Just hours after John Fisher spoke to a media outlet for the first time since he purchased the Oakland Athletics 2005, Fisher went on to share even more information ahead of the A's move to Las Vegas on Thursday.
Tim Keown of ESPN covered the interview that Fisher conceded to the outlet, in which he revelaed the city of Oakland "had not raised sufficient money to cover the commitments it made.” That, according to Fisher, was the final blow and the deciding factor in pursuing a relocation.
As Keown wrote it in his piece, Fisher "attributed the decision to move the franchise primarily to the inability of the city of Oakland to make good on its promise to provide public funding for the offsite infrastructure at Howard Terminal."
Regarding the A's home stadium, their current lease on the Oakland Coliseum runs through Dec. 2024, but it's yet unclear what will happen after that and where the Athletics will play home games starting in 2025.
For the 2024 season, though, Fisher stoutly and firmly revealed that "the plan is to play out the remainder of the lease in their current home at the Coliseum." Fisher told that to Raj Mathai of NBC Bay Area in another interview conceded this week.
Discussing the plans beyond 2024, Fisher said that he doesn't dislike the idea of playing in the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators's ballpark before moving to the Las Vegas Stripe and after leaving Oakland in the 2025-2027 span.
"The commissioner and the league will drive the decision of the suitability of the (Triple-A) Las Vegas ballpark for us to play there on a temporaray basis," Fisher said per Jordan Elliott of NBC Bay Area.
Finally, in his interview for ESPN, Fisher said that he will start paying huge chunks of money to free agents while increasing the franchise's payroll once the move to Las Vegas is completed and the franchise gets more appealing to players and finally capable to win in a city fully invested into the A's.
" will change once the team moves to Las Vegas," Fisher said. "We would not be if we weren’t planning on putting a team on the field that can win the World Series." Fisher reasoned. "We understand that Vegas wants a winner and demands a winner."