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The Athletics are struggling on the field and at the box office.
Their 29–57 record entering Sunday’s games is the worst in MLB this season. So is their average home attendance of 8,559 fans per game.
The team is wrestling to build a new ballpark in Oakland and is flirting with Las Vegas in case that plan fizzles.
How might their fate be different if they had an owner such as Joe Lacob, who has enjoyed four championships in the past eight seasons as primary owner of the Warriors?
It’s a fair question to ponder, as a San Francisco Chronicle report brings to light the fact that he apparently was rebuffed from buying the A’s many years ago. Lacob apparently had a deal in place to buy the team from Stephen Schott for $180 million. Instead, the MLB commissioner at the time, Bud Selig, approved a sale to one of his college fraternity brothers, Lew Wolff, and John Fisher in 2005.
Lacob doesn’t mince words about how he thinks the ballpark situation would’ve played out under his control.
“I had the A’s done,” Lacob told the Chronicle. “It was just taken away from me. You know what, everyone’s confident in their own abilities, obviously. I think we would’ve had a stadium a long time ago if I had bought it. That’s just me.”
Lacob also told the Chronicle that he remains interested in buying the A’s. In fact, he told the newspaper that a “standing offer” has existed for him to buy the team from the Fisher family, which purchased Wolff’s share of the club in 2016, for more than 10 years.
“I’ve had a standing offer to buy the A’s from John Fisher for I don’t even know how long. Over a decade,” Lacob told the Chronicle. “It’s up to him; it’s his business.”
Lacob also unsuccessfully tried to buy MLB’s Angels and Dodgers before acquiring the Warriors, according to the Chronicle. He told the newspaper that his status as a baseball outsider hurt his chances in those bids.
Lacob then bought a stake in the NBA’s Celtics and became acquainted with power players around the league. Those contacts helped him purchase the Warriors with Peter Guber for $450 million in 2010.
“When the Warriors came up in 2010, I had an advantage, ironically—maybe my only advantage—over [Oracle Corporation co-founder] Larry Ellison, which was I knew everybody in the league really well,” Lacob told the Chronicle. “It’s interesting. The reaction to what happened with the A’s kind of helped me get the Warriors.”
