The Question Isn't if John Fisher Has the Money, It's Whether He'll Spend

May 13, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics owner Lewis "Lew" Wolff during the seventh inning against the Boston Red Sox at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports | Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

There was a point in time not too long ago that Lew Wolff was the man that A's fans were tired of. It was Wolff that was the team's Managing Partner from 2005-2015, and he was the face of the ownership group. Then John Fisher bought him out and got everyone to chant "Sell the Team!"

Even though he has been away from the team for nearly a decade, Wolff is one of the few people that can provide insight into Fisher's thinking when it comes to the Oakland A's.

Over the weekend, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a piece asking experts what they think of Fisher's plans in Las Vegas, and whether or not he can find the funding for such a project. Lew Wolff was one of the people that Shea spoke with, and he yet again provided his public support for Fisher with this interesting quote.

“John would not take on any activity that he was not financially capable and excited to do,” Wolff said. “I have been involved with John and his family for decades and never encountered any endeavor that they undertook where they were not committed and capable of implementing."

Lew Wolff in the San Francisco Chronicle

Wolff must have forgotten about the time tha Fisher walked away from years of planning the Howard Terminal project in Oakland only to walk away right before a deal could be reached over a difference of $80 million. That was the reported gap between Oakland and the A's. Meanwhile, The Town cobbled together nearly $1 billion in on-site and off-site infrastructure funding.

It was Oakland that proved it was financially capable in the end, not FIsher. Even after 20 years of searching for a place to plop his team, Fisher has not actually written the big check. He's spent some money, sure, but if the Vegas plan ends up happening, he's going to end up with nine acres of land that he doesn't own, and the smallest ballpark in baseball that just so happens to be in the tiniest market in the league. That's what he's been holding out for?

That's not necessarily a flex. Instead, it seems to provide the skeptics with more ammunition. How is this the best deal that Fisher could find after 20 years of scouring San Jose, Fremont, Oakland, Las Vegas, and Utah? Something isn't passing the smell test.

The one constant throughout all of these ballpark announcements has been Fisher, and if you haven't noticed by now, he doesn't necessarily have a track record for getting the job done.

So does he have the money? Sure. That doesn't mean he's going to spend any of it. The words "capable of implementing" are doing a lot of heavy lifting in Wolff's quote. There aren't too many activities that Fisher and his family aren't "financially capable" of. They could literally book a trip to the moon if they wanted. People are capable of all sorts of things. The question is whether or not Fisher and his family are willing to write that big check to actually get the project done.