All is not well for the Oakland Athletics

A's owner John Fisher spoke publicly yesterday at an event hosted by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. He spoke briefly about the relocation process and the status of their ballpark renderings. Most of his comments were innocuous, but some of them have been blasted by A's fans.

Back in December, Fisher and the A's postponed their ballpark rendering reveal event, allegedly due to the death of two Nevada state troopers, stating that they didn't want to interfere with the grieving process.

Now, Fisher has walked that back a bit. He said yesterday that the team is now working with the architect and design team to try to release both the renderings for the stadium and the renderings for the entire hotel and casino site at the same time.

It's a long winded way for Fisher to say that the renderings don't exist, and fans are free to speculate all day as to why. There have been some credible rumors about Fisher's inability to finance his portion of the stadium bill in Las Vegas. And there have been additional reports about Bally's and GLPI being focused on other properties and putting the Vegas project on the back burner.

It's been rumored that the team might release their renderings during the spring training series between the A's and the Brewers on March 8-9, but that date has not been confirmed by anyone.

One other comment that got the fanbase going was Fisher claiming that he gave everything he had in an effort to keep the A's in Oakland. There are probably some people out there who believe that schtick, but A's fans, as well as a significant portion of baseball fans in general, know that to be a lie.

Fisher spoke with Nevada Independent reporter Howard Stutz after the open chat yesterday and revealed that he's open to selling minority equity shares in the team. Fisher claims that this is an effort to get the community involved in the project, but it's nothing more than a shaded attempt to get more public financing for the project.

Jason Burke of Inside the A's has a great breakdown up on his site that's worth a read. As he notes in the piece, Fisher continues to avoid directly answering questions about the relocation and continues to deprive the public of any viable information about the project.

Scott Ostler of the SF Chronicle ($) also went in on Fisher in a column this morning. From the piece, "The A’s move to Vegas still seems like a half-baked plan, with more holes than my blackjack strategy". Perfect.

The A's haven't seemed to care about their PR strategy over the past few years. They've lost the messaging battle in Oakland, and they're on their way to losing it in Las Vegas before the team even starts to break ground on their new stadium. Whatever happens from here on out can be blamed directly on Fisher, without a doubt.