You don't hate Bud Selig enough. The only reason Fisher owns the As is because Selig blocked every attempted purchase between 1995 and 2000, Fisher only owned the team because his business partner was a buddy of Bud during college. I'd say good riddance, but after a few years in Sacramento, the A's will deliver a 100 win team to Vegas and triple their appraised value in 3 years. All because of owners that want full backing when they demand bajillions of our taxpayer dollars, and don't want Fisher to hold a grudge.
They should move this team to Austin. For no other reason than me having to stay up until 10:10 here in NY just to see the first pitch.
Baseball is the hardest sport for mid-cities to fully support.... 81 home games is 81 home games (not to mention 30-50k seat stadiums and 100's of suites).
I guess that depends on what you consider the population to be. The Austin metro area alone is well over 2,000,000. The could put a stadium in San Marcos. What they're now considering the San Antonio/Austin metroplex has over 5,000,000 people. I'm not advocating for a team there at all because I think it hurts the Astros. But I think one would be supported.
Its not general population density that drives these decisions. Its corporations (that are going to be the majority of the suite holders for 81 games), its density within proximity to the stadium, its access to the stadium with viable infrastructure/transportation (Austin is a **** show for that). People have been looking at feasibility studies on any additional pro sports team in Austin/San Antonio.... baseball is the hardest to meet the above criteria simply due to the sheer amounts of games. Plus, the Astros and Rangers both consider it to be their territory.
Oh, I know what a s***show the entire area is, transportation wise. I was just making the point that the population is there and it's evolved a lot over time. When I lived there, there was little to no passion to have professional sports. UT ruled (and still does). The reason the Round Rock Express are in Round Rock and not downtown Austin is because people didn't want a stadium or a team in the city. But the population has changed a lot and there's more people interested and certainly more corporate support based there now than there was 25 years ago. But yeah, like @Buck Turgidson said, I-35 is a nightmare that Central TX will never wakeup from. I don't ever, realistically see a team being put in either Austin or San Antonio...or even splitting the difference.
How early would you have to leave North Austin to get to San Marcos by time to park and get in the stadium and get refreshments and find your seat? 4PM for a 7PM game? (joking but not joking)
It’s grown… nobody is doubting that. Just like Oakland can no longer reliably support a team, you don’t see a lot of mid-tier cities in MLB for the corporate, 81 game reasons. Tampa/St. Pete also built a stadium far from downtown tampa, never worked out that well (and now they’re building another one, lol). And Miami has always been a fluctuation of a sports town (yet still has the $$$$$ in spades to handle 4 metro teams).
The population of Austin is nearly identical to Sacramento. And the As won’t take a backseat to the Longhorns or anyone else during baseball season. If Fisher wasnt such a shitty owner, I think they could make it work long term. But he is, and it won’t work anywhere really as long as he is running things. He will pinch pennies in Oak or Sac or LV or wherever they move next. At least I will be able watch the Stros when they visit for a few years still.
Miami is my retort to the “Houston can’t support an NHL” nonsense. b**** if Miami can have 4:teams for decades Houston damn sure can
No Team can compete with tu in that town. It would be like moving to Columbus Ohio and expecting them to compete with Ohio State for fans.
I was just jesting about a team in Austin. That would tough on both the Stros and Rangers fan bases and jersey sales and so on. I really just don't have it in me to stay up until 12:30 in the morning with the 10 pm starts
Columbus has a hockey team that gets good support. Also there aren’t a lot of college sports in play during the bulk of the baseball season over the summer.
