Oakland Mayor Drops Bombs On Oakland A's Ownership

Join us in this exclusive interview with Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao as she opens up about the intense negotiations and emotional rollercoaster surrounding the Oakland A's potential move to Las Vegas. Hosted by Damon Bruce and Damon Amendolara, this episode delves into the inner workings of the city’s efforts to keep the team, the challenges faced, and the broader implications for the community.
Mayor Thao discusses the negotiations with A's owner John Fisher, the role of the fans, and the true cost of losing a beloved team. Discover the untold stories, political maneuvers, and the unwavering spirit of Oakland's leadership and community.
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[@vincevargas7892]

Thank You Damon...glad you see the side of the diehard A's fans.

[@steves700]

Get this posted on as many social media sites as possible. This needs to be seen

[@damonbruceplus]

Share it Steve. Pass it along. Thanks.

[@GravityFalloutPines]

By the time she had become mayor Oakland was clearly The Back-up Plan to Vegas

[@vasuvaddiparty751]

This was great to attend and see Damon Bruce and meet Damon Amendolora. Plus the people and employees of line 51 were terrific.

[@AlbertQian]

Great interview. Thank you for doing this!

[@NatFinnn]

MLB should give Oakland the A’s name and brand and history, like the NFL did for Cleveland and the NBA did for Charlotte. Lacob A’s!!!

[@povertyspec9651]

I doubt that MLB would ever approve a new team for Oakland.

[@DamitFeelsGoodtobeaRaider]

@@povertyspec9651 they could if stadium was built in a suburb. lots if teams play in a suburb. 9ers and patriots come to mind off the top of my head.

[@NatFinnn]

@@povertyspec9651 I don’t see why not. As the video notes, Oakland was dealing in good faith and was willing to build a waterfront stadium.

[@NatFinnn]

@@DamitFeelsGoodtobeaRaider one could argue they are like a suburb out there with the size of San Fran and San Jose. It’s a great city. And if they keep Coliseum location, w great logistics.

[@DamitFeelsGoodtobeaRaider]

@@NatFinnn i don't think the league thinks it's a great city which is why i suspect that the only way the east bay gets a team is in a suburb east of oakland.

[@rapalbumdepot7648]

Oakland has had these type of so-called problems forever- like at least since the early eighties. Like even back in the Jose Canseco era AND back in the Rich Gannon era AND during the Baron Davis Warriors and all that. I think what has happened is that pro sports has gone headfirst into being a real estate conglomerate and cities like Oakland- to there credit- aren't likely to just roll over and instantly approve some massive sports mall with a hotel next door. And good for Oakland- because that is the smart move for the citizens and business owners and families, etc. Etc.

[@mikepuncsak7297]

ATAWAY Damon !!! You sure dont mince words & ask the real in depth questions and Mayor Thao is right there

[@damonbruceplus]

I got zero tolerance for anymore bullshit. My channel will reflect that. Thanks for watching, Mike.

[@kEaNeKlEiBeR]

Why is fisher telling Oakland he’s looking to stay only to later admit that the plan of staying in Oakland has sailed long before?

[@thomasjoseph3488]

Lost cause, Oakland and A's fans. It is sad and a situation about which we Expos fans certainly empathize.

[@tommydong8070]

Empathize

[@thomasjoseph3488]

@@tommydong8070 Thanks. Darn fat fingers!

[@SippyCupAdventures]

Appreciate this. Glad to see you and DA take this on. I followed live as time allowed. Great BRoll overlays, too.

[@damonbruceplus]

Awesome, thank you!

[@JStrike42]

I like Mayor Thao. Unfortunately Oakland is impossible to govern.

[@CptChappy]

Thanks Damon. You get it.

[@thirdeyespy5503]

She's piling on late. This was all on Libby's Schaaf's watch. It's easy for Thao to play to the crowd. Here's what happened. The city of Oakland was extracting all they could from Fisher, including housing and community benefits. Fisher was in until he figured out he didn't have to jump through hoops and meet all of their demands. He figured out he could just go somewhere and have a stadium built and not have to construct the peoples eco-village. He's a crappy owner but that's his choice. The A's are not beholden to Oakland to provide physical or social infrastructure. This is a city that lost the port and Clorox is going to sublease 80,000 sq feet of its offices because they ultimately want to leave Oakland as their employees need to get security escorts from BART. You have a despicable owner dancing with a highly dysfunctional city government. I'll leave this rant with the asking of a question. Why don't The A's relocate to Golden Gate Fields? There's plenty of space and a bay view to nearly rival Oracle.

[@MichaelPaladini-hy6up]

Funny how no one cold have outlined the demands by the city through the past three Mayoral administrations in Oakland. I would also love to take a look at that "Free Housing" that was provided to those in the encampment that is now the Ballers Stadium. What a Joke this city has become.

[@Ahi_tuna_]

This was a great interview. Thank you Damon.

[@GregAlterton]

As an A's fan since 1968, what the current ownership and the MLB is doing to fans amounts to abuse.

[@ricmightybonefeliciano9800]

awesome interview

[@samuelwinchester8902]

Oh man, with the news of the raid on her home today, any hope of Oakland keeping the A’s goes out the window I’m afraid.

[@damonbruceplus]

One has nothing to do with the other.

[@samuelwinchester8902]

@@damonbruceplus I may have jumped the gun a little, but she is a strong voice for keeping MLB in Oakland, and if they lose that voice, it may not doom the cause, but it certainly hurts it.

[@BrainHealth-md8wx]

Sad for Oakland and the A’s fans. Hoping Fisher finally gives in and sells the team to local ownership.

[@togoandmoss]

this woman and her bombs are the reason why the Athletics are moving out of Oakland in 44 days! She killed the lease extension with stupid demands that the A's could not grant (expansion or keeping the logo in Oakland) and her ridiculous 97 million dollar rent offer.

[@francislangbein4210]

Come on Damon - Oaklander and lifelong season ticket holder here, not to mention long time listener. The city of Oakland blew this deal. Public money hasn’t been spent on pro sports in Oakland since Mount Davis. A bitter pill to swallow, yes, that deal sucked. Since then, city council has held the teams responsible for Oakland’s other problems. The A’s negotiated for 10 ploose years. The A’s proposed a $12B investment in the city and city council said um…yeah but can you handle these other problems too? The A’s are a baseball team. They can inspire a community but they are not saviors. They are not required to do city council’s job in order to do their own. The Raiders left for Vegas, the Warriors left for SF. Now the A’s - whats the common denominator? Is Oakland telling other businesses to take on the challenge of affordable housing? Does Kaiser Permanente and Oaklandish have to fix the potholes around Lake Merritt before they get a business permit? Tell the mayor to do her job which is to enrich and improve the lives of Oaklanders. Get off her dick. Hold her accountable. This ain’t it. Just because a billionaire is on the other side of something doesn’t make him automatically the bad guy. He’s still an asshole. But for this body of work, there is more than one asshole.

[@damonbruceplus]

Look - you’re right on many fronts … but the closer Howard Terminal came to happening, the more the A’s bolted. This was a one topic discussion. Take your pothole complaints elsewhere.

[@francislangbein4210]

@@damonbruceplus lol. regardess of my complaints oakland potholes aren't going anywhere. if the mayor and city council stayed on one topic - stay - when negotiating with the A's, maybe they'd be staying.

[@ozziegallegos5091]

Is there any way the city of Oakland can keep the A's name?

[@MrDboydeluxe]

This was worth a re-watch today... 🤣🤣

[@damonbruceplus]

Ya, we were all over the postal scam. Everything she said about Fisher remains true.

[@lmcc0072]

Thao is the Mayor of Oakland now. Fisher is a big part of the problem, but don’t forget Libby Schaff, Jean Quan, and Jerry Brown were also a big part of the problem as well. If you don’t believe me, look at the sad state that the rest of Oakland is in. The 3 previous mayors were a large part of what’s happening now.

[@buicklincoln]

The City didn't have a power negotiator on their side to convince Lew Wolfe or Fisher to stay in the east bay. Schaff was in way over her head and was too preoccupied with Trump and sanctuary city nonsense than to negotiate a good deal for the A's. They should've called in a power broker like Willie L. Brown, Jr. to negotiate and we'd still have the A's in Oakland.

[@kitmarshall4084]

wow i had no idea, such BS by the A's owner... as a fan since elementary, i say F, it let them go to Vegas... Oakland dont have time for games.

[@choatican]

Oakland is hemorrhaging businesses and population.....and has a dysfunctional government. Weird that this seems to be ignored by the KZbin media when it comes to the A,'s relocation.

[@thirdeyespy5503]

It's because most of youtube media is politically naive at best. And it's the Bay Area so it's also the politically correct POV. Virtue signals are low hanging fruit.

[@KonaLife]

This. Exactly this. I’m one of the people that Oakland hemorrhaged last year. It’s not going to get better anytime soon. The city government is completely dysfunctional from the mayor’s office on down. The city council and a combative East Oakland neighborhood merchant’s association was the main obstacle that prevented the A’s from building the new Ballpark, not the A’s ownership. Not to mention Schnitzer Steele and the Port of Oakland’s longshoremen union. The whole thing was a mess, and the A’s definitely played a role in all of this, but the main blame should be pointed at the city itself, and the people who live there. Full stop. You get what you vote for.

[@Savethepeople2004]

As a baseball purist, I consider the pitchclock to be the single worst development in American professional baseball over the last 100+ years. The bottom line is that baseball with a clock is a junk product!!! I am currently engaged in a boycott of any live baseball that uses a pitch clock. In other words- despite having attended hundreds of MLB games in my life- I havent been to a MLB game since 2022. I DID attend the pitchclock-free 2023 WBC which was glorious 👍

[@dfilipino4443]

Remember what that reliever said when he left to retire was named Trevor May

[@brandoncarpenter9681]

Great interview, economy goes in cycles, Vegas is a boom and bust town. Will be interesting to follow the economics of the A’s in the next 5 to 10 years.

[@daveclark8337]

Oakland boomed in the 70s and has devolved into a Busted up ghetto since then.

[@toddbergman6676]

lets get this one on private for the time being

[@kEaNeKlEiBeR]

“Status quo is not gonna fly anymore” hell ya. We’re not gonna pay for billionaires investments. Like why was this ever a thing?

[@aeromtb2468]

give it up oakland has real problems.

[@ryanjones875]

And SF, LA, NYC, etc. don't?

[@thirdeyespy5503]

@@ryanjones875Nashville doesn't. Dallas doesn't. Charlotte doesn't. San Antonio doesn't. Salt Lake City doesn't. Anaheim doesn't. Denver doesn't. They have issues like all cities but not the deep, urban decay, super high crime, large numbers of homeless. Not every city in America is a crime ridden shithole and if you make a case for it, then we have a real problem and baseball stadiums are the least of it.

[@Blackhawk556.]

With the amount of theft and business leaving Oakland, why should the owner invest hundreds of millions to build a stadium? The population of Oakland is extremely low income and business keep getting broken into. Why would you invest in a city that shows no willingness to lock up people who are causing trouble?

[@frv1995]

Cause your gonna find the same shit in any other city. Crime happens in big cities. I get that there's alot of people who just hate oakland even tho they've probably spent very little time there if any but there's alot of good hard working people in oakland.

[@BigBlueHorses]

The largest construction project in CA is the high speed rail to nowhere. Let’s keep perspective.

[@damonbruceplus]

That is not commercial development. Different categories.

[@wongleebruce]

Damon wasn't there anyway the City of Oakland could have granted what the A's were asking for the $10-17 million to stay the remaining three years for the interim at the Coliseum before moving to Vegas in 2028 rather than asking them for the 3 years for $92 million? It's a shame they couldn't finish up in Oakland rather than finishing up in Sacramento. By the way the Mayor is right Fisher will later regret passing on Howard Terminal because he will lose his shirt in both Sacramento and Vegas just on TV revenue alone.

[@damonbruceplus]

I don’t know what more Oakland could’ve done to lure an owner who never wanted to be there.

[@timtoliver1983]

So all 30 MLB owners and the commissioner are all wrong And Sheng Thao is right

[@jfiffick]

Fischer is just a bad owner. Has tanked the A's continously. Sucks as a long term fan.

[@Charles.D.3rd]

The A’s leaving isn’t right… 😞💔

[@ryanjones875]

How many times, if any, has Fisher been to an A's game?

[@Danadams-v1s]

who cares. Look at charley Finley, absent ,but 3 world championships

[@ryanjones875]

@@Danadams-v1s Lol. How can you even compare the two? Finley Love the A's, met the players and was intimately involved. Fisher is a Giants fan, has nothing to do with the A's, doesn't like the A's, made a joke the one time he met A's employees that that was the only time they were going to see him in the past or future. He bought the team solely as an investment, and wants to move them out of the Bay Area also to help the Giants.

[@jacksonj3082]

A's ownership - bad faith dealing

[@GravityFalloutPines]

I remember your interview with Mayor Quan when she mentioned the sultan!

[@86byrdman]

Yeah, Mayor Quan's interviews were wild. I remember Damon's interview with her when he first joined 95.7 I believe. I remember Chris Townsend's interview with Mayor Quan. She believed at the time that Oakland could get 4 teams. I remember Townsend was like, "4 teams?!?". LOL... She really was in over her head

[@artc1980]

​@@86byrdman Remember the interview with Townie and she was touting Coliseum City... 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

[@86byrdman]

@@artc1980 LOL. Yep, I remember that. Mayor Quan made it sound like it was going to be a done deal, even despite the obstacles Townie pointed out in the interview

[@artc1980]

@@86byrdman yep, I remember listening thinking "WTF is she even talking about??? This is a pipe dream..."

[@bullwinkle2380]

Sheng Tao got blindsided!!!

[@daveclark8337]

She's getting blindsided right now, by the FBI!!!

[@thirdstringallpro6264]

She got caught up in a child trafficking ring

[@aaronwilliams6989]

WHAAAAAAA......?!

[@Savethepeople2004]

No biggie. MLB is probably the worst baseball league most of us have ever heard of when you take into account sportsmanship and accountability and fairness. Unfortunately for Oakland baseball fans the Frontier League- the league where the Ballers play- is also owned by MLB.

[@rapalbumdepot7648]

These ridiculous MLB rule changes by Rob Manfred represent the most serious crisis that has ever beset Major League Baseball- and the game of baseball itself- that has occured in the entire history of the game. Not only are the rule changes a clear example of CULTURAL GENOCIDE- the impetus of the rule changes were done without proper input by BOTH fans AND experienced baseball professionals. Instead- these rules were motivated by a perverse desire to mutate the game for the sake of big money gambling interests. And if that werent enough(!) MLB Inc. is now back in the collusion business with All Stars like Bauer, Longoria, Belt and Puig blacklisted in the exact same way as Barry Bonds. I admit this is all more than a bit overwhelming. Nonetheless, this is something that needs to be addressed in a proactive way by everybody around the world who truly loves this game. Or at least immediately after Trumpito gets his ass handed to him this November👈

[@馬伕]

She is such a babe!

[@86byrdman]

Not going to lie, she is kind of cute. I also think SF mayor London Breed is kind of cute as well

[@Danadams-v1s]

@@86byrdman kind of like a small pig

[@Danadams-v1s]

These Three are not any thing but a pack of liars. Never talked about how the city screwed the pooch and lost three Pro Teams

[@damonbruceplus]

Non of that was on THIS mayor’s watch. A’s were. So that’s what we discussed.

[@roydaone]

wow i didnt know about how the ballers happened

[@rick8295]

Disingenuous on part of Chaou. Every mayor for the past 30 years prior could have made a deal happen. Agree A’s ownership is terrible but City of Oakland and Alameda county could have resolved the A’s situation but they didn’t want to. Not 100% on ownership. And a new owner could move them in a heartbeat. Stop leaving the politicians off the hook.

[@damonbruceplus]

No one is cloaked in glory. But the Billionaire is the guy who could be a savior, and this one is NOT.

[@rick8295]

@@damonbruceplus who ever said Billionaires are supposed to be saviors?

[@povertyspec9651]

Raided by the FBI

[@MrDboydeluxe]

I thought the Raiders left Oakland...

[@alfredoescalante7418]

Everyone is saying this is a great interview its crap , why do I say that Did the Easy Bay Alliance get mentioned once or asked about , for those of you who think this interview was great do you even know about the Easy Bay Alliance . Secondly, everyone talks about the team being a City of Oakland, no its not, ask yourself how many season ticket holders actually had a Oakland address , not many .in 1995 , their was a press conference had went MT Davis was built ,during that presser a member of the commission spoke and said that if in 20 years 3 new facilities were not built Oakland would lose all its team . Lew Wolfe ask for Oakland to turnover land next to current site for development the City said NO . All stadiums are being built now with the model of real-estate development and the profits being use for a new stadium , Atlanta Braves , the Kings and Lakers arena , Sofi , are prime examples of this. I hate the fact their moving ,they do need to stay in Oakland . Howard Terminal does need to get built up so the profits for the development can be used for a new Stadium at the current site but no one has ever said a word about who the Easy bay Alliance is , who is funding them and lastly the fact that the Giants owner ship is building their own version of Howard terminal and they do not want Oakland having a similar complex . also remember Mayor Shaft wanted Howard Terminal the whole time, remember the Athletics want to built at Laney College Question have never been investigated nor have they ever been asked about , so you have the Mayor their and not a single one of these questions were addressed in my opinion , this interview is nothing than lets get eyes on the channel by bashing the Billionaire who does deserve it but their plenty of blame to go around

[@damonbruceplus]

Do your own interview in the future. Thanks for watching.

[@thomascarey6687]

Oakland is nearly a dead city.

[@damonbruceplus]

But, it’s not. Thanks for zero contribution.

[@ryanjones875]

That is not true. Oakland looks better than SF every day. And that's sad for me to say because SF was always my favorite city in the United States.

[@86byrdman]

@@ryanjones875 Oakland looks better than SF? Just curious, in what ways in your opinion?

[@someguy7222]

And even if that were true, so what? Even more reason the citizens need something to be proud of, like a team. Especially if there are people willing to buy the team and keep in (your words) the "dead city"....MLB should kick Fisher to the curb. He hates Oakland slightly less than you.

[@ryanjones875]

@@86byrdman San Francisco has more and more problems, and businesses are choosing to move to Oakland.