Las Vegans continue to be taken to the cleaners, this time by the Oakland Athletics and their slippery owner, John Fisher. Seems that the A’s have quietly applied to spend as little time in Las Vegas as humanly possible. They’ve asked to hold eight “home” games out of town. This home-but-away fiction is humored, to a lesser extent, by Major League Baseball, to facilitate exhibition games overseas. Not that anybody is falling over themselves to invite the cellar-dwelling A’s to town but one can’t blame the feckless Fisher for dreaming.
Howard Stutz found this escape clause buried in the fine print of the team’s agreement with Clark County. No other team in MLB plays anywhere near eight “home” games on the road. But the A’s continue to act like they’re special. Even A’s shill and Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority prexy Steve Hill had to concede that the proposed reduction in bonafide home games would crimp the Athletics’ bond agreement and reduce the public subsidy by $12 million. (No bad thing.) Sacramento attorney and stadium detractor Jeremy Koo was left to state the obvious: “It is unclear why the A’s require the uncompensated right to play seven, much less eight, home games away from the proposed stadium yearly.” Why indeed.
Shamelessly, team President Dave Kaval claimed the A’s were really trying to limit the number of times they’d play on the road. We’ll pause while you fall over laughing at that howler. The equally shameless Jeremy Aguero tried to spin the Athletics’ fink-out as a plus for the community: “That also allows the stadium to be reprogrammed for some other use during that same period. The value of a stadium is not just game day. It is everything that happens outside of game day as well.” Silly us, thinking the purpose of building a baseball diamond was for the quaint purpose of playing, y’know, baseball.
Besides, Applied Analysis hoodwinked the Nevada Lege by telling “lawmakers last year that the stadium would host 95 events annually — including 81 A’s home games.” So how did 81 magically shrink to 73? And isn’t the public entitled to at least some of its money back? According to Stutz, the plan also runs afoul of the team’s collective bargaining agreement, “which stated that only four neutral site series—one or two-game events—can be scheduled each regular season.” Whoops. Lastly, the A’s haven’t played as many as eight neutral-site games in the last 16 years. Is Fisher trying to take the team on the road 89 times a year as means of further shopping it around? We wouldn’t put it past the sleazebag.
Gambling receipts suffered a bit in Ohio this spring. The $200 million gross was 2% down from last year, albeit high heavens (+25%) above April 2019. MGM Northfield Park was flat but led the state with $26 million. Hollywood Columbus was also flat but was first among full-service casinos with $23 million. Jack Cleveland slipped 4% to $21 million while Hard Rock Cincinnati tumbled 12% to $20 million. Hollywood Toledo actually gained 2% to $19.5 million.
But H’wood Toledo was still looking up at Miami Valley Gaming, a bullseye for Churchill Downs that scored $20 million (-3%). Trailing it were Scioto Downs ($19 million, -4%), Jack Thistledown ($16 million, -3.5%), Hollywood Mahoning Valley ($14.5 million, +5%) and Hollywood Dayton ($13.5 million, +3%). Bringing up the distant rear was Belterra Park ($7 million, -6%). Sports betting yielded an additional $73 million—before $20 million in George promotional giveaways—from $657 million in handle. FanDuel‘s $34 million gave it bragging rights, while DraftKings settled for $21 million. Others in the hunt were Bet365 ($5 million), BetMGM ($4 million), ESPN Bet ($3 million) and Caesars Sportsbook, just hanging in there with $1 million. Caesars was even bested by Fanatics ($2 million), continuing to do better than we anticipated.
Jottings: Executives of DraftKings conveniently forgot about their threat to vacate Illinois, and in record time. Jefferies analyst David Katz visited DKNG HQ and found it “bullish” on near-term prospects … Louisiana‘s dire Belle of Baton Rouge is finally being put out of its lengthy misery. Gaming & Leisure Properties will pony up $111 million toward the cost of replacing the woefully performing riverboat with a land-based casino … Las Vegas Sands is having to redistribute players among its Macao casinos after renovations to The Londoner dampened recent results. Sands figures to have the themed megaresort fully up and running by late autumn … Who has worse judgment than Bally’s Corp.? FanDuel, that’s who. The OSB giant is rushing in where angels fear to tread, picking up branding rights to Sinclair Broadcasting‘s insolvent sportscasting arm. We hope they know what they’re doing.