A's Bill in Las Vegas Part of Political Stand-off?
After a lengthy hearing on Wednesday in Nevada that consisted of the exact same powerpoint presentation given by the exact same two hired hands, the Nevada legislature decided that they would get back to work on Monday morning.
Reports are saying that senators are seeing amendments to the twice-presented bill for the first time, which basically means that the A's don't currently have enough votes to pass their bill out of the Senate before it would head to the Assembly. What demands are now being included isn't known just yet, but whether the A's meet those demands is the big question. John Fisher couldn't even be bothered to attend the hearing that would potentially decide if his team is awarded $380 million to relocate to Las Vegas.
Instead, John Fisher was back in the Bay Area, looking at a facility that's for sale. More on that later.
First, let's talk about something that the Nevada Independent mentioned in their piece on June 5. They write: "Under the Nevada Constitution, the governor has five days (not including the day of a bill’s delivery to his office or Sundays) to sign or veto a piece of legislation. For bills delivered with fewer than five days remaining in the session or delivered after the Legislature adjourns sine die, the governor has 10 days (not including Sundays) to act on the bill." I clicked on that link, and according to the Nevada Constitution, if Lombardo doesn't sign a bill in the allotted timeframe, it becomes a law even without him needing to sign off.
It should be noted that the state budget that was passed on Tuesday, in a special session, has not been signed by Governor Lombardo, who is a big supporter of the A's ballpark plan. There could be an interesting game of political chicken happening here behind the scenes. If I'm counting the days out correctly, it would appear that as of June 17 the state budget would be passed regardless of Lombardo's inaction. He could always veto the bill beforehand, but that would likely kill the A's bill, too.
Yet, if the lawmakers in Nevada were to straight-up deny the A's bill, then he could veto the state budget and any other bills left on his desk that the majority democrats are also in favor of.
Taking a few days off in the middle of the process of hearing SB1 (A's bill) may have been necessary for the lawmakers both mentally and politically. They will return on Monday, June 12 to hear more about the amendments that have been added to the bill.
Back to why John Fisher wasn't at Wednesday's hearing.
Casey Pratt of ABC 7 heard from multiple sources that A's owner John Fisher was at the Raiders former practice facility in Alameda on Wednesday, the same day that his bill was before the Nevada lawmakers. The Raiders former facility will be up for auction in July, and the minimum bid is $35.8 million. Wednesday afternoon was one of the open houses for the site, so Fisher had to be there, right?
Not exactly.
There have already been four open houses for the property, once a month starting in February, and there is also one scheduled for June 28. This wasn't a scheduling conflict, it was an excuse.
Just looking at the football field in the brochure, this visit could have been for his other venture, the San Jose Earthquakes, rather than another ballpark site for the A's. It's just odd that he felt he needed to go to look at this facility on this particular day for his MLS team, valued at around $550 million, while people in Nevada were questioning where he is for his MLB venture. The A's are valued at $1.18 billion.