We arrived at the Peninsula home of Oakland A's owner John Fisher not knowing what to expect.
Is he the reclusive billionaire that is ripping the heart out of A's fans? Or is he following the script of the Raiders and Warriors who also left Oakland for the riches of a new stadium?
By his request our exclusive Bay Area interview would not include video or audio -- just an old fashioned Q&A. No question was out of bonds. No question was prescreened.
I started with his silence avoiding the media since buying the A's in 2005 -- such a business to own, such a community gem. Is he cut out to be a sports owner?
"I don't think being an owner of a franchise is like being a politician," Fisher said. "Some people may disagree with that. But, for me, I got into the game because I'm a fan and because I love the game of baseball. It's been part of my heritage since…I was born."
So I asked why? Why leave Oakland?
"I'm doing this because I want to win," Fisher bluntly said. "It's very difficult to be consistently great in this game if you don't have a new stadium to drive the revenues."
Speaking of money, Fisher's DNA as an owner is not to spend on high priced free agents. Players get good in Oakland and then they leave. Will that change in Vegas?
"What I think would change in Las Vegas is our ability to keep our best players," Fisher said. "We have the ability, if we have the revenues…to be able to retain that core group of players. But, our ability to retain those players is driven by a new stadium."
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Make no mistake, economics are a big part of this move.
The Major League Baseball collective bargaining agreement states the A's have to have a binding ballpark agreement by January in order to be part of the league's revenue sharing.
"I felt the pressure from the collective bargaining agreement," Fisher said. "I had to have a path for a binding agreement toward a new stadium and having spent at that point close to six years working with Oakland, trying to get to that agreement and still not having it in place led me to the conclusion that my best bet was to sign on in Las Vegas, which I think will be a fantastic market, but also is a really difficult choice."
Why suffer through the community backlash and why not just sell the team? Fisher bought the A's for a reported $180 million, which Forbes now estimates to be worth $1.2 billion.
"We spent $100 million trying to get those approvals, trying to do the designs, dealing with litigation with our neighbors, our industrial neighbors and we paid all of the costs for Oakland to support all the people they need to hire to get the project approved," Fisher said. "So we did everything. We were as committed. We're more committed than, frankly, I can imagine any other sports team owner anywhere has been to try and get this to work in Oakland.
"We most certainly put our money where our mouth was in our time to try and make it work. And, we had no end in sight. I had to make a decision as to whether I thought we were going to be able to do, you know, to successfully get to a binding agreement in Oakland. And I concluded we would not, certainly not within the time frame that we had to meet."
Aside from the politics, what is his message to A's fans?
"Over the last 20 years or 18 years, we've been involved with the team, the A's made it to the playoffs six years. We've had some great players along the way. We made changes at the Coliseum," Fisher said. "We did an awful lot to really reach out and be a good steward of the franchise for the fans. And, you know, I'm sorry that it hasn't worked out.
"It's a difficult proposition to move a team, especially from an area where you grew up. But at the end of the day, I felt that Las Vegas offered the team and the A's the best chance for success, the best chance to build a new stadium and to be able to kind of give Oakland or give Athletics fans wherever they may be, you know, the opportunity to see great players and know they would be able to stay with the team over the long term."
So what happens next?
The A's have submitted to the league their formal application to relocate. Other league owners will now have to vote to approve the move.
The team has one more season before their lease expires at the Oakland Coliseum. After that, it is uncertain where they will play before the Vegas ballpark is completed.
NBC Bay Area's Christine Ni and Kristofer Noceda contributed to this report.
What's the latest on the A's plan to move to Vegas?
The A’s signed a binding purchase agreement for a potential ballpark site in Las Vegas on April 19.
Nevada’s Legislature has since approved providing $380 million in public financing for a proposed $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat ballpark with a retractable roof on the Tropicana hotel site of the Las Vegas Strip.
The new venue would be close to Allegiant Stadium, where the NFL’s Oakland Raiders moved to in 2020, and T-Mobile Arena, where the newly crowned Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights started play in 2017 as an expansion team.
A’s president Dave Kaval has said the team could break ground on its ballpark in 2024 and debut at the new stadium in 2027.
The move still needs to be approved by at least 75% of the 30 major league teams.
What other cities have the A's called home?
Las Vegas would become the fourth home for a franchise that started in Philadelphia in 1901 (through 1954), moved to Kansas City for 13 seasons and arrived in Oakland in 1968.
The team’s lease at the Coliseum expires after the 2024 season. It remains unclear where the team would play until a new ballpark opens in Las Vegas.
Who is John Fisher?
Fisher, son of Gap founders, has a net worth of $2.4 billion, according to Forbes.
In addition to owning the A's, Fisher has smaller stakes in the San Jose Earthquakes and Scottish Glasgow Celtic F.C. professional soccer teams.
