A's John Fisher Losing Las Vegas Messaging Battle
Yesterday, John Fisher's public debut in Las Vegas was met with little to no enthusiasm from the crowd that had paid at least $95 in part to hear him speak. The crowd's silence was so deafening that the emcee of the event had to ask if they were still alive. Great first impression.
Following Fisher's on-stage chat, he spoke with reporters following the event, including Howard Stutz of the Nevada Independent. In his article, he mentions that Fisher is exploring the possibility of selling minority shares of the Oakland A's because it "creates another connection to the community." He's not giving the shares away, and with everyone questioning how he'll pay for the proposed ballpark project, selling shares of the team is likely a way of gathering those funds.
Fisher claims that his family "has the equity" to finance the private portion of the ballpark in the same article.
Here's the thing though: John Fisher has proven that he shouldn't be believed time and again. Sure, he could be telling the truth this time, but that hasn't exactly been his M.O. throughout this process now has it?
Even if he is telling the truth and there are no concerns over private funding for the proposed Las Vegas project, the fact that he has not been upfront in the media and laying out the team's plan every step of the way (including financing) has left the door open for people to wonder whether or not he has the funds in the first place.
Every step of the way it has been his own inability to answer basic questions like where the team will play from 2025-27, why the team is actually leaving a bigger market in Oakland, why they didn't offer Oakland a ballpark only deal, why they didn't try to sell shares of the franchise locally in Oakland, etc. that have gotten him to the point where the public at large questions everything that he does.
We get it, he's not a public speaker. He doesn't like being in front of the camera. But that's the price you have to pay when you're taking the route that Fisher has charted for himself and the franchise. At some point you have to be held accountable.
The A's were supposed to release new renderings at the beginning of December, but those were postponed. Now, nearly two months later, there are still no renderings and there has been no communication on when to expect them. They may come out at the beginning of March, but even that is a guess.
The excuse given today is that they have been working with GLPI and Bally's on coming up with a unified rendering for the entire site that includes both the A's park and the new hotel/casino. The A's have had this public money that is tied specifically to that site secured since the middle of June and they're just now figuring out what this thing is going to look like? Isn't this something that should have been considered or even hammered out before the agreement came together to split the land at the Tropicana site?
Sure, things change. One reason that people think those plans are changing is due to a lack of funds from both Bally's and the A's to make anything happen.
Is that accurate? Hard to say. John Fisher spoke for the first time in Las Vegas yesterday, and for just the second time in front of a camera since he became owner of the Oakland A's back in 2005. The first instance was after the MLB owners voted to approve the team's relocation in November. Neither instance has been in front of Bay Area media.
When you don't get out in front of the news and when you don't show your work, then perception starts to become reality, and the perception of this project, fairly or unfairly, is that it's not going according to plan. You add in that in a room of 1,500 people, not one could be bothered to clap for the mention of "Las Vegas A's" and it looks like that perception is matching what we're seeing.
While a good amount of people will read the coverage of what the A's owner said on Wednesday morning, he didn't say anything of importance. There was no new news to share. But what a large swath of people will see is this 15 second clip on social media.
If you're going to have these types of reactions to your first public appearance, then you'd also better have your ducks in a row when it comes to getting this ballpark done. If the Las Vegas plan doesn't pan out, then it may be on to North Haverbrook for this traveling salesman.