Major League Baseball’s commissioner has put the lie to the Oakland A’s claim that they’re not seeking a taxpayer subsidy for a new waterfront ballpark.
Commissioner Rob Manfred last week threatened that the A’s might leave town and slammed city officials for filing a lawsuit trying to block Alameda County from selling its half-interest in the Oakland Coliseum to the baseball team.
“I think (A’s President) Dave Kaval and (majority owner) John Fisher and the rest of the A’s organization have made a huge investment to try to get a stadium done here, and to have a city entity turn around and litigate against progress is upsetting,” Manfred told the San Francisco Chronicle.
But city officials are not litigating to stop progress. Indeed, they have worked hard to support the team’s efforts to build a new ballpark at Howard Terminal, despite strong opposition from labor and environmental groups.
Manfred should be praising them instead of effectively arguing for the A’s to receive a taxpayer bailout — public financing that A’s President Kaval duplicitously claimed the team is not seeking.