Friday Dump 🥟 - Farewell Oakland A's, UNLV NIL drama, Mountain West agreement

Damn it feels good to be a Friday Dump 🥟 

Each Friday, we’ll breakdown 3 sports business stories that have caught our eye throughout the week. They will be assembled in the following format:

🔴 - Stories that make us stop, think, and question.

🟡 - Stories with a hint of risk and unpredictability.

🟢 - Stories that make us feel good to go and empowered.

Everything is cool in the mind of a gangsta.

🔴 Sports in Oakland are officially cancelled. Just moments after the reigning World Series Champs, Texas Rangers, let the Oakland Athletics win their final home game in front of their Bay Area fans (jk jk no team would ever do that 😬), it finally set in. Sports in Oakland are officially no more. It’s a sad day, not only for the local fans, but there’s a sense of realism that hits you knowing this could happen to any of our favorite teams (unless you’re a massive market team in NY, LA, Chicago, etc.). The fact of the matter is the days of Moneyball and the traditional colors of green, gold, and white will have a different meaning moving forward. Next year, the A’s will play in Sacramento at Sutter Health Park, the current home of the Triple-A River Cats. Eventually, they will relocate to Las Vegas.

• It’s crazy to think by 1990, Oakland boasted one of the highest payrolls in the MLB and welcomed the 3rd most fans per game at ~35,000 (see Table 1).

  • The A’s actually made the World Series three seasons in a row during those years.

• But everything changed when the popular Haas family sold the club in 1995, leading to a string of incompetent owners who never really cared about putting the best product on the diamond — but really, it was all about managing profits.

• Over the years, the Oakland faithful has seen their team increase ticket prices all while continuing to have losing seasons and and not spend money to make the team better. To make matters worse, the owners never really cared about renovating their own stadium

  • For years the A’s stadium, Oakland Coliseum, has been a dump. From it’s opening in 1966 until today, barely any renovations have occurred.

  • There had been many disputes to reach a contract with the city for a new stadium.

• But we all know how the story ends — a new contract couldn’t be agreed upon, which prompted the move (the revenue increase potential in Vegas with an increase of ticket sales, advertising revenue, etc. might have something to do with it 😉).

  • Even though, the move to Vegas was inevitable, Oakland attempted to keep the club around through 2027. The proposed term sheet was offered to the club. But of course, that didn’t end up working out.

🟡 UNLV does not pay their debts. The 3-0 UNLV Rebels were riding high! They had beaten two Power 5 conference teams in Kansas and Houston already this season. And then on Tuesday night a bombshell hit Las Vegas (no, not U2’s 160th performance at the Sphere)…starting quarterback Matthew Sluka announced he will no longer play for the Rebels. Citing unspecific, unfulfilled “commitments,” the senior said he will utilize his redshirt year and seek to transfer next season for his final year of eligibility. So what the hell kind of commitments are we talking about here?

• Sluka reportedly agreed to transfer from College of the Holy Cross to UNLV last year at least in part because of an oral promise from UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion that Sluka would be paid $100K.

  • The money would apparently be paid by a UNLV-tied collective, Friends of UNILV…but, he did not receive any money, and the school and its collective recently countered with an offer of $12K paid over four months.

• However, UNLV said in a statement that a representative for Sluka made “financial demands” for the QB to keep playing, which the school interpreted as a violation of both NCAA rules and Nevada state law.

• Even the VP of Vegas-based sportsbook, Circa Sports, tried to get involved by offering $100K to UNLV to give to Sluka — but the university passed on the opportunity and said the QB is no longer with the program.

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🟢 No one in the Mountain West move a muscle. After weeks of uncertainty and nearly being shredded into a million pieces, the Mountain West Conference is keeping its core together. On Thursday, the 7 remaining members of the MWC signed a written agreement, including financial incentives, to stay with the conference. The schools have agreed to “execute” a grant of rights running from 2026 through the 2031 season (i.e. the end of the next College Football Playoff media deal). All this just 2 weeks ago when the Pac-12 poached Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State, and Colorado State from the Mountain West starting in 2026.

• Those seven members are: Air Force, Hawaii (partial member), UNLV, Wyoming, New Mexico, San Jose State, and Nevada.

  • Below are the revenue distributions for their signing bonus:

    • 24.5% = Air Force and UNLV

    • 11.5% = Nevada, New Mexico, San José State and Wyoming

    • 5% = Hawaii

• The MWC will likely fund these incentives through the $140M in damage and exit fees it expects to receive from the Pac-12 and departing schools — though the Pac-12’s fees are currently the center of a new lawsuit.

  • Ultimately, the incentives helped convince UNLV and Air Force not to depart for the Pac-12 and AAC.