The generous Schools Over Stadiums donor is matching all “I Stand With Oakland” sales for Last Dive Bar
Use the promo code “RickeyBlog” for 10% off at LastDiveBar.com
—
Schools Over Stadiums, Last Dive Bar, and a generous donor are teaming up to fundraise to support a potential Nevada voter referendum for the A’s proposed ballpark in Las Vegas.
When the A’s announced Thursday that they’ll be playing the 2025-27 seasons in Sacramento, owner John Fisher finished his press conference by saying, “We’re looking forward to this being our home until we move onto our stadium in Las Vegas in 2028.”
For now, the A’s are publicly on a mission to Sin City, but there is already rampant speculation (at least in my Twittersphere) that the franchise is eyeing Sacramento as a long-term home.
For example: Last Dive Bar applied for the “Las Vegas Athletics” federal trademark a month ago after noticing it was still available, yet the A’s applied for the “Sacramento A’s” and “Sacramento Athletics” federal trademarks on Thursday.
We’ll see how things go with Fisher and his billionaire buddy Vivek Ranadive, but for now, Schools Over Stadiums is still trying to derail the $380 million that has been earmarked for Fisher’s Armadillo Dome on The Strip.
On Tuesday, officers from Schools Over Stadiums will read oral arguments in Las Vegas in front of the Nevada state supreme court. If the appeal is successful, Schools Over Stadiums would be able to start collecting signatures for a Nevada voter referendum on the stadium bill.
Schools Over Stadiums is a Political Action Committee (PAC) that was created by members of the Nevada State Education Association (NSEA), which has also created another PAC called Strong Public Schools Nevada (SPSN) to fund litigation efforts against Senate Bill 1. (Read more about the two avenues NSEA is taking here.)
“It’s basically the same case that was presented in the district court,” NSEA political director Chris Daly told RickeyBlog via phone Friday. “We felt our case was strong there. We didn’t feel that the judge really dug deep into the law on it. So we think the supreme court justices will do more of that, more of the legal work and digging on it. We’re taking our chances. There’s a chance they’ll rule from the bench. It’s more likely it’ll take a week, hopefully not more than two weeks to render a decision. Our clock is ticking.”
If Schools Over Stadiums’ appeal is successful, about 102,000-103,000 signatures need to be collected by June 26, in order to have enough time for it to be on November’s ballot.
“We’re hoping to win at the supreme court and get out on the streets here soon,” Daly said. “If not next week, then the week after. If we get on the streets the week after, we have time to qualify this thing.”
Schools Over Stadiums raised more than $45,000 on opening day and had the total matched by a yet-to-be-named donor.
On Thursday, Last Dive Bar started pre-selling “I Stand With Oakland” wristbands, with proceeds going to fund Schools Over Stadiums. The generous donor has pledged to match all sales of the “I Stand With Oakland” wristbands and didn’t specify a dollar limit to LDB co-founder Bryan Johansen nor Daly.
We just received word from @EduOverStadiums that all donations from “Stand With Oakland” wristband sales will be matched from the same donor that matched the opening day boycott donations.
Please help us stop this billionaire by taking away the use of public funds!!!
🔗:… https://t.co/LV7jdwhFZV pic.twitter.com/g5MRUjjbpW
— Last Dive Bar 🏟 (@LastDiveBar) April 5, 2024
“We’ll have to see if my donor comes through if we ran like a million dollars in wristbands,” Daly said. “He obviously is a person of more means than me, so he knows how business works and how the world works. I think he’s thinking we’re not going to hit a million in wristband sales, but he offered to match and he didn’t put a cap on it.”
According to Johansen, Last Dive Bar sold about $4,000 in “Stand With Oakland” wristbands in the first 24 hours.
Regardless of Thursday’s news, Daly said Schools Over Stadiums is still trying to recoup hundreds of millions of dollars for Nevada and Nevada students.
“The plan is still largely the same,” Daly said. “We have to keep the pressure on and kill the Vegas deal. We kill the Vegas deal, all bets are off. Maybe Fisher will have to sell. Maybe that means Vivek. Maybe that means Sacramento A’s. Maybe that means Coliseum. Maybe that means Oakland A’s. There’s a lot of game to play.”
One Comment
Edward Abram
Las Vegas is taxing the public to help pay for these new stadiums
The A’s have small stadium and will charge much more for people to see their games.
They will entertain the fans but charge outrageous prices for their product
Oh yea, they’ll win though MLB won’t have a team other than the Raiders losing a lot of games in Sacramento and Las Vegas which should make fans wonder why the team, with some of the best scouts/ GMs’ suddenly can’t have one winning season.
The A’s said they were “Rooted in Oakland” and are now going to Sacramento! why is it that its’ o.k. to show total
Oakland is a huge sports market and they already have the land to build a new stadium and the A’s rejected it many times. Can they use a broke city(Oakland), out of control crime or lack of public money as an excuse to move to Sacramento and Las Vegas?
The A’s had a whole complex to themselves after years of complaining that the Raiders were getting special treatment but after the two other teams leave they decide they don’t want to be there.
Oakland is no different from any other big city and in some cases not as bad. The complex is in an industrial area with businesses/ corporations, free ways, gas stations, train tracks and water ways its kinda off from the main area of the city and is easy to come and go from. But the A’s want to go to a crammed area in Las Vegas and a tiny stadium in Sacramento for three years.