Could A's Be Leaving Philly?

Post date: Aug 13, 2014 5:55:47 PM

The franchise's former longtime AA home is rumored to be wooing the big club

A's GM Matt Veasey is well known for his trips down to the Jersey shore a few times each spring and summer to review the goings-on of the AAA Wildwood Waves, the franchise's top farm team, as well as the occasional trip to Lahaska, PA to do the same with the club's AA Lahaska Peddlers. But it has been 6 years now since he made any kind of in-season trip to the old site of the franchise's former AA team, the Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Pelicans.

From the creation of the WFBL's 2nd level to the Minors systems back in the fall of 1998, right through the 2008 season, the Grand Strand community of coastal South Carolina was home to the A's youngest prospects. For the 2009 season, however, the decision was made to bring the entire organization closer geographically. Thus the move of the AA club from Myrtle Beach, some 600 hundred miles from Philly, to Lahaska, which lies in Bucks County, just over 43 miles away.

Sources last week tipped off local Philly reporters that Veasey was indeed in Myrtle Beach. Further, those same sources indicated that he was there meeting with local and state-wide officials who were actually making an opening presentation in a bid to lure the A's themselves to the Carolinas. With the A's leases at both Liberty Bell Park and the Penn's Landing Complex due to expire following the 2017 season, and with no word of talks on any extension, what seemed like a formality to many may indeed be much more.

When tracked down by the reporters on his return to Philly this week, the GM was non-commital. "Yes, I met with the Carolina officials. Yes, they formally presented us with what amounts to an opening of discussions to move the A's down to the Grand Strand area" said Veasey. "However, we have a lease that we will be honoring here in the city at least through it's term in 2017. And I am quite sure that we will be talking about an extension here to that lease. Nothing is settled, and I doubt that anything will be for some time."

The Carolinas were home to a WFBL majors franchise, the Carolina Cardinals, that was born with the league's 2nd expansion in 2002. The Cardinals played in North Carolina from 2003 through the 2010 seasons in the Owens/East Division before moving west to Las Vegas where they began play as the High Rollers in 2011. With the AA Pelicans leaving Myrtle Beach a couple years earlier, that left no baseball in the area for the last four years.

In the Carolinas, Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes said the area is serious: "We told Mr. Veasey flat out that we want the A's here on the Grand Strand, and we are ready to do the work necessary from a facilities and infra-structure standpoint to make that happen. My current term is up in January 2018, and I'd love to see that happen before then." South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, both Republicans, also publicly pledged to support the initiative agressively. Haley is in the midst of a hotly contested re-election campaign, and her Democratic rival Vincent Sheheen, though a bit more lukewarm on the idea, was also supportive.

Could the A's really leave Philadelphia, their home from 1999 until now, and presumably at least through 2017? Would nearly two decades of baseball disappear from the City of Brotherly Love? "Right now there are two teams in the area" said Veasey. "With the team in Horsham (the Chargers), just outside the city, we are already battling for many of the same fans. Put our AA team in Lahaska, just beyond Horsham, and the market in the area is really tight right now. Who knows, maybe something will break? It would be irresponsible not to keep our options open. At the same time, we respect our history here. We'll talk to all sides, and make a final decision when that is appropriate. Again, it won't be for at least a couple of years."

A new rumor developed this week regarding a 3rd party, possibly Delaware officials, getting involved in negotiations to lure the Athletics down to The First State once the Philly contract expires. Stay tuned, it looks like this could get very interesting over the next couple of years.