The Oakland A’s presently sit at .500 on this young season. After dropping two of three to the resurgent Philadelphia Phillies over the weekend, the A’s spent Monday jumping on Tampa Bay Rays reliever Chris Mazza, who replaced injured starter Luis Patiño in the first inning, early and often, en route to a 13-2 victory.

Whatever the A’s accomplish on the field this year — frankly not expected to be much after an off-season spent unloading the team’s best players (Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, and Sean Manaea) in a salary dump — will be thoroughly overshadowed by struggles over which field the A’s will call home in future seasons. With the team’s lease on the rapidly deteriorating Oakland Coliseum ending in 2024, the A’s insistence that building a new park on the Coliseum site is unacceptable, and the effort to build a new ballpark on the Oakland waterfront near Jack London Square facing significant hurdles, the team is making loud noises about moving to Las Vegas where they would, albeit unintentionally, rejoin their former Coliseum co-tenants the Raiders. However, while Las Vegas bent over backward to welcome the Raiders to town, the New York Post has reported possible political and local business opposition to the A’s making Sin City home.

On the political side, Democrat Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak, who’s running for re-election this coming November, is reportedly balking at MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s demand the state chip in $125M or so for a new A’s stadium as it would probably involve some form of tax increase to cover same. Let us momentarily pause to gaze in wonder at the notion of a Democrat hesitant to raise taxes. Okay, we now move on.

Now, here at the sports desk located somewhere below decks of the Good Pirate Ship RedState, we occasionally field questions regarding how we can still follow professional sports given its penchant for wokeitude inane insanity. The answer is twofold. One, we love sports. Two, we’re stubborn plus well versed in ignoring stupidity. The question then becomes how yours truly can remain an Oakland A’s fan with the way the team gets run into the ground year after year. The answer, again, is twofold. One, it’s my team. Two, I and the 15 or so remaining A’s fans survived Charlie O. Finley as an owner. We can handle anything from the current team owner, John Fisher, who’s spent his business career simultaneously piggybacking off his family of The Gap ownership fame and following the path of least resistance, and are stubborn enough to stick with a team whose own ownership hates it even more than Rob Manfred hates baseball. Which, given he’s the commissioner of said sport, is a problem. But that’s a topic for another post; back to the A’s.

The real opposition Sisolak doubtless fears comes from the Las Vegas business community.

In December, Sisolak told the Nevada Independent newspaper he would not support a hotel room tax to fund a new baseball stadium. That’s after he helped raise $750 million with a $2-a-night tax to build the football stadium for the Las Vegas Raiders that opened in 2020.

Insiders said Sisolak may also be hesitating because of powerful constituent MGM Resorts, which owns nearly 40 percent of all hotel rooms in Sin City, as well as a sizable collection of entertainment spaces that could be threatened by the addition of a 30,000-seat, domed baseball stadium.

There are several factors at play (no pun intended) here not fully fleshed out in the Post story. A hotel tax to help pay for the Raiders stadium made sense because of the team involved. For Raider Nation, the Silver and Black isn’t a football team; it’s a way of life, and irrelevancy personified is whichever city the team calls home this week. The fans will travel to the game, be it in Oakland or Los Angeles or Las Vegas or Tierra Del Fuego. And while in town making a weekend of it anyway, why not hit the casinos?

The Golden Knights have the dual advantage of being the first pro team in town and having served as the core around which Las Vegas coalesced following the 2017 Harvest Festival shooting. Also, a hockey game provides a perfect nightcap for those visiting Vegas in the winter to escape the East Coast or Canadian cold. As to the NBA, after the unfunny shenanigans that went down during the 2007 NBA All-Star Game in Sin City, don’t bet (again, no pun intended) on the league ever putting a franchise there even with a glittering privately-funded arena serving as bait.

Only the top-tier storied baseball franchises — Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Cardinals, Dodgers — are destination organizations, the kind of team people plan lengthy trips to see. The A’s, especially in their current state of decades spent occasionally winning despite incessantly devaluing themselves by trading away every established player for budget-priced prospects who subsequently face trading should they ever establish themselves, are not a destination organization. Unwanted waystation, perhaps. The A’s would draw only locals, who avoid the Strip like the plague unless they work there. Thus, no gambling money would come in, and no high rollers would roll into town. Nothing is brought into the gambling business by an MLB team in Las Vegas except traffic hassles depending on stadium location.

Circling back to Manfred — and no, no one here at the sports desk is auditioning to be the next White House press secretary — in the latest sign he Just. Doesn’t. Get. It., his brilliant idea to smooth out player-ownership resentment post-lockout? Give all the players headphones. Although, come to think of it, given how Manfred’s public speaking style is best compared to stale soggy ramen, slapping on a pair of Bose and cranking up the Red Hot Chili Peppers whenever Manfred wishy-washies his way toward a microphone isn’t a bad idea. Also, with the sole exception of Tampa Bay, every major league team is set ballpark-wise for the foreseeable future. If, quoting the Post story, Manfred “does not want to set a bad precedent for other owners looking to negotiate their own new stadium deals,” the question immediately becomes what deals?

The fervent hope of myself and the other 15 or so remaining A’s fans is one of two possible scenarios. One, Fisher either gets a clue or is blocked from every option other than building a new ballpark at the Coliseum site. Two, sufficient pressure is mounted on Manfred and Fisher to put their money where their social justice mouths are by selling the team to an investment group led by former A’s pitcher Dave Stewart, who has made no secret of his desire to both keep the team in Oakland and build a new ballpark on the Coliseum site. While admittedly not in the most fabulous neighborhood, before Mount Davis’ construction the Coliseum was a great place to watch a ballgame, looking out over the bleachers at the genuinely lovely Oakland hills. In the meanwhile, the political drama continues. Thrillsville.