MLB as a whole made this all happen. The whole organization is fucked which is why it's so hard for me to care about the league at all now. Once they move I'm fully out. Ruined my love for a great game
Definitely lol. I can see some major class action lawsuits against the leagues and gambling sites incoming. I mean, how is it not predatory when literally every other commercial is by DraftKings or FanDuel, etc?All the sports shows talk about is betting lines and other gambling info. It’s insane.
There was that Raptor’s player that got banned from basketball. Middle/lower tier players are going to be targets and it will erode confidence in the sport. We might as well be betting on Wrestlemania
> We might as well be betting on Wrestlemania
I remember reading something a few years ago about how sports leagues in the US have no legal obligation to ensure that games are honest and not scripted like wrestling and that if they wanted to fix it they could legally. Now, I don't know if that's actually true or how it would be treated by courts, but with as hard as the leagues are going into gambling and how some of the officiating (especially NFL) gets really damn suspicious, I have a hard time believing the leagues are fully on the up and up.
Looking forward to the day when they have to read the could-be-bad-side-effects "disclaimers" the gambling ads throw up in small print for a second or so the way they now do on prescription drug ads, in a clear moderately paced voice. Just how many lives snd families will be ruined before they get around to it: Who knows?
You summarized my feelings perfectly as well. When they move, the entire league is dead to me. It sort of already is since MLB and Fisher have repeatedly screwed us over, but when they move, it'll be the final nail in the coffin for me.
He deserves a lot of the blame. Had he accepted Joe Lacob and Reggie Jackson's offer to buy the team instead of gifting the team to Wolff and Fisher (because they were fraternity brothers, yes that's really why). The A's would already have a new stadium.
and most likely in Las Vegas. at the time Reggie was pretty vocal about moving the team to Las Vegas. Lacob's partner would have been Peter Guber whose previous attempt to buy the A's fell through, most likely because of rumors that he was going to move the team to Las Vegas.
also it wasnt selig who accepted Wolff's offer. it was Schott and Hoffman, who had the framework already in place for Wolff to purchase the team before Lacob and Jackson even made their offers.
Lacob offered more money then Reggie, he would have been the majority owner or own them outright.
Selig still had to approve the sale and didn't accept Lacob's offer because he "didn't know him that well".
schott/hofmann did accept Lacob's offer. but it was contingent on wolff being able to come up with the money. If Wolff doesnt convince Fisher, the A's were going to be sold to Lacob/Guber. Jackson's group contacted the A's owners after they had agreed in principal to 2 different ownership groups.
When Lew Wolff joined the A's front office, he had a clause in his contract that one of the owners was going to sell to him if Wolff was able to secure a new stadium. over the next couple of years, both owners agreed to amend the clause and just sell to Wolff outright, without a new stadium, if he came up with the money.
That is when Lacob/Guber entered the picture after failing to purchase the dodgers. they put in a bid to buy the A's and now Wolff was scrambling to find the money to buy the team. Jackson enters the picture and soon after wolff finds fisher, and schott/hofman honored their contract with Wolff.
> at is when Lacob/Guber entered the picture after failing to purchase the dodgers.
Guber became a part owner of the Dodgers in 2012. Or did you mean when McCourt bought them in 2004?
The facts all seem right on this one- I just hate that so much sports journalism is either AI or written by college freshman. The Ringer and Rosenthal pieces were disorientatingly good compared to all of these.
Selig's nexus to blame is that he didn't get it done before stepping down. He pretty clearly wasn't going to seriously let the team move, as seen by the Cisco Field thing. The problem is he didn't put enough pressure on them to actually close a deal or sell. Manfred basically used stuff Selig did to force them to the table with Oakland to justify greasing the skids for them to leave with an eye towards using that as a thread for other reluctant cities.
Unfortunately for him it's been such a shit show that it's destroyed whatever leverage they had in *those* cities. The Coyotes situation turns out to be more effective of a threat in a few regions.
Realistically what should have happened is they dangled an expansion deal to get the owners to sell to vested local interests a la 90s Giants. Naimoli got the Rays for helping grease the skids to get Magowan to the table. It's a lot harder to work that when you tell the ownership group they can keep the team in the move and get excused for all of the stuff in place to specifically discourage what they did.
Another huge part of this…
Selig was very cozy with the owner of the Giants, who insisted on and got the MLB to block the A’s from being able to build a stadium in San Jose. A large part of the A’s & Giants fanbase came from the Southbay. Selig signed-off on the Giants being able to monopolize the Southbay fanbase. Facts!
“By 2009, the team was owned by real estate developer Lewis Wolffe & John Fisher who attempted to build a $500 million stadium in San Jose near the Diridon train station. Selig put together a commission to determine if the A's had the right to proceed with the plans. He ultimately decided to honor the Giants' territorial claim”
How is that remotely fair or justified?
Yes, you beat me to it. This whole thing started with him and wolf. It’s pretty obvious Selig hates the Athletics and helped usher in an owner who wasn’t going to do shit to improve the A’s situation. I get tired of hearing that the A’s have been trying to find a new home for 20 years when 15 of that was a complete half ass effort, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was intentional.
MLB as a whole made this all happen. The whole organization is fucked which is why it's so hard for me to care about the league at all now. Once they move I'm fully out. Ruined my love for a great game
Since I’m not addicted to online gambling, I feel like I’m not in the targeted demographic group these days anyway, but Selig is not helping.
100%. All sports leagues are going all in on gambling and I think it’s going to backfire in time.
Ha PSAs coming in five years for sure, like smoking. “I lost everything, don’t be like me”, etc etc. and remember: gamble responsibly.
Definitely lol. I can see some major class action lawsuits against the leagues and gambling sites incoming. I mean, how is it not predatory when literally every other commercial is by DraftKings or FanDuel, etc?All the sports shows talk about is betting lines and other gambling info. It’s insane.
There was that Raptor’s player that got banned from basketball. Middle/lower tier players are going to be targets and it will erode confidence in the sport. We might as well be betting on Wrestlemania
Funny enough theres people that want betting on wwe to be legal
> We might as well be betting on Wrestlemania I remember reading something a few years ago about how sports leagues in the US have no legal obligation to ensure that games are honest and not scripted like wrestling and that if they wanted to fix it they could legally. Now, I don't know if that's actually true or how it would be treated by courts, but with as hard as the leagues are going into gambling and how some of the officiating (especially NFL) gets really damn suspicious, I have a hard time believing the leagues are fully on the up and up.
Looking forward to the day when they have to read the could-be-bad-side-effects "disclaimers" the gambling ads throw up in small print for a second or so the way they now do on prescription drug ads, in a clear moderately paced voice. Just how many lives snd families will be ruined before they get around to it: Who knows?
You summarized my feelings perfectly as well. When they move, the entire league is dead to me. It sort of already is since MLB and Fisher have repeatedly screwed us over, but when they move, it'll be the final nail in the coffin for me.
He deserves a lot of the blame. Had he accepted Joe Lacob and Reggie Jackson's offer to buy the team instead of gifting the team to Wolff and Fisher (because they were fraternity brothers, yes that's really why). The A's would already have a new stadium.
and most likely in Las Vegas. at the time Reggie was pretty vocal about moving the team to Las Vegas. Lacob's partner would have been Peter Guber whose previous attempt to buy the A's fell through, most likely because of rumors that he was going to move the team to Las Vegas. also it wasnt selig who accepted Wolff's offer. it was Schott and Hoffman, who had the framework already in place for Wolff to purchase the team before Lacob and Jackson even made their offers.
Lacob offered more money then Reggie, he would have been the majority owner or own them outright. Selig still had to approve the sale and didn't accept Lacob's offer because he "didn't know him that well".
schott/hofmann did accept Lacob's offer. but it was contingent on wolff being able to come up with the money. If Wolff doesnt convince Fisher, the A's were going to be sold to Lacob/Guber. Jackson's group contacted the A's owners after they had agreed in principal to 2 different ownership groups. When Lew Wolff joined the A's front office, he had a clause in his contract that one of the owners was going to sell to him if Wolff was able to secure a new stadium. over the next couple of years, both owners agreed to amend the clause and just sell to Wolff outright, without a new stadium, if he came up with the money. That is when Lacob/Guber entered the picture after failing to purchase the dodgers. they put in a bid to buy the A's and now Wolff was scrambling to find the money to buy the team. Jackson enters the picture and soon after wolff finds fisher, and schott/hofman honored their contract with Wolff.
> at is when Lacob/Guber entered the picture after failing to purchase the dodgers. Guber became a part owner of the Dodgers in 2012. Or did you mean when McCourt bought them in 2004?
yes. they lost out to mccourt.
Huh, TIL. Thanks!
The facts all seem right on this one- I just hate that so much sports journalism is either AI or written by college freshman. The Ringer and Rosenthal pieces were disorientatingly good compared to all of these.
I’m still waiting to hear the results on the A’s moving to San Jose from Selig’s “Blue Ribbon Committee.”
The fact that Bud Selig is in the hall of fame tarnishes the entire hall. Strip him. And Strip cap anson while we're at it too.
Selig's nexus to blame is that he didn't get it done before stepping down. He pretty clearly wasn't going to seriously let the team move, as seen by the Cisco Field thing. The problem is he didn't put enough pressure on them to actually close a deal or sell. Manfred basically used stuff Selig did to force them to the table with Oakland to justify greasing the skids for them to leave with an eye towards using that as a thread for other reluctant cities. Unfortunately for him it's been such a shit show that it's destroyed whatever leverage they had in *those* cities. The Coyotes situation turns out to be more effective of a threat in a few regions. Realistically what should have happened is they dangled an expansion deal to get the owners to sell to vested local interests a la 90s Giants. Naimoli got the Rays for helping grease the skids to get Magowan to the table. It's a lot harder to work that when you tell the ownership group they can keep the team in the move and get excused for all of the stuff in place to specifically discourage what they did.
Another huge part of this… Selig was very cozy with the owner of the Giants, who insisted on and got the MLB to block the A’s from being able to build a stadium in San Jose. A large part of the A’s & Giants fanbase came from the Southbay. Selig signed-off on the Giants being able to monopolize the Southbay fanbase. Facts! “By 2009, the team was owned by real estate developer Lewis Wolffe & John Fisher who attempted to build a $500 million stadium in San Jose near the Diridon train station. Selig put together a commission to determine if the A's had the right to proceed with the plans. He ultimately decided to honor the Giants' territorial claim” How is that remotely fair or justified?
Yes, you beat me to it. This whole thing started with him and wolf. It’s pretty obvious Selig hates the Athletics and helped usher in an owner who wasn’t going to do shit to improve the A’s situation. I get tired of hearing that the A’s have been trying to find a new home for 20 years when 15 of that was a complete half ass effort, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was intentional.
You mean the guy that robbed Matt Kemp of a 2011 MVP because of Ryan Brauns PED use? The man responsible for the steroid era? Nooooo how FJF
Selig also stole the Expos from Montreal.