February 22, 2024

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Where the A’s will play next year is becoming a dominant story in MLB. … The Masters makes a special invite to a LIV golfer. … Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick employs a time-honored playbook in the team’s stalled stadium renovation negotiations. … Plus: It’s the anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice.”

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

Where Are the A’s Playing Next Year? Let’s Weigh the Options [[link removed]]

Robert Edwards-USA TODAY Sports

There is arguably no bigger story—or at least no bigger question—in MLB to start 2024 than what’s going to happen in ’25.

For months, the question of where the A’s will play during the 2025 through ’27 seasons before a new Las Vegas stadium is due to open has vexed [[link removed]] team and league officials alike, with the situation carrying a deeply complex mix of facility, media, labor relations, municipal, and scheduling considerations. Both league commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark have admitted to the rising urgency of the situation. Manfred said [[link removed]] following recent owners meetings in Florida that “we need to get at it.” While continuing his tour of spring training camps, Clark told the San Francisco Chronicle [[link removed]], “It needs to get done.”

A decision is due by the summer, when the 2025 schedule is expected to be released. But numerous parties beyond MLB and the union are pressing for an answer sooner than that, and a final choice could be arriving in a matter of weeks. What we know for certain, per Manfred, is that the temporary home of the A’s will be “someplace in the West.” A rundown of the leading options, in order of most likely to least likely:

Oakland

A once-unthinkable prospect has dramatically returned to prominence with team and city officials resuming [[link removed]] talks about a potential lease extension at the Oakland Coliseum (above).

Pros: Staying in the market would preserve a local media rights deal with NBC Sports California that paid the club $67 million last year. The facility already is approved for major league use. It has by far the simplest logistics for team operations with any relocation delayed until 2028. Cons: The 57-year-old facility is falling increasingly into disrepair, and no major renovations are planned. Attendance there would be almost certain to remain the worst in the league. Negotiations between the city and the A’s regarding multiple topics are still tenuous. Sacramento

Some recent reports [[link removed]] suggest that the California capital has emerged as a “front-runner” to be the team’s temporary home, vaulting above Oakland.

Pros: The A’s would likely be able to keep most of that regional sports network money by staying in Northern California. The 14,000-seat Sutter Health Park is large enough to accommodate an average A’s crowd, and at nearly 24 years old, is in far better shape physically than the Coliseum. Cons: As a current Triple A park, the facility would require modifications to meet MLB specifications. The Buffalo Bisons’ Sahlen Field went through a similar process during the pandemic when it temporarily hosted the Blue Jays. Despite yeoman efforts by officials from the city of Buffalo, Erie County, and the Bisons, complaints persisted there about the quality of the amenities compared to big league standards. Salt Lake City

The city has made a fervent push to land an MLB expansion club, but during the interim period for the A’s, talks have centered on a new ballpark for the Triple A Bees set to open in 2025.

Pro: A temporary placement here would serve as an extensive test case of how well the market—also pursuing [[link removed]] an NHL franchise—would support big league baseball. Cons: By moving out of the Bay Area, the A’s would have to start over in building up its local media rights revenue. Like the situation in Sacramento, modifications would be required to meet facility standards for regular-season MLB play. The Bees would be forced to remain in Smith’s Ballpark for three additional years. San Francisco

The Giants’ Oracle Park had previously been seen as one of the leading choices for the interim period. But this option has received little notice lately.

Pros: The ballpark is already approved for MLB play and within the existing market of the A’s, allowing for retention of existing local media rights. There would be minimal inconvenience for existing A’s fans. Cons: MLB’s already-intricate matrix of game scheduling would grow further muddled with both the A’s and Giants playing here. The Giants also actively use the ballpark on non-game days for other revenue-producing uses, and the A’s playing here would likely require compensation for that lost revenue. The Giants and A’s have a deeply complicated relationship given the Giants previously invoked territorial rights to help scuttle an A’s move to San Jose. Las Vegas

Another originally discussed option was playing the three interim years at Las Vegas Ballpark, the current facility of Oakland’s Triple A affiliate. It also has fallen off the radar in these discussions.

Pro: The facility is already in the market where the A’s are relocating permanently. Cons: This is another minor league facility, not to mention an outdoor stadium in Nevada’s brutal summer heat. ‘Gotta Get in First’: For LIV Golfers, a New Path to the Green Jacket [[link removed]]

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Network

LIV Golf scored a small but very important victory with Joaquin Niemann’s special invitation to the Masters in April.

Niemann, the 25-year-old Chilean who left the PGA Tour in 2022 for a sign-on fee with LIV that The Telegraph reported [[link removed]] to be at least $100 million, finished T-16 at the ’23 Masters and played in the other three major championships last year but fell outside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking—severely hurting his chances of making it into this year’s field at Augusta National.

But on Tuesday, the club announced that Niemann (currently ranked No. 81) and two other non–LIV golfers—Denmark’s Thorbjørn Olesen (No. 59) and Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune (No. 78)—had accepted special invitations, citing a “long-standing tradition of inviting leading international players who are not otherwise qualified” for the Masters. Last year, Japanese golfer Kazuki Higa (who was ranked No. 68 at the time) and American amateur Gordon Sargent received special invites. The most recent special invite before that was in 2019.

The inclusion of Niemann is crucial because LIV has been unable to secure world ranking points, meaning top players who don’t have exemptions into major championships via previous wins at those tournaments are slowly but surely losing their status for golf’s biggest events. The Masters, which was looking at potentially its smallest field in decades [[link removed]], has now invited 83 players (including 13 LIV members) for April’s tournament—still lower than the 87–99 range seen each year since 2000.

Niemann has been vocal about his desire to continue competing in the majors and his displeasure with the current ranking system, which he called [[link removed]] “unfair” in January. After winning LIV’s season-opening event in Mexico, Niemann said he hoped the victory got the attention of golf’s power brokers. “I want to win majors,” he said [[link removed]], “but I gotta get in first.”

Competition Matters

Notably, the Masters’ announcement did not cite Niemann’s performance on LIV but instead three recent top-five finishes on the DP World Tour, including a win at the Australian Open in December. That could be a message to other LIV members that making the effort to keep competing globally—and performing well—will boost their chances of getting into the Masters, and perhaps other majors if they aren’t otherwise qualified.

In October, Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said the club didn’t anticipate making changes to Masters qualifying criteria, but he did point out that exemptions were always under consideration. “We adjust to what we feel is in the best interest of a tournament representing the best players in the world,” he said [[link removed]] at the time. Luckily for Niemann—and LIV—the Green Jackets made good on their promise to be flexible.

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Pushing the Boundaries

To complete an Ironman Triathlon—the most famous event put on by the Ironman Group—one must swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and then run a marathon … back-to-back-to-back.

Scott DeRue, CEO of the Ironman Group, joins Front Office Sports Today and discusses how the company is planning to further push the limits of human endurance across the globe in the latest episode.

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Diamondbacks’ Tone Takes Darker Turn As Renovation Talks Drag On [[link removed]]

Arizona Republic

In their bid for public funding to renovate Chase Field, the Diamondbacks have attempted the carrot—without success. Now comes the stick.

After prior efforts to garner taxpayer funds for ballpark renovations have failed, the MLB club is now speaking more openly about a potential end to their time in the Phoenix market—representing a darker turn in the ongoing saga and a search by franchise leaders for greater leverage in talks with city and Maricopa County leaders.

“We may run out of time in Phoenix,” Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick said this week at the club’s spring training complex. “We hope that won’t happen.”

The club has already lamented [[link removed]] its own lack of striking a stadium renovation deal while public money has been allocated for similar MLB projects in Baltimore, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, St. Petersburg, and Pittsburgh. But all politics are local, as the time-honored adage goes, and the Diamondbacks have continued to come up empty in their bid for help on a project slated to cost more than $400 million—and a surprise run [[link removed]] to last year’s World Series has not changed that dynamic.

Kendrick insisted he isn’t looking to issue a threat to local leaders or actively contemplating a team relocation. But he also cited the rising number of cities interested in landing a MLB franchise.

“Cities are letting MLB know their interest, [and] their interest in getting a team is specific,” Kendrick said. “They would be happy with a brand-new franchise, but they would certainly be very happy with, frankly, a successful, existing franchise.”

Such a shift in tone by a club amid difficult stadium negotiations has been commonplace elsewhere. The Brewers in particular went through a similar dynamic last year, with talk of a potential departure from Wisconsin preceding approval [[link removed]] of roughly $500 million in funding to upgrade American Family Field.

The Diamondbacks’ current lease at Chase Field expires in 2027. The team’s wish list for ballpark renovations not only includes upgrades to core systems such as air conditioning and lighting, but also the creation of an adjacent mixed-use development increasingly in vogue across the sports industry.

TIME CAPSULE Feb. 22, 1980: Do You Believe in Miracles?

Rob Schumacher/The Republic via USA TODAY NETWORK

On this day 44 years ago: The famed “Miracle on Ice” occurred when a U.S. men’s Olympic ice hockey team, made up mostly of amateur players, triumphed over a heavily favored Soviet Union team. The Soviets had arrived in Lake Placid, N.Y., as the four-time defending gold medal champion. Played against the rising tensions of the Cold War and a downcast U.S. national mood amid fast-rising inflation and the Iranian hostage crisis, the American victory became a key point of national pride, drawing in millions who otherwise had no interest in sports.

The U.S. triumph also sparked a wide range of business initiatives. In addition to NHL careers later enjoyed by many team members, coach Herb Brooks, and assistant Craig Patrick, key figures such as captain Mike Eruzione and goalie Jim Craig became in-demand motivational speakers. Memorabilia from the game has been coveted by collectors for years, fueling a wide range of six- and seven-figure sales. And the 2004 Disney-produced feature film Miracle, depicting the team’s march to glory and starring Kurt Russell, grossed more than $64 million against a reported budget of $28 million and garnered widespread critical praise.

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Conversation Starters Two-team MLB expansion is seen as an “inevitability,” according to ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan [[link removed]], with Nashville and Salt Lake City as potential candidates. The NBA All-Star Game was slated for an 8 p.m. ET tip-off, but it didn’t actually start until 8:42 p.m. ESPN analyst JJ Redick had some thoughts [[link removed]] about it on the Old Man & the Three podcast. Could NBA and WNBA teams eventually land in Pittsburgh? The city’s Sports and Exhibition Authority is paying [[link removed]] a firm as much as $90,000 for a feasibility study, measuring local demand for those leagues. Editors’ Picks Comcast CEO on the Paris Olympics, NFL Streaming, and NBA Rights [[link removed]]by Eric Fisher [[link removed]]NBCUniversal parent also eyes resurgence in fan interest in the Olympics. NHL Sets Attendance Records With MetLife Stadium Series Games [[link removed]]by Eric Fisher [[link removed]]There’s no evidence of waning enthusiasm for the league’s non-arena outings. Celebrity Owners, International Ambitions, and $7B Media Deals: Welcome to the New NASCAR [[link removed]]by David Rumsey [[link removed]]NASCAR boldly keeps pace with the increasingly competitive sports and entertainment world. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Sports Careers [[link removed]] Written by Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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