Category: (Sacramento) Athletics

County okays Vegas A’s stadium tax kickbacks that state already approved in 2023, progress!

access_time personNeil deMause

The Clark County Commission approved a special tax district yesterday to help fund a new Athletics stadium in Las Vegas. This means that … well, what exactly does this mean? Let’s recap the story so far:

  • In June of 2023, the Nevada state legislature approved $600 million worth of public subsidies toward a stadium on the Las Vegas strip. (It would not actually be in the city of Las Vegas proper, because that’s how Las Vegas rolls.) Part of the bill included the county kicking back all sales, income, ticket, liquor, and property taxes from the stadium site to pay off $120 million in stadium bonds plus $25 million for infrastructure and public services.
  • For the last 22 months, the county commission just kind of hung out without approving the actual creation of the tax district, but now it has done so.
  • The tax-kickback district — really a tax-kickover, since these taxes never belonged to the team in the first place — would be “a special section around the stadium covering about nine acres,” according to KSNV-TV, though given that the stadium itself is only nine acres, we’re basically just talking about the stadium itself here. If the taxes generated in the stadium aren’t enough to cover the county’s cost, the $145 million will be taken out of the general fund.

In terms of actually providing more money for the A’s Vegas vaporarmadillo, then, this does absolutely nothing: The action by the county just confirms part of the $600 million in subsidies that were already approved by the state. Commissioners didn’t throw up an additional roadblock by denying or delaying the TIF district, sure, but nobody ever expected them to.

So we’re back where we were last week, and last month, and last year: A’s owner John Fisher has a stadium plan that would cost at least $1.75 billion (tariff surcharges not included), and has in hand a commitment for $600 million in public money, and his family has a couple of billion dollars that he could maybe tap part of if he can convince them it’s a good idea to spend it on a tiny dome in a tiny media market, and he’s trying to sell shares in the team at inflated prices to raise more cash. Whether the vibes here feel more like “full speed ahead” or “Fyre Festival 2.0” will be left as an exercise for the reader.

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Friday roundup: Bengals want $350m in stadium money from Ohio, A’s still insist Vegas stadium is happening for real

access_time personNeil deMause

The spring legislative season is always exhausting, but at least we’re already up to … April 11, is that all that it is? At least we can hope that all the team owners lining up for stadium and arena money have already gotten their bills submitted, though plenty of subsidy demands have emerged this late or later: Today is in fact the second anniversary of the Maryland legislature approving $1.2 billion in public money for renovations for the Baltimore Orioles and Ravens (a number that would eventually grow to an unlimited number depending on how much in taxes comes in) essentially without warning, so it wouldn’t be that much of a shock to see a surprise demand emerge from out of nowhere.

And speak of the devil:

  • Hamilton County and Cincinnati Bengals owners the Brown family have declared that if the state of Ohio is set on giving $600 million in tax money to the Cleveland Browns for a new stadium, it should also give $350 million to the Bengals for renovations. The entire renovation plan would cost $830 million and would include a new scoreboard, suite upgrades, new roof canopy, new seating, and improved walkways, escalators, and elevators — which sounds like a lot for that work, honestly, unless the suite bathrooms would be getting diamond-encrusted faucets — and would presumably include county money as well, though officials didn’t specify how much. “Our lease ends before theirs,” griped Hamilton County commissioner Stephanie Summerow Dumas. “Just wondering why is there so much focus on the Browns.” (Hmm, can’t possibly imagine why.) No word on whether the Bengals owners would tear up that insane state-of-the-art clause in their lease as part of the deal, you would think that would be important to ask, I’m looking at you, Cincinnati Enquirer.
  • Newly appointed West Sacramento Athletics president Marc Badain has declared that the team is still on track for a June groundbreaking for its Las Vegas stadium, blaming “skeptics” and “negativity” for the idea that John Fisher may not be able to find $1.15 billion in construction costs on top of the $600 million he’s set to get from the state of Nevada. “There’s a lot of people that make a living out of questioning the success of sports venues and what they actually do for a community,” said Badain, and while on the one hand I feel seen, I do question his description of this as “making a living,” as well as questioning whether a groundbreaking actually means you’re going to build a stadium given that just about anyone with a few shovels can hold one — whoops, there I go with the skepticism again, Badain sure has me pegged!
  • The Denver city council has some skeptics about spending $70 million for land and infrastructure for a NWSL stadium, with councilmember Sarah Parady saying, “We are facing the collapse of global financial markets. … I think we’re gonna be sitting here in a year [and] we will have paid in our amount of money from our incredibly scarce dollars that we are going to need for so many fundamental needs in the city.” Also concerning is the estimated additional $80 million in property taxes the city would be giving up by agreeing to buy and own the land under the stadium, according to  University of Colorado-Denver economist Geoffrey Propheter, who is not only a local but also the expert in calculating such things.
  • Just a few months after $900 million in tax money was approved for upgrades to the Utah Jazz and Utah Hockey Club‘s Delta Center and the Salt Palace convention center, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s office abruptly expanded the project’s TIF district last Friday to also redirect taxes from two luxury hotels, an apartment tower, and parking facilities on an adjacent block, providing an additional $59 million in tax money kicked back to the developer, according to Propheter. (That developer would be Jazz and Hockey Club owner Ryan Smith — quelle coincidence!) Then on Tuesday the Salt Lake City council unanimously approved creating the embiggened tax district, with councilmember Victoria Petro bemoaning that “we had no options” but adding that “there is no decimal point here that has been taken with anything less than the gravest consideration,” assuming the gravest consideration can be applied in just two work days.
  • “Salt Lake Bees’ new stadium in Daybreak expected to bring economic impacts, growth to local businesses” was the headline on Utah’s ABC4 website on Tuesday, and if you’re wondering “expected by whom?” and your guess was the owner of a single local coffee shop, you’re a winner!
  • Bridgeport, Connecticut now has an idea for how to pay for a $75 million minor-league soccer stadium, and it’s a TIF district, surprise, surprise. Also the full cost would now be $100 million, and would involve additional state money as well, but who can put a price on being one of the umpteen million cities to have a team in one of the nation’s two warring sets of soccer leagues?
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Friday roundup: Bucs want “major renovation,” won’t say yet who’d pay for it

access_time personNeil deMause

Today’s main event will be the liveblog of day two of the sports economics conference at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, which tons of presentations on stadiums and stadium-adjacent topics, but first here’s the regular Friday weekly news r0undup, written entirely on Thursday! If anyone’s roof blew off this morning, it’ll just have to wait till Monday.

  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Joel Glazer wants a “major renovation” of his stadium once the Bucs’ lease expires in 2028, funded by, uh: “We’re going through a phase right now where we’re assessing the stadium and what might be needed. And I know [Hillsborough County and the Tampa Sports Authority are] assessing the stadium and what might be needed, and once both of us are done with our assessments, then we come together and go talk about it, work through things.” Asked last summer about Bucs stadium funding, Tampa city spokesperson Adam Smith said team execs “haven’t approached the city about anything like that” and “we don’t expect them to”; either that was code for “paying for this is the county’s problem” or Smith really believes in the power of positive thinking.
  • Unlike the [Sacramento] Athletics, the Tampa Bay Rays have managed to sell out their 10,000-seat minor-league stadium in their opening series, even at prices running more than $100 for every seat that comes with an actual seat. Tampa Bay Times columnist John Romano blames this on the Rays needing to make up for “a potential loss of revenue from ticket sales, concessions, luxury boxes and the associated costs of relocating for a year,” not the desire to capitalize on artificial ticket scarcity. It’ll be interesting to see if those high prices hold up once the Florida summer heat hits — for what it’s worth, there are still plenty of seats available for next week’s series against the Angels.
  • Speaking of the Rays, the clock officially ran out on their St. Petersburg stadium deal on Tuesday, and now owner Stu Sternberg is free to shop around for another city that wants to give him a billion dollars. Anyone? You in the back? You were just stretching your arms? I see.
  • Cincinnati Bengals VP Katie Blackburn was asked what’s up with the team’s lease that’s set to expire in 2026, and replied, “We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year if we didn’t pick the up option up. So, you know, we’ll see.” NFL move-threat stan Mike Florio of NBC Sports called this “a powerful, loaded comment“; one might also argue that it’s exactly the kind of vague non-threat threat that you issue when you don’t actually want anyone noting that no cities have newer stadiums ready to offer. Potato, potahto!
  • The Jacksonville Jaguars need a place to play for two years while the city of Jacksonville is paying for stadium upgrades, so they’re asking Orlando to play them to play there, cool, cool.
  • A Massachusetts judge ruled that the demolition and reconstruction of White Stadium for the Boston Legacy F.C. can move forward, though opponents say they’ll continue to fight against it. (Boston Legacy, btw, is the new name for the much-derided BOS Nation F.C. women’s soccer team, presumably meant to honor the easiest way to get into Northeastern.)
  • Chicago Bears president Kevin Warren says the team is now focused on building a stadium in Arlington Heights, except for the portion of its focus that is on the Chicago lakefront. More news as actual news comes in, not just attempts at leverage plays.
  • Los Angeles elected officials are finally starting to get steamed about how the 2028 Olympics are being planned in a city that is recovering from disastrous fires, though so far it seems to be mostly about where the sailing competition will be held. If history is any guide, the real outrage won’t come until the Games actually begin.
  • Wondering how the affordable housing promises attached to the Brooklyn Nets arena are going? Does “Empire State Development (ESD), the gubernatorially controlled authority that oversees/shepherds the project, says it might enforce the $2,000 a month penalties for each unbuilt apartment, though that process may be fraught” answer that question? If you’re wondering why ESD only “might” enforce the penalty clause that was designed to make sure developers actually build what they promised, ESD VP Arden Sokolow says that if the state fined them, “you wouldn’t be getting any housing there,” whereas this way … oh, would you look at the time, we’ll have to cut off questions there!
  • Former Anaheim mayor and illegal helicopter registrant Harry Sidhu was sentenced to jail time for deleting emails to hide them from an FBI investigation into soliciting bribes related to a proposed Los Angeles Angels stadium deal — if you had “two months in federal prison plus a $55,000 fine” in the betting pool, you’re a winner!
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LOLAthletics make Sacramento debut with tool-shed press conference, mid-game bathroom breaks

access_time personNeil deMause

Stadium Day at the second annual sports economics conference at University of Maryland-Baltimore County isn’t until tomorrow, so while I’m attending today, I’m not liveblogging, meaning you’ll have to wait 24 hours for this kind of nonstop excitement. But it also means I have time to check in on the question everyone spent the winter wondering: How is A’s owner John Fisher’s mad scheme to leave Oakland and play three seasons in a temporary home in a minor-league stadium in Sacramento before (hopefully, maybe) moving to Las Vegas working out?

Welp:

The A’s opened their three-year (or perhaps longer) stay in Sacramento on Monday night, and it was an unmitigated disaster — to the point that getting absolutely decimated 18-3 by the Cubs barely registered on the Disaster Scale.

Do tell!

The most embarrassing thing out of Monday night was the A’s English and Spanish radio feeds completely crashing out by the later innings of the blowout loss, forcing the team to switch their television audio into their radio feed to listeners.

But not the only embarrassing thing:

And then there’s:

The A’s temporary home in Sacramento — Pacific League Ballpark Sutter Health Park — doesn’t have bathrooms attached to the dugouts. Yes, that’s right, much to the dismay of the A’s and visiting teams like Monday night’s Chicago Cubs, whereas every other MLB Stadium has a tunnel that leads from the dugout to the clubhouse and locker room, Sutter Health’s player’s area is located near left field.

So when Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki had to head to the clubhouse to presumably take a leak, he had to do what is now being called “The Walk of Shame,” as they paused the game so Suzuki could run all the way across the outfield and do his business.

And also:

A’s owner John Fisher, who did not attend a game in Oakland last season, was at the ballpark to hear occasional chants of “Let’s go Oakland” and see a handful of fans wearing SELL T-shirts. Several others wore T shirts or sweatshirts that read, “I’d rather be at the Oakland Coliseum.” A spirited but brief “Sell the team” chant arose after the bottom of the sixth, with the Cubs leading 16-3.

And this, which had to be far more entertaining than the game at that point:

There was a DRONE DELAY during the A’s opener vs the Cubs in Sacramento.

But, hey, every stadium has growing pains, right? Sure, the tool shed and the no-dugout-bathrooms problem aren’t going away anytime in the next three years, probably, but maybe they’ll at least figure out how to keep the radio broadcasts on the air, and maybe one day the A’s will even learn how to pitch! And at least the A’s no longer had to worry about empty seats, since their new stadium only holds 14,000 people, only 10,000 of them in actual seats—

*sigh*

Well then. Anyone else want to pile on?

“I think it’s so stupid that we have to play at a Triple-A stadium,” Cubs veteran reliever Ryan Brasier told USA TODAY Sports, “when they have maybe not a perfectly good ballpark in Oakland, but a big-league ballpark. I would have much rather play in Oakland than Sacramento, but I guess it doesn’t really matter what we want.”

No, no, it does not. All that matters here is that Fisher decided that he wasn’t happy with the $775 million in public money being offered for a new stadium development at Howard Terminal in Oakland, and would rather move to a stadium in Las Vegas that he didn’t have the money lined up for yet, and rejected an offer from Oakland to extend his lease there by paying actual rent. So here we are, for at least the next three years. Though good news, everybody! Fisher got permits approved to break ground for a new Vegas stadium, that should be happening real soon now, right?

The owner said the team’s stadium project in Las Vegas is “in a good place.” He has been targeting a June groundbreaking in Las Vegas. Asked Monday if a summer start to the construction is still possible, he said only, “I hope so.”

This is fine. It occurs to me that before setting betting lines about where the A’s would end up, I probably should have specified what “ends up” means.

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Somebody is insisting people want to buy minority A’s shares at top value to fund Vegas stadium, wonder who?

access_time personNeil deMause

Sacramento A’s owner John Fisher has reportedly updated his figure for how much additional money he needs, or at least wants, to complete his new Las Vegas stadium, and it now stands at $550 million:

John Fisher, managing partner of the Oakland A’s, is offering new shares in his Major League Baseball team at a $2 billion valuation, according to two sources with knowledge of the offering.

The Fisher family, which owns more than 95% of the Athletics, also known as the A’s, is looking to raise $550 million to finance a $1.75 billion, 30,000-seat domed ballpark in Las Vegas, according to the sources. In recent weeks, the A’s have had several investors that have been vetted by MLB who are willing to put in more than $200 million combined at an enterprise value of $2 billion, according to these sources.

That’s a lot to attribute to unnamed sources, but journalism these days, whatcha gonna do. If the reports are true, then Fisher is trying to sell off almost 30% of his ownership of the A’s to raise stadium money, so long as buyers are willing to do so at a price that assumes the entire team is worth $2 billion, which is 67% higher than Forbes’ $1.2 billion estimate. (Forbes isn’t always right with its value estimates, but it’s not usually quite that wrong.) And he’s found at least a handful of suckers willing to do so, according to sources, who are surely not Fisher cronies trying to drive up the sale price of minority shares by getting news articles saying “All the other rich kids are doing it!”

As for carving up your team’s stock to finance a stadium, there’s nothing wrong with it per se, though it does mean that Fisher would be left with only about 70% of the revenues he was counting on to pay off his share of the estimated $1.75 billion stadium cost — which even after accounting for about $600 million in state subsidies and that hoped-for $550 million in investor cash would still leave him on the hook for $600 million plus any cost overruns. It is so very difficult these days to tell legitimate business plans from shadow plays — you can watch a whole documentary about that — so we’re just going to have to wait and see whether somebody actually pays for the bulldozers or if the A’s stadium goes on the pile of Vegas sports projects that turned out to exist only in the minds, and press releases, of the people promoting them.

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Friday roundup: Rays, Coyotes, A’s fiascos keep on fiascoing

access_time personNeil deMause

All kinds of news of the week to cover this morning, and I already lost a couple of hours getting up early to yell at my senator’s window about this fiasco. Let’s start with the Tampa Bay Rays‘ own fiasco, and then work backwards:

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Friday roundup: A’s hire ex-Raiders stadium czar, Texans want renovations paid for by somebody

access_time personNeil deMause

It’s been another week, and, yeah, it sure has. Feeling this very strongly this morning, you all go on ahead and read this week’s bullet points while I get my second wind.

  • The Athletics have new Las Vegas stadium renderings (pretty similar to the last batch, only with more entourage) and a new president, Marc Badain, who formerly worked in the same role for the Las Vegas Raiders before abruptly quitting. Badain’s role in getting the Raiders’ stadium built (with $750 million in public money) and the fact that the Nevada legislature is coming back into session this year have people speculating that Badain could be on board to go back to the state for more cash to fill owner John Fisher’s budget hole; there’s no actual evidence that’s in the works that I can tell, but this entire project has been little more than tea-leaf reading for close to two years, why stop now?
  • New Houston Texans president Mike Tomon says he doesn’t want a new stadium, just renovations to the old one. The Houston Business Journal reports: “As far as funding potential renovations to NRG Stadium — which, coupled with projects around NRG Park and maintenance, could cost billions of dollars — Tomon said it’s too early in the process to determine what that would look like.” Lobbying strategy still hazy, ask again later.
  • The A’s and Tampa Bay Rays playing in minor-league stadiums this year are “cautionary tales of what happens when big, complicated challenges are met with half-measures and inaction,” writes ESPN’s Jeff Passan, who apparently missed the parts about how the A’s are in Sacramento because they alienated Oakland officials enough to torpedo talks of a lease extension there and the Rays are in Tampa because a hurricane blew their roof off, and neither of those things would be changed even if local officials hadn’t engaged in “inaction,” which they actually didn’t. Friends don’t let friends read Jeff Passan think pieces, is the lesson here.
  • San Antonio’s “Project Marvel” that would include a new Spurs arena, convention center expansion, and other crap has “tepid” 41-36% support, according to a new poll. The plan could be up for a public referendum as soon as this November, so that undecided 23% should start reading up on the details ASAP.
  • The San Jose Giants have agreed to extend their lease from 2027 through 2050 in exchange for $5 million in public stadium upgrades, and I’m going to go out on a limb and call this not that bad — the Single-A team has even agreed to double its rent payments from $20,000 a year to $40,000, which is next to nothing but not completely nothing. It’ll probably come out next week that San Jose has to turn over development rights to 10,000 acres of land or something in addition, but until then I’m filing this under “could have been so much worse.”
  • Someone wrote in to Cincinnati Enquirer sports columnist Jason Williams to ask if Hamilton County residents could have a re-vote on the tax hike that is paying off the Bengals stadium, and Williams replied, not a bad idea, it could be expanded to help fund a new arena, too. Pretty sure that’s not what the letter writer meant, Jason.
  • There’s actual video of actual cranes doing actual work to build Inter Miami‘s new stadium, maybe this thing will actually open eventually, even if the 2026 target date still seems ambitious. Or it could be the latest fake video, for all we know, hard to trust anything coming out of south Florida these days.
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A’s sell fans right to get on line for tickets at Vegas vaporstadium

access_time personNeil deMause

“A’s Tell Las Vegas Baseball Fans They Can Spend $19.01 To Secure Priority Access To Buy Season Tickets At Planned Stadium On Strip” is a perfectly cromulent headline; so is “A’s Open Ticket Deposits for Las Vegas Stadium That Doesn’t Exist Yet.” Choices! It’s all about choices.

For A’s fans, or Las Vegas baseball fans, or just fans of baseball who want to visit Las Vegas a whole lot, the choice is whether to spend $19.01 (because the A’s were created in 1901?) to get on a “priority list” for tickets at the team’s new Las Vegas stadium, if there are ever tickets, if there ever is a stadium. Front Office Sports describes this as a “deposit,” but there’s no indication on the team website that you can apply the $19.01 toward the price of tickets if you buy them or get it back if you don’t, so this appears to actually be one of those “fan club membership” type deals that let you get in on the presale before the general public.

And, you know, John Fisher needs all the money he can get, so another, say, 30,000 payments of $19.01 each would raise … okay, $570,300 isn’t all that much, but every dollar counts! Plus there’s nothing stopping Fisher from accepting more season ticket “priority list” members than seats exist, maybe this is the new market inefficiency! Gotta be lots of people who want to see Aaron Judge or whoever hit home runs!

In other pretending-the-A’s-are-moving-t0-Vegas news, the team has announced its games will be broadcast on a Las Vegas radio station this year, in addition to in Sacramento and the Bay Area, and also recently filed a permit to clear and grade the proposed stadium site. Whether all this is in actual preparation for a Nevada move or just an elaborate shadow play intended to entice some “investors” to come out of the woodwork and give Fisher a pile of money for no good reason remains unknowable, maybe even to Fisher himself — groundbreaking or it didn’t happen at this point, so might want to save yourself $19.01 for now.

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Manfred “believes” A’s will play in Vegas, D-Backs need new stadium, Yankees paid for Tampa upgrades that they didn’t

access_time personNeil deMause

Some days you just want to sit and laugh at Rob Manfred, and today is definitely one of those days. Take it away, Mr. Baseball Commissioner:

The Las Vegas Stadium Authority approved lease, non-relocation and development documents in December to clear the last major hurdles for the A’s to construct a $1.75 billion stadium on the Strip. Details remain to be worked out, such as a development agreement with Clark County, but groundbreaking likely will take place in the spring to allow a 2028 opening.

“I don’t think the timeline has changed,” Manfred said. “I believe we’re going to be on time to go in 2028.”

Hand it to Manfred for once: Instead of mumbling his way through an explanation of the A’s possible move to Las Vegas as is his wont, he gave a simple declarative statement that can be passed off as news while appending it with  “I don’t think” and “I believe” to maintain plausible deniability if it turns out he was talking out his ass. (Or out A’s owner John Fisher’s ass, in this case, since that’s who still has one small hurdle to clear in building a Las Vegas stadium.) That’s some quality commissionering, got anything else on any other team owners’ stadium dreams?

“I think that the reality of today’s economics is that either building or renovating a stadium almost by definition has to be a public-private partnership. I give [Arizona Diamondbacks CEO] Derrick [Hall] and [owner] Ken [Kendrick] a lot of credit for trying to be creative, making sure we have a facility here in Arizona that’s good for the long term.”

Does it, though? If a new stadium almost by definition costs more than it will bring in in new team revenues, then what it is about the old stadium that isn’t good for the long term — oh, sorry, you said “I think,” that’s your get-out-of-fact-checking-free card, my bad.

Looks like we have time for just one more:

“The industry owes Hal Steinbrenner a real debt of gratitude,” Manfred said of the Yankees owner. “He put literally tens of millions of dollars into improving Steinbrenner Field and the first people who are really going to get to use it for any period of time is the Tampa Bay Rays.”

Maybe not literally tens of millions of dollars on this go-round — perhaps you’re thinking of the previous $40 million renovation, which was mostly paid for by the state and city? If only you had said “I believe” first, but it’s okay, we have some lovely parting gifts.

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A’s Sacramento digs still work in progress as fans question sky-high ticket prices

access_time personNeil deMause

The outside world got a sneak peak at the Athletics‘ new temporary home in Sacramento, thanks to the San Francisco Giants, who held a fan fest there this weekend. (The River Cats, the Giants’ AAA team, make their regular home there.) How it’s going: Okay, kinda, considering?

On Saturday, the field looked like an excavation site: not a blade of grass in sight, littered with bulldozers and what appeared to be the framework for new plumbing being installed over the dirt.

The scoreboard in center field has also been stripped to its bare bones.

Or, in a thousand-words equivalent:

That doesn’t look all that great, but there are still two months to go before the regular season starts, so plenty of time to finish the drainage, lay down sod, build a new scoreboard, and anything else that need to go on behind the scenes, right? Right?

“It’s crazy,” Giants outfielder Heliot Ramos said, staring out from a second-level suite overlooking the field he treaded for parts of two seasons. The grass had been torn up. A John Deere tractor was positioned in left field. The scoreboard, the batter’s eye and parts of the outfield wall were missing.

“I thought it was going to be pretty much (done), but not even close. They’d better be close. The season’s about to start soon.”

Anything else, yes, you in the back, Giants second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald?

Fitzgerald also hoped aloud that there will be a connector between the clubhouses, which are located behind the outfield fences, and the dugouts. As it stands, players have to walk down the lines or through the stands to go between – which may pose an issue for big leaguers.

Meanwhile, the few A’s fans at the Giants fest were excited to have games in their area, though decidedly less excited about the cost: Team execs have taken advantage of the Sacramento ballpark’s tiny 14,000-seat capacity to send ticket prices through the roof, with season tickets going for $100 a game and the cheapest single-game seats at $54. (For $37, you can sit on the outfield lawn.) Sacramento A’s fan — that is, A’s fan from Sacramento, they are officially not the Sacramento A’s, though the San Francisco Chronicle is having none of it — Anthony Huerta called the prices “pretty extreme” and “almost insulting” before proposing a possible built-in solution:

“Once summer hits and it gets really hot, I don’t think people will actually want to come out here and experience that,” he said.

The A’s in Sacramento: Unaffordable or unbearably hot, take your pick! At least maybe you’ll get to see your favorite player walk by on the way to get something from his locker — and who can put a price on that?

 

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