Thread by @jvb43

45 John Fisher FACTS. A thread ⬇️

Fact 1: John Fisher was born to an immensely wealthy family. His parents Donald and Doris Fisher founded GAP. His grandparents and great grandparents were even business owners and involved in politics.

Fact 2: John Fisher, a San Francisco native, is a lifelong Giants fan. He was active in the 1990s trying to keep them in San Francisco, as they were threatening to relocate.

Fact 3: After graduate school, John Fisher’s parents got him a job in real estate. The business failed.

Fact 4: John Fisher and his brothers Robert and William Fisher are responsible for cutting down an enormous amount of trees in California.
eastbayexpress.com/the-lumber-man…

Fact 5: Gap, who John Fisher is a part owner and director of, has been in hot water in the past for using child labor.
theguardian.com/business/2004/…

Fact 6: John Fisher and his brothers attempted to replace grass with artificial turf in neighborhoods throughout SF. There were known cancer causing chemicals within the turf plastic and they went to great lengths to deny and cover up this information.
qwrt4.weebly.com

Fact 7: John Fisher wants schools to be privatized. He has been very active in “charterizing” public schools. He has made many donations towards this, specifically towards the KIPP Foundation.
postnewsgroup.com/billionaire-jo…

Fact 8: John Fisher donated money in opposition to prop 82 in 2006, which would have made preschool free in California.
sfgate.com/politics/artic…

Fact 9: John Fisher and his brothers donated 9 million towards a PAC that opposed Obama in the 2012 election (not trying to be political, just showing how much he spends on politics).

Fact 10: John Fisher has endorsed anti-trans candidate Doug Burgum for the 2024 election.

Fact 11: John Fisher has donated tens of millions to the campaigns of far-right candidates over the last 25 years.
opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/r…

Fact 12: In 2022, John Fisher donated nearly 1.2 million dollars to fight in opposition against Prop 30. Prop 30 would’ve increased taxes by 1.75% for those that have an income OVER 2 MILLION. Measure would’ve funded wild fire prevention, infrastructure, & electric car incentives

Fact 13: John Fisher promised to increase spending if his soccer team, the Earthquakes, got a new stadium. They received a new stadium and have consistently remained at the bottom of MLS in spending.
mercurynews.com/2023/05/16/wou…

Fact 14: John Fisher attempted to not pay furloughed A’s employees during a pandemic.
syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/2893453-re…

Fact 15: John Fisher attempted to not pay A’s minor leaguers during a pandemic.
npr.org/2020/05/27/863…

Fact 16: Despite not trying to pay the majority of his employees during a pandemic, he was still very active donating to political candidates in 2020.
opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/r…

Fact 17: A’s minor league coach Webster Garrison got very ill from COVID during the pandemic. John Fisher didn’t pay for his expenses, and instead just had the A’s share the Garrison family’s GoFundMe.

https://twitter.com/athletics/status/1301569594029604866

Fact 18: John Fisher (and Lew Wolff) spent 2005-2015 attempting to move to both Fremont and then San Jose, never making a single attempt to do anything in Oakland.
theathletic.com/4566491/2023/0…

Fact 19: It wasn’t until 2017 when John Fisher made an “attempt” with Oakland. They chose the Peralta site, but it was rejected, because they failed to even talk to the owners of the land before the announcement.
insidehighered.com/news/2017/12/0…

Fact 20: John Fisher purchased half of the coliseum site in 2020, and the A’s said it would ensure there was at least 1 path to a stadium. Less than a year later, they claimed the site wasn’t viable.
ballparkdigest.com/2020/10/09/as-…

Fact 21: John Fisher refused to work with Raiders owner Mark Davis, and blocked the Raiders from building at the coliseum site. Davis himself has even said it was John Fisher and the A’s who are responsible for the Raiders leaving, not Oakland.
sfgate.com/athletics/arti…

Fact 22: John Fisher’s sister in-law is the granddaughter of the founder of Schnitzer Steel (his wife’s brother’s wife). Schnitzer Steel was one of A’s main oppositions to Howard Terminal.

https://twitter.com/jvb43/status/1696620775913165163

Fact 23: After Oakland met the A’s first ask in funding for the A’s stadium project, John Fisher moved the goal posts by upping the price by almost 200 million.

https://twitter.com/rajmathai/status/1695148286326587685

Fact 24: John Fisher said Oakland didn’t raise enough, but the gap currently exists at just 36 million (with more grants pending). 36 million is equivalent to 0.3% of the “12 billion dollar” project.

https://twitter.com/2legit2quitdee/status/1696349091159249283

Fact 25: John Fisher and the A’s left the table when the A’s and Oakland were in the final steps and close to an agreement, and had even hired a mediator to help iron out the final deals.
sfchronicle.com/bayarea/articl…

Fact 26: The A’s DOUBLED season ticket prices for 2022, despite John Fisher having the A’s sell off the A’s entire core. Nearly every season ticket perk was also removed from the season ticket package.
mercurynews.com/2021/09/24/as-…

Fact 27: When Marcus Semien was a free agent, John Fisher’s A’s offered him a 1 year 12.5 million dollar contract, with $10 million deferred in 10, one-year installments of $1 million each.
nbcsportsbayarea.com/mlb/oakland-at…

Fact 28: Liam Hendriks was interested in re-signing with the A’s, but John Fisher never had anyone from the team even reach out to him.
dailydemocrat.com/2021/01/15/lia…

Fact 29: During the 2021 season, it was revealed by an anonymous A’s minor leaguer that this was the kind of food John Fisher was providing for his minor league players.
golfdigest.com/story/oakland-…

Fact 30: There are a multitude of 1 star reviews on Glassdoor regarding the A’s. Including one from an anonymous player. John Fisher has allowed a very poor working environment.
glassdoor.com/Reviews/Oaklan…

Fact 31: In 2014, the A’s traded Josh Donaldson to the Blue Jays after he had made comments on Twitter that were critical of John Fisher’s ownership just a week earlier.

Fact 32: The A’s have been on revenue sharing for nearly the entirety of John Fisher’s ownership. Despite this, he still has not spent money on the team.

Fact 33: The A’s have been 25th or lower in payroll every year under Fisher except 2019. All 29 other MLB teams have out spent John Fisher at least twice.

https://twitter.com/andnewwhittaker/status/1696262937588220076

Fact 34: In 2018, the MLB Players Union filed a grievance against the A’s and 3 other teams for not spending money. They argued that John Fisher was not spending his revenue sharing money.
mercurynews.com/2018/02/27/pla…

Fact 35: John Fisher claims the A’s spent “6 years” on Howard Terminal, but didn’t acknowledge how slow the A’s moved at first, the pandemic, or the 2+ years of “parallel paths”.

https://twitter.com/rajmathai/status/1695148282786591166

Fact 36: John Fisher and the A’s claim they spent over 100 million on the Howard Terminal process. The city of Oakland revealed this figure was actually 8 million.
oaklandca.gov/resources/wate…

Fact 37: John Fisher gave ZERO interviews in his first 18 years of owning the team.

Fact 38: When John Fisher finally gave an interview (2), it was done in a controlled setting where he was not pressed to any real extent. They also were transcribed only, no audio or video. He even had one of the transcripts edited after the fact.
mercurynews.com/2023/08/25/opi…

Fact 39: John Fisher has entered into 2 “binding” agreements already in Las Vegas. The projections for attendance factor in the A’s selling 2-3 thousand more tickets than would even be possible for all 81 games a year. Its quite literally impossible.
latimes.com/sports/story/2…

Fact 40: John Fisher has not been able to find a financing partner for the Las Vegas ballpark yet. According to Vital Vegas, there are big players involved that remain skeptical of the A’s plans.

Fact 41: During John Fisher’s interview with Raj Mathai, a notepad could be seen with Zack Gelof, Tyler Soderstrom, and Mark Kotsay’s name on it. One can only speculate as to why he had such a notepad with said names.

Fact 42: John Fisher had never been seen nor had ever mentioned his kids before. There are even sources online that states he has no kids (even though he has 4). He conveniently mentioned the fact that he has children in one of his recent interviews. Trying to humanize himself?

Fact 43: John Fisher noticeably dodged a question that asked if he would spend money on free agents if he got a new stadium in Las Vegas.

https://twitter.com/rajmathai/status/1695148292953579964

Fact 44: John Fisher has admitted that its all about revenue sharing for him.

https://twitter.com/rajmathai/status/1695148282786591166

And lastly, Fact 45: John Fisher lied about the A’s losing 40 million this year and the A’s losing 175 million over the last 3 years.
forbes.com/sites/maurybro…

Bonus Fact (Fact 46): John Fisher and his brothers stole business from the man that taught their father how to fly fish.

Bonus Fact (Fact 47): The Schnitzer family has donated money to the SFMOMA (whom John Fisher and his family have a deal with and overall have a big involvement with).
sfmoma.org/press/release/…

Bonus Fact (Fact 48): John Fisher hired his daughter’s husband as the director of project finance. Clear and blatant nepotism.
linkedin.com/in/ross-bowen-…