Oakland A's headed to Las Vegas

I read Jason Turbow’s book on the 1970s A’s a couple of years ago and it’s can’t emphasized enough what a total shitbag Charlie Finley was. They did next to no marketing because he didn’t want to turned the team bat boy into a spy on his team. His treatment of Mike Andrews in the World Series was a disgrace.

 

The Philadelphia A's, for one.

 

With nine, the A's franchise will have the record in baseball: five in Philly and four in Oakland.
Giants won four Series crowns in New York before heading west.
By team name rather than franchise, I think the record for any of the four major North American sports is six by the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBA.

 

Marketing plan should include Kingman, Boulder City, Laughlin/Bullhead City, Needles and Lake Havasu City, among other places. As much as Vegas is growing get 10-15 miles out of town and it's nothing but sagebrush and spent Acme products.

 

Meth night?

 

This simply isn’t true. The fans care. They care a lot. But the A’s ownership has shit on then time and again. They tried to move to San Jose because the stadium is a piece of crap. When that failed, they tried to get the city to pony up money. That isn’t happening in California. So they lied to everyone and negotiated in bad faith and now they’re moving. They made it a point of pride to ship off anyone fans like. They made it a point of pride to screw fans so the attendance went down.

Fans love their team but the team doesn’t love them back

 

The whole territorial rights thing came up in the early 90s when the Giants, tired of being rebuffed by San Francisco voters, sought to build a yard in Santa Clara. After that failed, Bob Lurie started talking to Tampa Bay folks. A's had a site and plans near the SAP Center and a transit hub, but Giants invoked territorial rights. The Giants do own the Low-A team that plays in a 5K stadium near the Sharks practice facility and Spartan Stadium.

 

Yeah, I thought they were moving there in 2024 or 2025 and might need a temporary home. Looks as if they're staying in Oakland until 2027. LIke I said, until they leave their attendance will rival that of the St. Louis Browns.

The Buffalo option isn't serious. But it probably is the only MLB-ready stadium, Nashville and Charlotte have nice places but don't think they are up to current MLB specs.

Portland interests have been told they'll have to pay Seattle something if they get an expansion team. Which is an absolute load of crap, just as making a new Seattle NBA team pay the Blazers would be.

 

I grew up near Oak in the 70's and everyone was an A's fan in my neighborhood except me (I moved in as a SF fan). Even then, they didn't draw much, less than 1M during the championship years even. But the Bash Brothers version? I was working in OAK and my firm had season tickets and it was hard to get any ticket on the weekends (of course no Mount Davis). They drew 50,000 for the Rangers. Look it up, the A's drew over 3,000,000 and led the MLB in attendance. The fanbase was there and still is.

Don't put this on the City, put this on Fisher. He has continually stripped the team everytime someone gotten past their controllable fixed salary. The place stinks. Why would any right minded fan go there? If he kept his homegrown talent, then maybe the fans and OAK show more support. But no, he strips the team bare so he can rake in the revenue sharing, which the other owners are now taking away and the A's say that's why they're leaving, because the handouts are going away. That's so rich.

Losing the Raiders and W's is tough but hey Oakland will survive. As for the A's? I hope they become the AL Marlins, a shiny new stadium with a cheapskate owner and no product.

 

If they have a night for Vinny or Angie, that calls for the revival of sj.com get-togethers.

 

All of this is fair, and suggesting nobody cares was off base.

But....

10k a game. Whatever explanations you have for why fans are disaffected -- and god knows, there are all kinds of legit reasons -- they pull 10k a game.

After years of effort, all parties have been unable to find a plan to replace a stadium where the dugouts flood with poo.

They should have left years ago.

 

A decade plus ago, Plashke did one of his boo-hoo columns about some long time season ticket holder who got relocated, or priced out, after an upgrade. Unreadable tripe, a Plashke special.