MLB commissioner Manfred downplays ‘reverse boycott’, feels ‘sorry’ for A’s fans but looks ahead to likely Las Vegas move

Rob Manfred does not appear concerned about burning any more bridges with the East Bay.

One day after the Nevada Legislature voted to offer the A’s $380 million in public funds for a Las Vegas stadium, the commissioner of Major League Baseball downplayed Tuesday’s fan-organized “reverse boycott” in protest of Manfred and team owner John Fisher working to move the team.

“It was great,” Manfred said Thursday after the owners’ meetings in New York. “It’s great to see what is this year almost an average Major League Baseball crowd in the facility for one night. That’s a great thing.”

The crowd at the Coliseum Tuesday night for the A’s 2-1 win over the Rays was 27,759. While the turnout and fervor drew positive reviews from many national observers, Manfred is correct on the numbers: That attendance figure would rank 17th among MLB teams so far this season. The A’s entered Thursday last in MLB with an average count of 9,076.

The $1.5 billion proposed stadium in Nevada would be the smallest in MLB, with a capacity of 30,000, and Las Vegas would be the smallest TV market in the league, too.

Manfred did express sympathy for the Oakland fans who appear likely to lose their team, but placed the blame on the city of Oakland for the failure to bring to fruition a deal for a new stadium at Howard Terminal.

“I feel sorry for the fans in Oakland. I do not like this outcome. I understand why they feel the way they do,” Manfred said Thursday during a news conference following the owners’ quarterly meeting. “I think that the real question is ‘What is it that Oakland was prepared to do?’ There is no Oakland offer. They never got to the point where they had a plan to build a stadium at any site.”

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao swiftly denied the claim the city had made no ballpark offer.

“There was a very concrete proposal under discussion and Oakland had gone above and beyond to clear hurdles, including securing funding for infrastructure, providing an environmental review and working with other agencies to finalize approvals,” spokeswoman Julie Edwards said in a statement. “The reality is the A’s ownership had insisted on a multibillion-dollar, 55-acre project that included a ballpark, residential, commercial and retail space. In Las Vegas, for whatever reason, they seem satisfied with a 9-acre leased ballpark on leased land. If they had proposed a similar project in Oakland, we feel confident a new ballpark would already be under construction.”

The bill in Nevada is expected to be signed by Gov. Joe Lombardo soon, leaving an MLB owners’ vote as the only remaining hurdle to approving the second team departure from Oakland to Las Vegas in five years, after the NFL’s Raiders left town in 2020.

Manfred said the team must still submit an application for relocation, which MLB will review in a process that could take months. Ultimately, a three-quarters vote will be required before relocation.

John Fisher declined to speak to media Wednesday at the owners’ meetings and has stayed silent as he attempts to move his team out of state. Manfred, whose job is to represent the interests of the owners, defended Fisher.

“We have never mandated that owners have a particular stance with respect to public availability,” Manfred said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.