland baseball fans, urging Fisher to cash out and sell the team to an owner that can actually run the A’s without further soiling the reputations of MLB and the Athletics franchise.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, a longtime baseball insider, said Nevada legislators could be considered the “suckers of the week” if they agree to give all that tax money to Fisher and Kaval – given that duo’s shoddy performance.
Remarkably, Bob Nightengale of the USA Today also has been critical. Nightengale is a respected sports reporter but he’s not exactly known for taking on the establishment. But even the Bob Nightengales of the world have begun ripping a craven owner like Fisher.
That fact should concern MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who has to be furious that A’s ownership’s bumbling has unleashed a wave of bad PR on all of baseball, including on Manfred himself.
It should also worry Nevada legislators because it shows just how cold the A’s stock is, making a bet on Fisher’s A’s a terrible, untrustworthy investment for them at this point.
Negative energy is a thing.
And the national public perception of Fisher and Kaval and the way they have mishandled the A’s relocation is so strongly negative, it would be impossible to reverse.
Whatever great marketing looks and sounds like, the A’s have done the opposite, forever blocking the success of their whole Vegas effort.
Baseball fans want to participate in something that furthers the grand old game’s tradition. They don’t want to be part of what has essentially become a crime scene.
Describing the A’s stadium site in Vegas that way might sound overwrought. But judging by the national and international support that Oakland fans have received in the build-up to the “Reverse Boycott” set for Tuesday night, Fisher’s ballpark deal is viewed exactly that negatively by fans and prospective customers around the country.
To their credit, Nevada legislators over the past week have been skeptical and, thus far, unwilling to give the A’s what they want.
The state’s special session started on June 7 and, after three days of negotiating with the A’s and their many lobbyists, the Nevada senate as of Tuesday morning still had not agreed to even vote on SB1 – the A’s stadium bill.
That all might have changed by the time you read this, of course. Amendments were added to the SB1 bill on Tuesday that indicate deals have been struck between stadium opponents and supporters in the Nevada legislature and the governor’s office.
We’ll see what happens this week. This might indeed be the end of the A’s in Oakland. Nevada legislators might spend the week approving the bill.
If they do, I truly believe that Nevada will regret it. Under the current conditions and the very rushed nature of the vote, this particular deal with this particular owner is dead on arrival.
It’s a hastily planned proposal with murky details on several issues, and it’s all been planned and presented by unserious people.
If approved, it will harm both Las Vegas and Oakland.
Timeline Cleanser
Someday, someway, maybe one day I’ll understand people like billionaire nepo baby John Fisher.