shutime

Once upon a time, Oakland, California was a beautiful garden in the bright bloom of American sports. 1970s Oakland saw three World Series wins, an NBA Finals win, a Super Bowl victory, five AFC Championship appearances, five NBA playoff appearances, and two ALCS appearances from the Raiders, Warriors, and A’s. All of that happened before 1977. Eventually, the Raiders would leave for Los Angeles, return, then leave again for Las Vegas. The Warriors would also move across the bay to San Francisco. The once shining multi-purpose Coliseum would begin to fade and leave behind an all too large concrete jungle for a baseball team to fill. Before 1995, the Southern California hills were visible beyond centerfield and made the coliseum one of the more beautiful stadiums in baseball. Then came Mount Davis.

As of 1995, it had been 13 seasons since the Raiders left for Los Angeles. In an agreement to bring them back, the Coliseum added 20,000 more seats in a giant concrete structure known as Mount Davis. For Raiders games, Mount Davis made a ton of sense. Way more seats along the 50 yard line of the field, more premium seating for fans who buy box seats, and an overall added value to the stadium that made it look far more like a stadium built for football. This provides a tremendous issue if you want your stadium to look like it’s made for baseball. Since 2019, it has. The Raiders moved to Las Vegas and left a stadium with a capacity of 63,000 for baseball’s worst team. 

It’s now been five years of A’s baseball in the empty Coliseum and the A’s attendance numbers have dwindled more each year. The A’s drew less than a million fans the past two seasons while the MLB as a whole has drawn in its most fans since 2017. As baseball continues to grow and fill seats, Oakland remains eerily empty. Not just because of the poor teams they’ve fielded, but a host of other factors.

Namely, the old age and lack of renovation mixed with the disgustingness of Mount Davis and a field built for football that makes watching baseball slightly annoying play a huge part. The 2002 “Moneyball” A’s changing baseball and the introduction of Sabermetrics. An owner completely unwilling to spend money, both on the on field talent and on the complex surrounding it. Plus, a disinterest from fans due to constant rumors of their team leaving for the past decade all contribute to the mess that is the A’s.

Since the Raiders left (and plenty of other times) Mount Davis has consistently been tarped over and there has been no access to the seating located there. This piece of the stadium is often cited as the reason for the Coliseum’s initial demise. Mount Davis has been completely unaltered and slowly decaying for some time, and the rest of the stadium has followed suit. Visitors have spoken of the spiders, rats, and rust that can easily be found throughout the stadium. Obviously this doesn’t help fill seats at the ballpark. 

But what might be a bigger detriment is the lack of production from the A’s themself. The 2002 Athletics famously set the all time winning streak at 20 games despite being third from last in league payroll. The story of the team was made into the movie “Moneyball’, starring Brad Pitt. The story resonated with many baseball fans and actually created the concept of Sabermetrics. A term coined by the Society of American Baseball Research (or SABR) for “the empirical analysis of baseball, especially baseball statistics that measure in-game activity”. Ever since, teams have utilized Sabermetrics to build rosters, predict game outcomes, and even make real-time decisions on lineup changes and game strategy. Many don’t realize this, but crucial decisions that were once made by skippers are actually more often made by baseball analysts and R&D teams. In many organizations, the skipper doesn’t serve in as much of a decision making role as thought. 

Despite spending minimal money (in terms of baseball payroll) the 2002 Athletics were able to go on an incredible run and win 103 games. This changed baseball forever in a lot of good ways. One very not good way it changed baseball was the excuse it gave Athletics leadership. The A’s have been in the bottom half of payroll since then, and have only cracked the top 20 in payroll twice in 22 years. Winning with the moneyball method gave the A’s an excuse to never spend money and they haven’t. 

John Fisher bought the Athletics in 2005. Rumors of the A’s leaving the Coliseum immediately began and haven’t stopped since. Ballpark’s plans have come and gone consistently throughout the years with the team only recently announcing a relocation to Las Vegas. But as of February 2024, it seems as though the A’s will have a completed stadium where the Tropicana casino stands today by the start of the 2028 season. 

The uncertainty of a future home has also made it impossible to be an A’s fan through the years. If you live in Oakland, you may be hesitant to dive into an A’s fandom as a potential move will leave you with a heartbreak. Meanwhile, if you live in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, New Orleans, or any other proposed relocation city, you might avoid becoming an A’s fan because of the inevitable heartbreak of them not choosing your city. A lose-lose situation for the A’s in every regard. 

Most of the issue with relocation revolved around owner John Fisher’s unwillingness to fund a ballpark with his own money. A proposed ballpark in Fremont, California was rumored for years and seemed extremely likely to happen. The issue was the vast majority of the project would have fallen on taxpayers who were unwilling to fund it. Which makes sense considering the owner is a multi-billionaire. A’s fans have called on Fisher to sell the team ever since, demanding they receive new ownership who will keep the team in Oakland and contribute financially to the on-field product.

Nonetheless, Fisher retained ownership of the team and made the decision to move them against the Athletics faithful fans’ wishes. In his defense, Las Vegas actually does make a lot of sense from both a business perspective and fanbase perspective. If you’re John Fisher and your fanbase hates your guts, nobody is coming to your games, and your stadium is deteriorating, why not pack your bags and start all over in a new city? Especially when that city has seen nothing but success with the Raiders and Golden Knights! Granted, all of the things I just listed are probably his fault to begin with but whatever. 

The biggest issue and the reason I wrote this post in the first place, revolves around the next four seasons. Not the past twenty years. Not the next twenty years after. The A’s lease with the Oakland Coliseum will expire after the 2024 season. So amidst the giant middle finger John Fisher has given to Oakland, they’ll be returning for another full season with all the locals that hate them in attendance. 

2023 saw A’s crowds full of anger and a good amount of protests. On August 5 the fans threw a reverse boycott in the fifth inning of a game that saw 37,000+ spectators. The A’s fans chanted to sell the team while hoisting signs degrading Fisher. The A’s will be playing in that same environment for what will almost certainly be their last season in the Coliseum. This season is sure to excite because of this alone, but how about 2025 through 2027?

Because building a ballpark takes time, the A’s won’t actually be able to move to their new stadium on the strip until 2028. But they’ll be out of a home by Christmas. A few options have been tossed around lately. The first and most likely is to move into the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators Ballpark in Summerlin, Nevada. The grope with this move is the lack of seating (with a capacity of roughly 8,200) and the fact that it’s an outdoor stadium in America’s second hottest city for a season played in the summer. Some believe it will work because of the A’s low attendance numbers in Oakland (around 10,000 fans per game). But this isn’t Oakland. Nearly any team who relocates to a new market finds immediate sold out crowds. Las Vegas sports have been living proof that opposing teams’ fans will travel to great lengths even if the home teams aren’t great. There’s obviously no telling if the same will be true with baseball but I wouldn’t doubt it. I’d give this plan a C+. It’s not a great plan, and similar to the Los Angeles Chargers playing in Dignity Health Sports Park for a few years, some things must get worse before they get better. At least this way they’ll actually be in their intended city.

The next plan makes no sense but is constantly brought up as an option. Many have suggested the A’s move into Oracle Park for all or a portion of the three year gap and share the park with the San Francisco Giants. I’m not sure how this would work logistically and actually seems like an extreme losing scenario for both parties. The Giants fielded an exciting team last year and look to continue that into the next four years at minimum. Why would they open their doors to baseball’s worst team and an owner who doesn’t care about baseball? San Francisco is also far too close to Oakland and won’t draw in a temporary excited crowd like other options. The same A’s fans who are angry and avoid their team in Oakland will likely do the same in Oracle Park. Aside from these reasons, the two teams typically don’t share fans. Similar to how LA, Chicago, and New York often make baseball fans choose sides. Odd to play in your opponents park but hey, it’s been done before.

My favorite and final plan is the Salt Lake City plan. The Larry H. Miller company owns the Salt Lake Bees (the Angels Triple-A affiliate) and they’ve made a big push to host the A’s in the interim years ahead. Similar to how Oklahoma City welcomed the New Orleans Hornets as an interim city during Hurricane Katrina. The NBA saw the massive crowds that attended the Hornets’ games making the Supersonics relocation to Oklahoma easier. Salt Lake City will welcome the Athletics in hopes of proving Utah as a viable option for MLB expansion. Which is entirely contingent on the A’s relocating according to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. This is by far the best option in my opinion. For one, the ballpark seats over 15,000 fans, a crucial upgrade from the ballpark in Las Vegas currently. Plus, Salt Lake City is the perfect summer climate for baseball. There’s nothing better than summer baseball at Coors Field in my opinion, and Salt Lake City has a very similar climate. Finally, this proposal actually has a benefit for someone else besides the A’s! San Francisco would be annoying for the Giants, Las Vegas would be too hot, but finding some success for a few years could make a huge difference for the future of Salt Lake City! 

I feel for A’s fans in Oakland. Losing your team to another city has to be painful, especially when it comes down to one greedy owner. Here’s hoping the painful move creates some joy for other fans one day when all this results in an expansion franchise in Utah (maybe).