Oakland Mayor's office has some bold comments for John Fisher and the Athletics

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao's Chief of Staff Leigh Hanson reportedly spoke with Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal yesterday and had some virulent comments about John Fisher and the Athletics.

When asked about whether Fisher or the Athletics had been in contact about potentially extending the team's lease at the Coliseum after the 2024 season, Hanson said they hadn't, and that "the A’s have once again failed to provide anyone in Oakland clarity on their genius business plans".

Hansen mentioned that the city of Oakland has seen greater profits from exhibition soccer games than standard Athletics' games over the past three years, and that the team "won't be missed" after they leave town.

Hansen's quotes are a bit more blunt than I would have expected, but they're certainly well deserved. There's definitely a higher level of frustration about the Athletics whenever John Fisher speaks openly about the process, which he did during the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce event earlier this week.

Fisher commented for Akers' story, keeping to his schtick that the A's tried everything they could to keep the team in Oakland. He also claims that the organization is busy trying to find a home for the Athletics during the 2025-2027 seasons that they currently don't have a stadium for. He claims that they're "working on it every day".

I would hope that the team is continually working to find a stadium for the three seasons that they're slated to be left out in the wilderness. We know that Fisher and Dave Kaval have toured a few different ballparks in search of a home.

They recently visited in Sacramento and Salt Lake City, neither of which would satisfy the team's obligation to NBC Sports, the team's RSN, which requires that the A's play a majority of their games in the Bay Area to be eligible for their annual local television payout.

They've also briefly been linked to Oracle Park, home of the SF Giants. The A's had allegedly been considering working out a deal with the Giants to play a portion of their home games in San Francisco in order to meet the RSN requirement and continue to collect local television revenues.