Nevada Budget Gridlock Could Be Bad Sign in A's Relocation Efforts
At right about midnight on Friday morning, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo vetoed a major piece of the state budget. Now there are just three days to pass a budget for the state before the end of the legislative session on June 5.
That may not seem like a big deal if you haven't been paying attention to the A's ballpark saga, but there have been reports over the past week or so that without a state budget, the legislature doesn't feel comfortable voting on the A's bill (SB 509). So no budget means no vote on the A's bill, if reports are to be believed.
There were also lawmakers that were saying that they wouldn't even entertain talks of the A's bill in a special session, so the deadline for that bill to pass could be on Monday at 11:59 p.m.
Jaclyn Schultz of Fox 5 Las Vegas tweeted that she was told "by a key negotiator, amid the flurry of activity, that there's not a lot of excitement [on the A's bill]."
This past Wednesday, A's owner John Fisher and team president Dave Kaval visited lawmakers, and were seemingly pleading their case for SB 509. A lot of people on social media, including Nevada lawmakers that will be voting on the bill, questioned why Fisher and Kaval weren't at Monday's hearing.
The two main questions that are being asked right now among A's fans in Oakland and the people of Las Vegas when it comes to SB 509 are:
- Will lawmakers vote on this bill in a special session, or is June 5th a hard deadline?
- Does the Governor's veto of the budget on Friday have an impact on the outcome of SB 509? In other words, would lawmakers that were on the fence but potentially leaning "yes" instead turn to a "no" vote since Lombardo is in favor of the project?
The answer to both of those questions is unknown. There is also the question of what happens to the A's if Las Vegas turns them down? On Monday, Steve Hill said that if this bill was not approved, that the team would look to build a ballpark elsewhere, but also seemingly took Oakland out of the running, too. Whether or not he's to be believed is another question.
But let's say that SB 509 is either kept on the shelf or voted down. Then what happens? The prevailing theory is that John Fisher would end up selling the team. He's been searching for a ballpark for quite awhile now, and Gap stocks have gone from $35.71 per share in April 2021, to $8.70 right now. Fisher reportedly owns about 47 million shares of Gap, which would put his losses at over a billion dollars in the past two years.
The obvious win-win for Oakland fans would be if Fisher sells to a local group and keeps the team rooted in Oakland, while also ridding A's fans of Fisher entirely. That has been the pipe dream of many A's fans through this entire process, and while it still doesn't feel likely, the odds of it happening have increased ever so slightly with Lombardo's veto.
If SB 509 isn't decided by the time the fan's reverse boycott rolls around on June 13, there could be a real demonstration of how much energy and passion A's fans still have, and may put an end to the narrative that all of this relocation talk is the fault of the fans.