Oakland A's owner prioritizes art over baseball in Las Vegas relocation

Instead of releasing their updated ballpark renderings for the Las Vegas relocation, John Fisher and the Athletics have left fans in the dark. They've given us precisely zero information about the new park since they postponed their originally scheduled reveal three weeks ago.

According to a report from John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Review Journal, the A's owner has apparently been discussing plans to display portions of his family's contemporary art collection at the new park.

Why Fisher thinks this would be a selling point for the Athletics' new stadium in Las Vegas is beyond understanding, although it's possible that using the new stadium as a museum would actually get more people into the building than just using it for baseball games.

Fisher's only priority is profitability

It's clear to anyone paying attention that Fisher doesn't care about the Athletics on-field performance at the moment. He's completely gutted the budget and the baseball operations staff over the past three years.

Maybe part of that is due to the losses during the Covid year, but their relocation to Las Vegas is playing a significant role. By running out a team that nobody wants to watch, they were able to seal up their case for relocation and get approval from the 29 other owners to uproot themselves from Oakland and move into a transient community filled with tourists and vacationers.

There are a number of art museums in the city of Las Vegas. Maybe Fisher is trying to develop another. It would be a fitting spot for a team with such a storied history, between its 5 titles won in Philadelphia, along with 4 in Oakland, including three straight championships won between 1972-1974.

Oakland has made the postseason 11 times this millennium. They've drawn at least 1.9 million fans eight times during that stretch, including 2 million as recently as 2014. Oakland is a community that cares deeply about the A's, and the fans have consistently shown up to the ballpark over the last 20 years despite an ownership group that couldn't care less about the product on the field.

Maybe the A's do belong in a museum. A once storied franchise that met the beginning of its tragic end when the Fisher family and Lew Wolff purchased the team 20 years ago. John Fisher got his chance to drive this franchise directly into the ground in 2016 and hasn't looked back.

Under this owner, the A's are almost nothing more than another piece of a contemporary art collection. A relic of times past, a glimpse of what things could have been. Fans can stroll through the concourse at the new ballpark in Las Vegas, enjoying the works of decades past. It'll surely be better than watching whatever product Fisher puts on the field.