It's really great how they can't help but be condescending to the people.

I really hope the relevant authorities look into the stadium deal, and if that means killing it then good.

Wow. What complete ########. I'd feel sorry for their fans if they had any except for the one really well dressed guy in New York. (Yes, I'm an A's fan making fun of other smaller fanbases. The opportunity doesn't come around often!)

"Trying to double talk, get myself in trouble talk, catching myself in lies
Catching myself in lies
Mama just looked at me as if I was, ah, crazy
And didn't even bat an eye
So I began to try to explain, ah that it just wasn't what she thought
I'd better find something to do with my time
The fact is ah just been caught, just been caught,
Sneakin, sneakin, sneakin,"

-imagines Brattain's take-

Yes, I'm an A's fan making fun of other smaller fanbases. The opportunity doesn't come around often!

Onceago, the A's had a pretty strong regional fanbase. There were more than a few A's fans in Oregon when I was growing up, and my grandfather, inasmuch as he followed baseball, claimed to be an A's fan. (He was from Yuba City; the A's moved to Oakland long after he had moved away, but I think they were the only major league team from California he could confidently name, mostly because his Yuba City relatives were A's fans.) I have several friends who live in what's generally considered Giants territory who are A's fans because they came up during the McGwire-Eckersley years.

Whatever happened to all that?

All right, move on...nothing to see here, please disperse.

Whatever happened to all that?

1.) They ruined the Coloseum.
2.) A's ownership since the Haas family sold has been idiotic when it comes to media, especially in contrast to how savvy the Giants have been.
3.) Ownership wants their free stadium and has been moaning and moaning for 20 years about it. That kind of anti-marketing doesn't work well.

It's really great how they can't help but be condescending to the people.

When has a Loria-run organization not been condescending to its critics?

RTA, and you see that they argue that the profits made in 2008-9 were used to reduce their debts, run up in previous years. Among these debts is probably included, under the reference to 'debts held by MLB', the subsidy handed to Loria so he could buy the Marlins. Loria was basically bribed so he could not take all the benefit from moving the Expos to the D.C./NoVa area, and the jackpot could be distributed among all the MLB owners. But he wasn't bribed enough, because now he has to pay off that debt by extracting a surplus from MLB's entire fanbase and using it to pay the syndicate. What a dolt.

Jeffery, when you take a bribe, make sure you don't have to pay it back.

More humorously, another beneficiary in all this, Mr 'Financial Genius' John Henry, is paying money in revenue sharing that he had received in order to sell the Marlins to Loria.

I'm sure once you 'stress-test' all the flows of money around MLB in the Great Franchise Swap of 2002, everybody who is an owner wins. Presumably even including all the fees paid out to this lawyer and that accountant and the other PR person, spinning to keep us all positively focused on wins and on-field strategies. After all, these are crafty millionaires, who always make the smart play, otherwise how could they be millionaires?

1.) They ruined the Coloseum.
2.) A's ownership since the Haas family sold has been idiotic when it comes to media, especially in contrast to how savvy the Giants have been.
3.) Ownership wants their free stadium and has been moaning and moaning for 20 years about it. That kind of anti-marketing doesn't work well.

4) They did all this right when the Giants got proactive local ownership, got good, and signed Barry Bonds.

What a bunch of crooks!!

What a bunch of crooks!!

Duh, Henry made his fortune as an equities trader, didn't he?

Hey, they earned that ceaseless flow of free, no-strings-attached money by virtue of their divine selection as MLB owners. To stop the torrent of free cash after the ownerships have grown accustomed to the posh lifestyles it affords them, now that would be unfair. Un-american, even.

Bet the A's has captured the MBA demographic with their spreadsheet heroics though.

To say don't worry about our finances just give us money seems incredibly obnoxious. Of course I think public financing of stadiums without the teams books being opened up a bit was always obnoxious.

What complete ########. I'd feel sorry for their fans if they had any except for the one really well dressed guy in New York.

[Thumbs up.]

That said, attempting to draw conclusions of a baseball team's financial health is very hard to do by only taking a cursory look at a two-year snapshot. Worse, a small sample size gives one little perspective on circumstances surrounding other and prior years of operation. Therefore, examining such a small sample can be very misleading.

They must be willing to release the financials right?