A’s Owner John Fisher Eyes MLS Exit Ahead of Billion-Dollar Vegas Project

The San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer are for sale after nearly two decades under the control of billionaire John Fisher, an heir to his family fortune through The Gap retail empire.

Fisher also owns the A’s, who are playing in a minor league park in Sacramento ahead of a planned relocation to Las Vegas in 2028.

Fisher, who has an estimated net worth of about $3 billion, has hired investment bank Moelis & Co. to lead the Earthquakes sale process, he said in a statement Wednesday. Fisher has been principal owner of the Earthquakes—one of the founding MLS teams in 1996—since 2008. His tenure has included the development of the team’s privately funded stadium, PayPal Park, which seats 18,000 and is owned and operated by the club.

The Earthquakes have an estimated value of about $540 million, according to Forbes.

A person familiar with the matter tells Front Office Sports that the planned sale of the Earthquakes is completely unrelated to the situation with the A’s. 

Fisher does need capital to help pay for his planned $1.75 billion baseball stadium on the Las Vegas Strip, however.

The project was originally projected to cost $1.5 billion, but the price has gone up thanks to a series of upgrades, including enhanced general-admission spaces, improved player amenities, and additional club and suite space—in addition to more standard hikes in construction expenses. The new costs are entirely Fisher’s responsibility as the public-sector contribution toward the project is capped at $380 million. 

The exact parameters of how Fisher intends to fund that remaining $1.37 billion is still not entirely clear; as of last year, he was still marketing potential minority-equity interests in the club. But Goldman Sachs and U.S. Bank are providing a $300 million construction loan, and Fisher has pledged that he and his family will contribute up to $1.1 billion. 

A groundbreaking ceremony for the new stadium is planned for next week, on June 23, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“We are proud of the role the Quakes have played in the growth of soccer throughout Silicon Valley,” Fisher said in the statement announcing the hiring of Moelis. “The Bay Area is a special place, and we’re deeply grateful to the fans, players and staff who’ve been with us on this journey.”

Under Fisher, the Earthquakes made five postseason appearances, though they never appeared in the MLS Cup (the furthest the team went under Fisher was the conference finals in 2010). The team has won the MLS Cup twice in its history, prior to Fisher’s ownership, in 2001 and 2003. 

The Earthquakes are currently in the playoff picture, sitting in eighth place in the Western Conference, although there is plenty of regular season left (it runs until October). Under MLS rules, the top seven teams in each conference automatically qualify for the playoffs, while the teams in 8th and 9th place play a single-elimination game with the winner advancing.

Fisher was met with scorn from A’s fans during his tenure. For years, fans pleaded with him to sell the team, and that chorus of voices grew louder once he decided to move the A’s out of Oakland, where they had played since 1968. A green SELL shirt became ubiquitous last year during the team’s final season in the city.