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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.

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Speaker 1: We explore some of the big old money issues in

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Speaker 1: the world sports.

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Speaker 2: I'm Michael Blarm, I'm Scarlett pil and I'm Demian Sashauer.

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Speaker 1: And we are going to talk about it looks like

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Speaker 1: the A's are going to leave Oakland. It it's almost

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Speaker 1: like a done deal, but hopefully to fill its shoes,

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Speaker 1: big shoes to fill. We can be talking about a

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Speaker 1: soccer club, and Oakland's soccer team is proposing a new

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Speaker 1: stadium after the A's walk away. And with us to

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Speaker 1: talk about that is Bloomberg News editor for the Deal's team,

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Speaker 1: Michael hipA on the story and you wrote it. First

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Speaker 1: of all, Michael, thank you so much for joining us

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Speaker 1: on the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

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Speaker 3: Pleasure to be here, happy to talk about it.

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Speaker 1: Yep. So first of all, it's I mean, poor Oakland.

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Speaker 1: I mean, they lose the Raiders, they're about to lose

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Speaker 1: the A's, but at least a soccer team is coming up.

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Speaker 1: I'm just curs. Let me start by first of all asking, well,

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Speaker 1: why couldn't they just play at the old Oakland Coliseum.

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Speaker 3: That's a good question. The Oakland Coliseum was one of

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Speaker 3: the last of the multi purpose stadiums. One could argue

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Speaker 3: it was one of the best ones, and it's actually

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Speaker 3: not a bad place to see a game. Then, as

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Speaker 3: part of Oaklands should we say, problematic sports history, when

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Speaker 3: the Raiders came back to town in the nineties, it

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Speaker 3: included this plan to basically fill in what was a

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Speaker 3: beautiful view of the hills through the outfield with the giant,

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Speaker 3: you know, three hundred foot or so extension of the

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Speaker 3: stadium for the Raiders, and just it's just not a

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Speaker 3: great place to see a game anymore. And it's just old.

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Speaker 3: It's one of the oldest parks in the you know,

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Speaker 3: in any sort of major league sport.

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Speaker 2: So Michael, I just have to chime in here and sorry,

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Speaker 2: you know, poor Oakland. I mean, that's Michael Barr's comment,

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Speaker 2: not mine. I mean, maybe Reggie Jackson and Dave Stuart

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Speaker 2: would agree, but I mean, let's just talk about the

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Speaker 2: Oakland A's right now. They are four and eighteen. I mean,

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Speaker 2: they are on pace for twenty nine wins this season.

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Speaker 2: That is historically in apt. Historically, I mean, truthfully, Michael,

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Speaker 2: the only team that even comes close to as the

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Speaker 2: Detroit Tigers with their forty three wins. I mean, my

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Speaker 2: only question here, Michael, is who really cares? I mean,

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Speaker 2: who cares with a team like this?

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Speaker 3: Okay, to your point, if you look at the A's

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Speaker 3: current win loss percentage rate, it's worse than most of

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Speaker 3: the batting averages.

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Speaker 1: In the majors.

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Speaker 3: I think it's like you know, one eight two or something, right. So, yeah,

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Speaker 3: there is a core group of fans. There are those

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Speaker 3: in the Bay Area. Keep in mind, you've got the

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Speaker 3: Giants on one side of the Bay and the A's

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Speaker 3: on the other. There's always been this American League, National

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Speaker 3: League sort of personality difference while you're here, and also

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Speaker 3: those who like the Giants with their more national attention

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Speaker 3: drawing base right, and those who like the A's they're

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Speaker 3: There was always a fan base. It was always a

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Speaker 3: little bit less reliable than the Giants and certainly smaller,

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Speaker 3: but you know that there were real advantages to it.

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Speaker 3: You could go to an A's game and get you know,

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Speaker 3: a good seat, plus a hot dog and a free

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Speaker 3: soda for the cost of parking at the Giants, right,

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Speaker 3: So it would have had more of a family atmosphere

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Speaker 3: in some ways, and was more affordable. And don't forget

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Speaker 3: the A's had some good years here. I mean they

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Speaker 3: won the series three years in a row.

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Speaker 2: I mean, Mike, I'm just pulling your chain, you know.

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Speaker 2: I mean, we'd love to see the as rolling over.

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Speaker 2: I was just using as an excuse to bash the

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Speaker 2: two thousand and three Detroit Tigers to be cheerful, Michael.

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Speaker 2: But I mean, let's just be clear, right, I mean,

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Speaker 2: I mean Oakland's now lost the Warriors, the Raiders, and

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Speaker 2: the A's. I mean, whose fault really is this? Is

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Speaker 2: this city officials? Is this the teams? Is this the

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Speaker 2: league and the way that you know sports is evolving?

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Speaker 2: I mean I mean is it the fans? I mean,

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Speaker 2: who's to really blame here?

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Speaker 3: Okay, we're going to venture into opinion here, That's okay.

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Speaker 3: You know one one there, there's a long history of

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Speaker 3: the city itself not being able to deliver what what

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Speaker 3: the teams needed and wanted. Right, There's also just the

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Speaker 3: the geography of it and the economics. You know, thinking back,

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Speaker 3: what other market recently has had two NFL teams, two

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Speaker 3: Major League Baseball teams and an NHL team as well.

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Speaker 3: Don't forget in the southern of the Bay Area, right,

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Speaker 3: and so the entire Bay Area plus an NBA team

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Speaker 3: and New York, right, that's it. So it was perhaps

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Speaker 3: an oversaturated market to a certain degree. There is this

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Speaker 3: long history of you know, of trying to accommodate the teams.

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Speaker 3: As I mentioned, the the issue of bringing the Raiders

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Speaker 3: back in a sense made the stadium a worse place

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Speaker 3: for the A's. The efforts to build a new stadium

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Speaker 3: are also sort of confronting the eye of just the

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Speaker 3: reality that there's not a whole lot of extra land

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Speaker 3: that's vacant. Like stay in a place like Las Vegas,

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Speaker 3: where you have more open space and sort of larger

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Speaker 3: tracts of land. The effort to build a new waterfront

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Speaker 3: stadium had gone on for ten years, and it just

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Speaker 3: they ended up with a plan for one billion stadium,

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Speaker 3: but more importantly, a twelve billion dollar development complex that

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Speaker 3: included you know, thousands of residential units and millions of

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Speaker 3: square feet of office space, but would also require about

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Speaker 3: six hundred million dollars and offside improvements that were to

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Speaker 3: be funded by taxpayers, and the city just came up

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Speaker 3: short on being able to supply all of that money.

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Speaker 3: They've got about halfway there.

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Speaker 4: Okay, So there's a long complex, not great history for

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Speaker 4: the teams in Oakland in the East Bay. Now you

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Speaker 4: have the Oakland Roots and Soul Sports Club looking to

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Speaker 4: build a stadium next to the Oakland Coliseum. They want

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Speaker 4: to build a complex for their fan base. How big

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Speaker 4: is their fan base and what's the likelihood that any

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Speaker 4: of this will get done? Given the long history you

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Speaker 4: just told us about and the fact that the city

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Speaker 4: has not been able to execute on any of the

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Speaker 4: previous attempts to build new venues.

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Speaker 3: I think the taxpayer component is an important one. The

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Speaker 3: Roots have a smaller base, of course, if they get

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Speaker 3: about up to five thousand people out of the game

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Speaker 3: they're playing right now in a community college stadium. They

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Speaker 3: have this, They are rooted in Oakland. Soccer is an

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Speaker 3: important sport here in the Bay Area, as it is

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Speaker 3: in other locales, and increasingly so. They they get their

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Speaker 3: fans out, it's a regular base. It's one of the

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Speaker 3: what's what's left for Oakland now in terms of sports?

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Speaker 3: If the majors are all gone? And I think there

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Speaker 3: is a relocalization of the sports allegiances perhaps going on

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Speaker 3: with that one and what they're proposing is a stadium,

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Speaker 3: which would technically be sort of an interim stadium, right,

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Speaker 3: that's something to actually take down, but it would still

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Speaker 3: look like a quote unquote permanent stadium, like.

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Speaker 4: A modular.

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Speaker 3: Right exactly. It would have about ten thousand seats. They're

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Speaker 3: proposing to build it without you know, a lot of

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Speaker 3: tax payer money involved or anything. So that that's one

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Speaker 3: big component there. What they want as a lease on

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Speaker 3: a site that's publicly owned next to the Colicy and Complex.

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Speaker 2: Now, so Michael, I mean, and for our audience, we

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Speaker 2: should clarify the the the Oakland Seoul is basically the

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Speaker 2: USLW pre professional team, right, and so that began play

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Speaker 2: in May two. It's pre professional. It's not the NWSL.

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Speaker 2: But to that point, if I'm not mistaken, the NWSL

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Speaker 2: does have a team coming to the Bay Area in

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Speaker 2: the not too distant future. Ryl Sandberg, I've heard is

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Speaker 2: behind It's sixth Street, you know, Alan Waxman. So talk

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Speaker 2: to us about how this will impact that.

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Speaker 3: Okay, this is this is going to be interesting. The

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Speaker 3: mind is the Oakland Roots is the men's team. The

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Speaker 3: Oakland Seoul is the new women's team for the Roots

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Speaker 3: soccer club, right, so a couple of weeks ago. Among

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Speaker 3: those named, Cheryl Sandberg is a sponsor in Sixth Street,

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Speaker 3: but also Randy Chastain, Ali Wagner. Some true sports legends globally,

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Speaker 3: not just in the Bay Area are behind this creation

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Speaker 3: of a new team. It's it was not certain where

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Speaker 3: they would play at this point. Most likely they'll be

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Speaker 3: paired with the San Jose earthquake a few miles south

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Speaker 3: of Oakland. The earthquake has a new state right in

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Speaker 3: San Jose, and that would be the betting, the best

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Speaker 3: bet as to where they'll probably end up playing it.

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Speaker 3: I think there's probably enough room for multiple soccer teams

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Speaker 3: at that level in the Bay Area.

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Speaker 1: Myself, I cannot understand why Oakland, in the Bay Area

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Speaker 1: cannot hold a major pro sports team. And if you

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Speaker 1: think about it, two of the teams shoot out, Yeah

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Speaker 1: we're going to go to Las Vegas. Yeah but it's

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Speaker 1: a desert. Yeah but we're gonna go to Las Vegas. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but it's a desert. It's hot. It's hot in Las Vegas,

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Speaker 1: and Oakland has nice views. I don't understand why Oakland

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Speaker 1: cannot have more teams at least the soccer teams are

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Speaker 1: hopefully picking up on the idea, But I don't get it.

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Speaker 1: I don't get why Oakland can't hold a team.

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Speaker 3: It's a very good question. The appeal of Las Vegas

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Speaker 3: compared to Oakland for the A's does seem a bit

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Speaker 3: more problematic than for the Raiders. For the NFL. You

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Speaker 3: have a very limited number of home games you have it.

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Speaker 3: In the case of the Raiders especially, that's a lot

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Speaker 3: of a national following, right so you'll get people who

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Speaker 3: will make a long weekend of it and go to

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Speaker 3: the game, go to the casinos, do whatever else. It

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Speaker 3: happens in Las Vegas, and I don't see that sort

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Speaker 3: of happening for the A's myself. There'll be people who

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Speaker 3: are there and might say one of you know, eighty

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Speaker 3: one home games to go down and see a game

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Speaker 3: on occasion. The A's president Dave got Cavil says that,

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Speaker 3: like the they're looking at about four hundred thousand people

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Speaker 3: sort of extra tourists coming to Las Vegas because of

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Speaker 3: the A's. Whether that's enough to sustain the team and

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Speaker 3: appeal to the city that remains to be seen, and

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Speaker 3: that's about half of what the Raiders are seen as

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Speaker 3: as attracted.

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Speaker 2: Let me just point out also that Mark Davis, the

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Speaker 2: owner of the Raiders, if I'm not mistaken, has just

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Speaker 2: come up with a record as opposing the leaving Oakland

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Speaker 2: right drama all the job. I wonder what's behind that?

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Speaker 3: Right?

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Speaker 1: Oh?

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Speaker 3: OKK, can I do a long quote? I just happened

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Speaker 3: to have this one here. Pull it up. He was

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Speaker 3: quoted as saying, I won't forget what they did to

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Speaker 3: us in Oakland. They squatted on a lease for ten

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Speaker 3: years and made it impossible for us to build on

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Speaker 3: that stadium. This is to the Review Journal in Las Vegas.

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Speaker 3: For them to leave Oakland without anything is pretty And

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Speaker 3: there's a parenthetical screwed up. Davis said, because that site,

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Speaker 3: that stadium was on a good site.

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Speaker 2: Amazing, welcome to Las Vegas's that's pretty rich, I guess.

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Speaker 4: I mean, I go back to what Michael Barr was saying.

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Speaker 4: It feels like the city of Oakland bears some responsibility

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Speaker 4: here in terms of not being able to make a

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Speaker 4: case for why a team would want to stay in

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Speaker 4: the city. And I think about what happened between the

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Speaker 4: A's and the city. We had spoken with the A's

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Speaker 4: president Dave caval and they there was a lot of

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Speaker 4: talk about all this work being done to look at

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Speaker 4: landsites and serving and ultimately, why did a deal between

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Speaker 4: the city and the A's not come to fruition when

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Speaker 4: there was so much work being done on it? Or

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Speaker 4: is it as the mayor alleges that the A's never

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Speaker 4: had any intention of staying in Oakland and we're just

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Speaker 4: using the process as a way to leverage a better

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Speaker 4: deal out of Vegas.

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Speaker 3: Not having been inside the room on the negotiations, who

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Speaker 3: knows exactly how the Oakland situation was mentioned in Las Vegas.

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Speaker 3: Certainly it became the A's we're looking at Vegas with

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Speaker 3: as their main focus, and that the waterfront stadium in

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Speaker 3: Oakland was fading from a focused rather quickly. What surprised

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Speaker 3: me and most was the mayor, I'm shankau Is. She

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Speaker 3: didn't mince words, No right, she didn't leave open to

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Speaker 3: sort of like, hey, we can have this diplomatic language

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Speaker 3: that will be mad at each other now, but come

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Speaker 3: together later and it won't look so ridiculous. She said.

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Speaker 3: You know, they use leverage that's disrespectful to the residents

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Speaker 3: and the fans and we're done. The A's from their perspectives,

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Speaker 3: spent about one hundred million dollars, they say, looking at

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Speaker 3: the waterfront stadium, planning for it and working to fighting

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Speaker 3: lawsuits over it. I think that the waterfront idea, And

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Speaker 3: for those who don't know Oakland, the waterfront is mostly

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Speaker 3: the Port of Oakland, so there is a sort of

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Speaker 3: a recreational area of sorts and nightlife place called Jack

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Speaker 3: London Square. The ballpark would have been on one side

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Speaker 3: of it with the port on the other, and the

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Speaker 3: economics of that were pretty tough. He had a lot

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Speaker 3: of industrial uses. The A's wanted to make it essentially

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Speaker 3: a residential office place next to a metal scraft guard

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Speaker 3: and and that creates a lot of issues. And the

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Speaker 3: the the port itself from from Oakland standpoint, I think

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Speaker 3: anybody looking at it with a with a dry eye

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Speaker 3: would say, well, it's a lot better to have the

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Speaker 3: Port of Oakland fully operating for Oakland than it would

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Speaker 3: be to have the Oakland Days in terms of economic benefit.

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Speaker 1: I want to give a shout out back to the

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Speaker 1: Oakland soccer team, especially the Oakland roots and the soul

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Speaker 1: because one of the investors and we did not mention him.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we've got Marshawn lynch Man. He is huge.

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Speaker 1: I love him.

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Speaker 3: U A lot of people do. Yeah, I mean, you know,

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Speaker 3: keep but he's he's not just anybody in Oakland either.

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Speaker 3: He's somebody who who you know, became famous at Oakland

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Speaker 3: Tech High School, which is you know, an important place. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: I went to cal. Yeah, we played for this city

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Speaker 3: up north called Seattle for a little while, you know,

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Speaker 3: came back and played for the Raiders. So he is

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Speaker 3: somebody who is an important local hero. He played for

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Speaker 3: Oakland Tech, became you know, locally famous there, went on

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Speaker 3: to play for Cal as I mentioned, went up to

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Speaker 3: a place called Seattle, played for a few years in

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Speaker 3: the NFL, but came back and played for the Raiders.

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Speaker 3: And he's somebody who is you know, he came home

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Speaker 3: to Oakland. He brought all kinds of interest and investment

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Speaker 3: with him. So he's behind he's one of the investors

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Speaker 3: behind the roots. There's also a group of local founders

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Speaker 3: of course, with the organization, and they have a good

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Speaker 3: shot at at keeping going.

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Speaker 1: I think, I know we're starting to run out of time,

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Speaker 1: but I always think of Marshawn Lynch and probably the

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Speaker 1: best news conference ever. During the Super Bowl. He comes

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Speaker 1: in and you know, it's one of those things where

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Speaker 1: the players mandatory they got to sit down and talk

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Speaker 1: anybody who's not familiar with the story. And he sits

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Speaker 1: down and he says, don't even ask me any questions.

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna sit here and stay for the two minutes.

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Speaker 3: Many you know, he will never be accused of not

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Speaker 3: speaking his mind or not not speaking his mind.

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Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Thank you Michael hythe with our own

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Bloomberg News editor for the Deals team. Thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports.

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Speaker 3: Thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: This has been the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast, or

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Speaker 1: we explore some of the big money issues in the

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Speaker 1: world of sports. I'm Michael Barr. You can follow me

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Speaker 1: on Twitter at Big Bar Sports and.

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Speaker 4: I'm on Twitter Scarlett Foo Man, I'm on Twitter at

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Speaker 4: Deep sas Hour and Michael, I know you have a

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Speaker 4: Twitter handle.

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Speaker 1: What is this?

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Speaker 3: It's at Mike Kiser m I k E h y

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Speaker 3: p h A yeah yeah.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, you can download our podcast every Monday,

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Speaker 1: Wednesday and Thursday and download the show wherever you get

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Speaker 1: your punt,