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Martin is, to this day, one of the most beloved sitcoms of all-time, and fans of the show, particularly those in Detroit, are in for a treat this week. On Tuesday, the Pistons announced a new collaboration with Martin Lawrence on a clothing line inspired by Martin that features T-shirts, sweatshirts, jerseys, and shorts with images from the show and the iconic Martin font that will be released this Friday, May 14.

Both Lawrence and the team offered statements on why the collaboration came together and the deep-seeded connection between the comedy legend, the city of Detroit (where the show was based), and the Pistons organization.

“Detroit has always shown me so much love and always shows up for me,” said Lawrence. “From stand-up tours to fans on the street Detroit has felt like home. It’s an honor to be part of something that means so much to me to this many years later.”

“With the city of Detroit as the show’s backdrop, Martin became must-watch TV in the 90’s,” said Mike Zavodsky, Chief Business Officer of the Detroit Pistons. “Martin’s love for the Pistons in the show translated into passion for the team – the fact that he has a ring from the 2004 team is proof of that. We’re thrilled to partner with Martin to introduce a merchandise line that pays homage to both Martin and the show’s Detroit roots.”

It is immediately one of the best collaborations between a team and celebrity in the NBA, and when the line drops on May 14 at the Pistons Shop it will be sure to move quickly.

In recent months, there’s been a rapid rise of NFTs in the music industry. Artists like The Weeknd and Rico Nasty are breaking into the cryptocurrency space, and so is Swedish pop star Tove Lo. After seeing success with her first NFT drop, Tove Lo is back with another collection, this time titled Crypto Tits.

Crypto Tits is a collection of artwork made with crypto artist Blake Kathryn and featuring new music from Tove Lo herself. The title is a nod to her 2017 track “Disco Tits,” and a portion of the proceeds from the collection with benefit the organizations Black Girls Code and Carbon 180.

In a statement about the upcoming project, Tove Lo explained how NFTs allow for a “whole new creative outlet” for artists:

“I’ve been exploring the NFT space for a while now and it’s super inspiring to me. Blake’s creations feel like new and different worlds to me and I love to create immersive experiences around my albums and shows, so this process was just awesome and mind expanding. And in a year where I couldn’t bring my live shows to people it was amazing to be able to build a world to share with you in the digital realm, even if we can’t be together IRL.

After a year spent inside and online, surreal places and dreams take shape. The music I have made for these pieces was very freeing to make. Impulsive and raw. I hope you love the art as much as we loved making it, and we are thrilled to be directing proceeds to two causes very dear to us, Black Girls Code and Carbon 180.

This space is a whole new creative outlet and a merging of worlds, and best of all is shining a light and recognizing so many brilliant digital artists out there! Thank you so much to my partner in crime on this project, my forever crypto queen Blake Kathryn – this collaboration was a dream come true and I’m so excited to bring this collection into the world with you.”

Watch Tove Lo’s Crypto Tits trailer above.

Crypto Tits is available 5/15 @ 6:30pm EST on Nifty Gateway. Check it out here.

NatGeo’s Race To The Center Of The Earth is a pretty straightforward concept. The title tells the story. It’s a massive race and the course is… this planet. The teams all started in different corners of the globe — North America, Southeast Asia, South America, and Russia — before arriving in Hawaii for the finale.

Though the production team is the same as The Amaing Race, this show hems close to NatGeo’s evolving ethos of cultural respect and seems more authentic than its predecessor. It’s a travel competition with real stakes and drama that never feels manufactured.

The finale of Race to the Center of the Earth aired last night and it lived up to the hyperbolic energy that’s surrounded the show’s first season. Two days before the air date, we talked with two of the competitors, James Batey and Autumn Fryer, about the proudction process, challenges, and the finale. Check the convo below, but be warned: Spoilers abound!

It takes a lot for me to be impressed by a show concept in the travel space. And I love this idea. How did the invite to be on the show come about for each of you?

James: I found an ad online. I saw that they were casting for this show. And when I saw what they were asking of the contestants, this was the perfect show for me. If I could make a reality TV show, this is what I would script. Unknown physical challenges across the world? All kinds of different sports and vehicles and travel and cultural immersion? All that stuff is exactly what I’m looking for in terms of a show to either watch or participate in. And so I knew that I had to make this happen, as much as I could. So when I saw the ad, I just applied through the website and got a couple of teachers together who I knew felt that same way.

Jay is our school’s outdoor ed teacher and Marlina is our language teacher, both really accomplished rock climbers and mountaineers and just living in the outdoors for the last 15 to 20 years. I thought the three of us together could be really competitive in a show like this.

Autumn: For me, I was contacted through Instagram by a casting director and they were like, “You want to hear about this upcoming show that we have? I’d like to get on a call with you.” And he mentioned National Geographic and it perked my ears up. I was like, “Oh, say no more, man.” I was like, “That sounds awesome.” NatGeo’s known for great locations and beautiful places and epic, epic spots — like the stuff that they shoot all the time. And so I instantly was in for it. I didn’t really need to hear much, just that it was an adventure show. As soon as I heard about it, I was just in. And he’s like, “Put your team together and get back to me in 12 hours.” So I thought of like rock climbing buddies and people that I get outside with all the time and people that I know their like physical capabilities and we kind of went for it.

With these shows that claim to be adventure-driven, sometimes there’s a lot of fixing that goes on behind the scenes or it seems like it’s constantly kinetic but it’s a lot of “hurry up and wait.” Other times, they really are incredibly nimble and incredibly grueling. What was the pace of this show? How difficult did it really prove to be?

James: It was incredibly difficult and the pace was literally nonstop. I was just so impressed with the crew, both from a pre-production standpoint and shooting. We almost never waited for the crew for a moment. It was as fast as we can move was as fast as they were going to catch it. And it was like that for, I would say eight to 16 hours every day that we went. We’re moving as fast as we possibly can. It might be slowed by public transportation or by traffic or anything like that, but when you’re trekking or when you’re biking or when you’re climbing, it’s as fast as you can move, they’re going to keep up with you and they’re going at your pace, which was just incredibly impressive. These cameramen running next to us with a 30-pound camera on their shoulder while we’re sprinting — they did it every day.

Autumn: And they’ll pass you and circle you and get in front of you. And you’re at the trailhead and all of a sudden here comes these feet and you’re like, “How?” It was so impressive, what they can do. Situational things would come up, transportation things and whatever that would slow you down, but it was definitely a fast pace. And I honestly felt like we had to dig pretty deep. I haven’t done half of the things I did on that show. I’d never canoed. I’ve kayaked twice, but like fun kayaking, not like race kayaking. It was just… everything was a lot different on the show versus what you think you’re training for.

What were the things for each of you that felt really outside of your core capacities, physically?

Autumn: For me, it was the bike ride. For most of my life, you do like bike riding outside your house or on streets and stuff. I’ve never downhill mountain biked with big, chunky rocks in the trail and stuff like that. And that was difficult for me. And if you don’t ride a bike, it’s not comfortable riding a bike for that long. That was hard. It was really hard.

James: And biking was a huge part. There was a lot of biking on all of our stages. For me, it was climbing. We had a section, I’m not a climber, I’ve never really climbed outdoors. Both my teammates are exceptional climbers. And so we had a section where we had to climb a 5:11 pitch was our challenge. And both of them got up it probably in less than 60 seconds and it took me 25 minutes of strenuous work. And that humbles you when you get to that spot where you are proficient in all these different skills, but then you hit something that you’ve either never done before or is very technical and you are not practiced at it. And then you have to get through it, anyways. And that’s kind of the crux in this show, I think.

From my team, Marlina had never really swum before and had a fear of open water, but she had to get across that water. So it’s like figuring out how to put yourself in that position where you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re in over your head, but you have your teammates to lean on and to kind of push yourself against. And then you’re going to go before them and do something you’ve never done before, which is a really cool thing to feel as well.

Autumn: And to like get on the other side and see that you did it, no matter how rough it was, to complete the things, it’s nice feeling.

Do you guys have memories from shooting or stories that you tell? When you come back home and you’re back in your regular mix and someone says, “Give me the one story; give me the one craziest thing.” I know that’s always a really hard thing for a traveler, but what’s the one for each of you?

Autumn: For me, it was getting caught up in the unexpected civil unrest that Chile went through when we were down there, that was a reality check that there’s a lot going on outside this show and we’re just like here to do the show and there’s a lot of other factors that could stop the show. I feel like that was something for us that we didn’t plan for.

James: For us, it was a little more nitty-gritty than that. I guess the areas that we were traveling through were snake-infested, I think Cobra deadly snake-infested. And it was a big concern for the safety crew every day because we were trudging through the jungle and they’re living in these pits and we’re kicking through all this debris. And so we’re constantly looking out for cobras and snakes. And when we rafted the river in Thailand, we finished and we set up our tent and the crew had left for the night. So it was just us there with one safety guy sleeping in his own tent. As we’re getting ready to get in our tent, we see this huge Cobra just rip across the river and then hit the ground 15 feet from our tent and slither into the brush. And then for us, it’s just like, “Oh God, hold on. I guess we’re not getting out of the tent tonight. We’re going to post up and snuggle up until the sun comes back up.” Because this is a reality that there are cobras out there and they might get you.

So for us, it was just kind of dealing with the surroundings and I guess, one more story with the same idea’s that there are unexploded ordinances in Laos as well and Northern Vietnam. So we had to be careful if we went off-trail or we got a little bit lost because there might be landmines or bombs have yet to go off that cause trouble up there. And these are just things that we don’t often think about when we are adventuring here in the states that are really serious and that can negatively affect you pretty quickly.

So now let’s spoil this sh*t. Give me some scoop. Assume that everyone’s seen it, that the finale has aired. What do you think and how were you ripped off and what grudges are you going to take to the grave?

James: Do you mind if I start?

Autumn: No! I want you to start, James.

James: I’m flexing right now because we won. We took it down. The teachers from Seattle we’re able to finish and to win the million dollars.

Nice work!

James: Thank you. It was such an incredible cap to just an insane journey. And my biggest takeaway from those last two days is just how fucking intense it was. It was definitely the two most intense days of my life, where I was just dialed and focused and wasn’t making jokes to the camera. I wasn’t trying to have conversations with people. I was just so dialed in and focused on winning a million dollars and not making a mistake that I remember just my whole body being tensed for 48 hours straight. And then seeing the buoy, pulling up his crab pot with a million dollars cash inside of it and just having this release and this joy and this feeling of accomplishment that was unlike anything I’ve ever had in my life.

That was a really incredible moment.

Autumn: Yeah, I don’t think — well, I did see you in the airport after, so I did say congrats, but congrats again, dude. So happy for you guys.

James: Thanks.

Autumn: Yeah, our team… I medically withdrew from the competition. We were downhill mountain biking and I wiped out really bad once and I put my arm down really strange and we were, it was in Hawaii so there are all these volcanic rocks everywhere, and I smashed my hand into one of these volcanic rocks and get back on my bike and we continue down the hill. My hand hurts like hell already. And I wipe out again and I crash my same exact hand and hit my jaw, my hand. We had pads, but I totally hit rock.

At that point, I couldn’t hold my handlebars. Like we’re going downhill and I can’t put the pressure into my handlebars on my bike anymore and apply my brakes. You know what I mean? I just can’t squeeze my hand. So I fought with that for like two hours, maybe a little less. I don’t really actually know the exact time of it. But it felt like two hours had gone by, walking my bike down this hill and trying to figure out how I can manage my hand and whatnot. What else was going to come for the day? I didn’t even know what else lies ahead with how much I’m going to need to use my hand or what I’m going to need my hand for.

Part of the show was that if one person gets injured, the other two can continue on. And so I didn’t want to continue holding up my team and hindering their chances of getting it done in time. I couldn’t continue, so I withdrew early. So James knows way more about the finale and the second day than I do. But the first day, it was grueling. I mean, it was tough.

James: That was a downhill mountain bike off the summit of Haleakala Volcano on Maui, which… people can’t do that. This race allowed us to do things that you can’t do, no matter how much money you have or desire, unless you were part of this production. So we get to the summit of this mountain and we just downhill mountain bike for two hours, straight downhill on volcanic ash because it’s 10,000 vertical feet of downhill on technical terrain. Stuff like that was part of “stage two.” Stage one was the travel, the public transportation, traffic, and stage two was just “go.”

Autumn: It’s just way more go.

James: It’s all go the whole time, working hard, punching yourselves, relying on your teammates and just doing everything that you practiced in stage one, all the repelling, all the biking, all the trekking that you did is all now, “show what you know and show your work” in stage two.

Autumn: I was just going to say that, I feel like stage one is like a preparation for what you need in stage two. And there’s no time for tears or fear or any of it. It’s “go time.” So buckle up and you just go for it and hope it all comes out the way you hope. But injuries are a bitch.

James: Yeah.

Autumn: I’m all recovered now. Everything’s great. And honestly, the experience and the show itself is a win. You got to do amazing things. You got to see amazing places and meet amazing people. And that for me, and sometimes I feel like you lose, not you lose, but you learn more in your failures than in your wins. And so, it’s all around, it’s good.

Last question: We always try to make sure that we have something practical for everyone. Did each of you see someplace that you want to get back to or that you would tell people to visit?

Autumn: Two towns in Argentina called El Chalten and El Calafate. They’re just really two climbing towns. The Fitzroy is right in the range of Patagonia. So you see Fitzroy and these huge glacier lakes that have like the prettiest blue water you’ve ever seen. You literally just like go anywhere throughout those towns and you just cry off of how pretty it is.

I’ve never seen a prettier place. It was breathtaking. So those two are my spots I’d recommend people and those are the two that are on my list to go back and visit with some real time to enjoy them.

James: And for me, it’s Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. It’s such a unique location and it’s just so stunningly beautiful that it’s worth a visit for anybody.That’s my go-to recommendation for people asking me.

Autumn: It looked awesome.

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Race to the Center of the Earth is streaming now on Disney+

Tom DeLonge isn’t the only music star with an interest in aliens and UFOs: It was revealed today that Demi Lovato is set to host and executive produce Unidentified With Demi Lovato, a limited, unscripted series that has been ordered for four episodes at Peacock.

Variety reported the news today and described the show, “In Unidentified With Demi Lovato, the music superstar and actress, her skeptical best friend Matthew, and her sister Dallas attempt to uncover the truth about the UFO phenomena. While consulting with leading experts, the trio will investigate recent eyewitness encounters, uncover secret government reports, and conduct tests at known UFO hot spots.”

This isn’t Lovato’s first brush with the extraterrestrial: In October 2020, Lovato shared an Instagram post about CE5 Contact, a mobile app that supposedly helps users make “peaceful contact with extraterrestrial civilizations as well as locating others in your area who are interested in making contact.” She wrote, “Over the past couple months I have dug deep into the science of consciousness and experienced not only peace and serenity like I’ve never known but I also have witnessed the most incredibly profound sightings both in the sky as well as feet away from me. This planet is on a very negative path towards destruction but WE can change that together. If we were to get 1% of the population to meditate and make contact, we would force our governments to acknowledge the truth about extraterrestrial life among us and change our destructive habits destroying our planet. This is just some of the evidence from under the stars in the desert sky that can no longer be ignored and must be shared immediately.”

The original Saw has one heck of an opening scene. A man suddenly awakens in a bathtub. He appears to be in a basement, with his ankle chained to the pipe. He shares the room with another prisoner — and a corpse holding a gun and a recorder. I remember watching Saw in a theater in 2004, and being immediately hooked. Every film in the long-running horror franchise since has tried to match the intensity and mystery of the original, including the upcoming Spiral: From the Book of Saw. It succeeds.

In the opening scene, which you can watch above, a crooked detective is told by a Jigsaw copycat (not this one) in a pig mask that he has two options: rip his tongue out of his mouth, or be hit by a train. “Live or die. Make your choice.”

Here’s the official plot summary:

A criminal mastermind unleashes a twisted form of justice in Spiral, the terrifying new chapter from the book of Saw. Working in the shadow of his father, an esteemed police veteran (Samuel L. Jackson), brash Detective Ezekiel “Zeke” Banks (Chris Rock) and his rookie partner (Max Minghella) take charge of a grisly investigation into murders that are eerily reminiscent of the city’s gruesome past. Unwittingly entrapped in a deepening mystery, Zeke finds himself at the center of the killer’s morbid game.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw, which stars Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, and Samuel L. Jackson, opens on May 14.

On a recent episode of The Simpsons, the show featured a character named Quilloughby, who used to be a member of an ’80s band called Quilloughby & The Snuffs. The band was a clear parody of The Smiths and Quilloughby of Morrissey, who was extremely not pleased with the episode. Now, the folks behind The Simpsons have gone ahead and released a parody song from the episode, “Everyone Is Horrid Except Me (And Possibly You),” as a single.

The track, which is now available on streaming platforms, is credited to Quilloughby and Lisa Simpson, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Yeardley Smith voicing their respective characters. The song is very much a The Smiths-style tune and it begins with Quilloughby singing, “Every day I try to smile / but can’t help but frown / Every day I draw my bath / and pray I will drown / I step out my door and I take a deep breath / Turn back inside and pray for my death / ‘Cause everyone is horrid / except me and possibly you / Oh, everyone is horrid / and my dear / I fear you are, too.”

Morrissey previously said in response to the episode, “Since my very first interview several decades ago I have lived with horrible accusations to such a degree that it is generally understood that ‘this is how we write about Morrissey’. In other words, I’m quite used to it. I’ve had enough horror thrown at me that would kill off a herd of bison. Accusations usually come from someone with a crazed desire for importance; they don’t operate at a very high level. Writing for The Simpsons, for example, evidently requires only complete ignorance. But all of these things are too easy for me to say. In a world obsessed with Hate Laws, there are none that protect me.”

Listen to “Everyone Is Horrid Except Me (And Possibly You)” above.

Alex Rodriguez has been a busy guy in recent weeks due to his interest in teaming up with former Walmart executive Marc Lore to purchase the Minnesota Timberwolves. In addition to his various business interests, though, his name has popped up in tabloids due to his high-profile split from Jennifer Lopez after more than four years.

Lopez has since gotten back together with Ben Affleck, according to reports, as the two recently spent some time with one another in Montana. Rodriguez has not been asked about any of this, in large part because, well, he’s had other things to do than be asked about this. But according to Page Six, Rodriguez was recently pressed about their relationship, and he gave a pretty straightforward answer to the press.

“Go Yankees,” Rodriguez, who of course played for the New York Yankees, said.

Now, some might take this as shade towards Affleck, a well-documented Boston Red Sox fan, but this also seems like a thing A-Rod would say as a stock answer to literally anything you asked him that he did not want to actually answer. There’s that update on Rodriguez’s personal life, so let’s get a look into how things are going in Rodriguez’s pursuit of becoming an owner of an NBA team, per Brian Windhorst of ESPN.

Tech entrepreneur Marc Lore and former baseball star Alex Rodriguez’s 30-day exclusive negotiating window to purchase the Minnesota Timberwolves from Glen Taylor has ended without a formal deal.

Both sides are continuing to negotiate in good faith in an attempt to reach an agreement and it is possible that an extension to the window could be worked out, but one isn’t currently in place, sources told ESPN.

Rodriguez has attempted to purchase an ownership stake in another professional sports team, the New York Mets, in recent months, but that fell through. While this is an obvious setback in his pursuit of being part of the Timberwolves’ ownership group, the good news is that it does appear that there is still an avenue for this to work out.

In the latest installment of “Dr. Fauci Does Not Have Time For Rand Paul’s B.S.,” the famed immunologist sparred with the Republican senator from Kentucky over the origins of COVID-19. (We’ll give you one guess as to who won.)

During a congressional hearing meant to assess the country’s response to the pandemic, Paul attacked Dr. Fauci’s credibility, trying to inadvertently place blame for the pandemic on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) while also entertaining some popular far-right conspiracy theories related to the virus. Paul claimed that Fauci and the NIH allotted grants that funded “gain of function” research that may have been responsible for the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Gain of function” research is a fairly controversial form of scientific study that basically increases the lethality and infectious nature of a pathogen so that scientists can study how it affects people and craft countermeasures against it. Recently, it was discovered that the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab near the site where the first coronavirus cases were reported, had been conducting “gain of function” research using bat-originated coronaviruses. This does not mean that the virus leaked from the lab — either accidentally or on purpose. Like pretty much every other outbreak in history, COVID-19 is probably the result of the virus being passed from animal-to-human contact. Still, the news that a Wuhan lab had been experimenting with coronaviruses before one of the deadliest pandemics in history shut down the world for over a year is a good enough thread for Paul to link COVID-19 to Dr. Fauci.

Paul accused Fauci of funding research into coronaviruses in China, asking him to comment on whether he still supported NIH funding of “gain of function” research in Wuhan and Fauci — as politely as he could while trying to educate the conspiracy-mongering permed-poodle — shut down whatever it is Paul was trying to pin on him.

“With all due respect, you are entirely and completely incorrect,” Fauci told Paul. “The NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” Fauci also clarified Paul’s misinformation on a grant the NIH did give to a group called EcoHealth Alliance, which did do research on the coronavirus in bats after the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s, though it was not “gain of function” research.

“Let me explain to you why that was done,” Fauci continued. “The SARS COV-1 originated in bats in China. It would have been irresponsible of us if we did not investigate the bat viruses and the serology to see who might have been infected. If you look at the grant and if you look at the progress reports, it is not gain-of-function, despite the fact that people tweet that and write about it.”

While Paul was trying to stir up suspicion and distrust in government scientists who have been leading the charge to find an answer to this deadly virus, Fauci was transparent about his frustrations with the lack of transparency from China and the need to investigate the origins of the virus. So yes, we should all be thinking seriously about “gain of function” research and trying to figure out where COVID-19 came from so we can anticipate the next outbreak… but no one should be getting their facts from an ophthalmologist, who thinks mask-wearing is just a thing people do for dramatic effect and that herd immunity is equal to a 22% infection rate.

The obsession with Billie Eilish’s newly blonde hair continues. Since the singer revealed her platinum blonde look, fans have been wondering what exactly inspired the transformation. Eilish has no problem giving credit where credit is due, and she recently explained that a fan was what eventually convinced her to try out the new hairstyle.

Eilish appeared as the guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Monday where she spoke about her blonde locks. The singer said she came across a “fan edit” (presumably an image or video) in which they had edited her then neon green and black hair into a platinum blonde look:

“I’ve been wanting blonde for a while. I don’t know what came over me. I saw a fan edit when I had green hair, and it was like, me just with whatever hair color I had, and they just edited blonde hair on me, and I was like, ‘Ahhh! It’s so sick I want it!’ I kind of thought of it as a dream, I didn’t think it was going to happen because my hair’s been through so much, I thought it would burn it all off if I tried — but I did it.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Eilish described how surreal it was to finally be able to watch her The World’s A Little Blurry documentary. The singer said it took a full six hours to watch it the first time because she kept pausing it to freak out. “It took us like six hours to get through it because we kept pausing it over and over and screaming and running around,” she said. “It was crazy because they were filming me for like three years and I had no idea what they got on camera and what they didn’t. I’m pretty much myself in front of a camera, I don’t really have a line. So I was pretty worried about what was going to be in there, but I love it.”

Watch Eilish’s full interview on Ellen above.

The Athletics may follow the Raiders in moving from Oakland to Las Vegas as progress on their proposed new stadium site at Howard Terminal remains stalled.

On Tuesday, the team and Major League Baseball tried to apply pressure to Oakland city officials to approve their waterfront ballpark proposal by saying they will begin exploring relocation opportunities at the direction of the league, via ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

“The future success of the A’s depends on a new ballpark,” A’s owner John Fisher said in a statement. “Oakland is a great baseball town, and we will continue to pursue our waterfront ballpark project. We will also follow MLB’s direction to explore other markets.”

The A’s proposal to build a stadium at Howard Terminal called for the team to privately finance the $1 billion stadium, but did call for a significant investment of north of $850 million from the city for infrastructure around the stadium site, which the mayor’s office has pushed back on. As the stalemate continues between the city and the team with their lease at the Oakland Coliseum set to run up in 2024, Major League Baseball made clear that staying in the Coliseum site, both in its current form or in building a new stadium in the same location, is not something they are willing to let happen.

“The Oakland Coliseum site is not a viable option for the future vision of baseball. We have instructed the Athletics to begin to explore other markets while they continue to pursue a waterfront ballpark in Oakland. The Athletics need a new ballpark to remain competitive, so it is now in our best interest to also consider other markets.”

As Passan notes, the frontrunner for the A’s services is expected to be Las Vegas, where the Raiders recently moved and the city also added the Aces and Golden Knights in recent years to enter into the pro sports marketplace. Vegas’ success with those teams has made the city the most talked about relocation or expansion site for the sports leagues that don’t have a team there already, and so it is unsurprising MLB seems to be steering the A’s in that direction. Passan also points to two Canadian cities, Montreal and Vancouver, as possible destinations along with Nashville, Charlotte, and Portland, but Vegas seems like the most likely destination should Oakland not budge on approving the proposal.

Major League Baseball is clearly looking to strong-arm the city into approving the plan, shutting down alternatives like building a new stadium in the Coliseum site and making it public that the relocating efforts will begin. MLB is certainly aware that if the A’s were to leave it would be the third and final professional sports team to leave Oakland in less than a decade, as the Warriors moved from Oracle Arena to the Chase Center in San Francisco and the Raiders likewise left the Coliseum for the desert oasis of Las Vegas. As such, they may feel the city can be pushed into not losing all of their franchises, but on the other hand, the city has shown it won’t budge on this issue and isn’t afraid of teams walking.