The wheels are not really in motion for an ownership change in Oakland, but Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob did indicate prior to the team’s game against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night that he would have interest in purchasing the Oakland Athletics.
Joe Lacob (Warriors owners) just said they'd have interest in buying the A's.
— Vincent Frank (@VincentFrankNFL) March 19, 2015
While the A’s are not in the market to be sold at this time, there’s a common perception around MLB that Lew Wolff, public enemy No. 1 in Oakland, is in it for the money. If one of the biggest power players in the California sports scene were to offer up a nice bounty, it would be interesting to see how Wolff would react.
There are a ton of different layers to this story.
First off, the A’s have been pushing for a new stadium in Oakland for some time now—something that simply hasn’t been realistic over the past decade or so. Even though new commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated that he plans on putting the A’s stadium issue on the front burner, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of confidence that anything will get done.
In addition to the A’s stadium problems, the Oakland Raiders are in the midst of entertaining the possibility of relocating to Southern California. That was only magnified by a recent plan to build a new stadium just outside of Los Angeles with the San Diego Chargers.
As it relates to the Warriors, they are in the early stages of potentially building a water-front arena in San Francisco.
Needless to say, the professional sports future in Oakland is tenuous at best.
Lacob didn’t mention co-owner Peter Guber in the discussion with Comcast Sports Net’s Jim Kozimor. That would further difficult a potential purchase of the A’s. Lacob, a former minority owner of the Boston Celtics, doesn’t currently have a stake in a Major League Baseball team. However, Guber is the co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
This is all extremely preliminary, especially considering Wolff has yet to put the A’s on the market. While Lacob didn’t speak to potential relocation, common logic would seem to suggest that any interest in purchasing the A’s would be to keep the team in the Northern California market.
Since taking over the Warriors back in in 2010, the Lacob/Guber group has turned the franchise from a laughingstock to one of the model organizations in the professional sports world.
A potential ownership change would likely be seen as a great thing by both MLB and the A’s fan base.
Photo: USA Today