Oakland A's headed to Las Vegas

Exactly. If anyone cared about the A's they wouldn't be moving. They should have left years ago.

 

He's also John Fisher - who hasn't done much of anything else of note. His parents founded the Gap and he's been the Woody Johnson of baseball owners. Dude funded an anti-Obama group in 2012.

 

Oakland went from having an MLB, NBA, and NFL team to now NOTHING at all

 

Guess they can change the logo from "The Swingin' " A's to "The Movin' " A's.

 

NHL, too, but it's been a while. The Golden Seals played in Oakland until 1976.

 

Ah MileHigh - you still sore about the Haas family buying the A's out from under Marvin Davis?

I still think its going to be the first line of his obit. Is there a team with more Series championships that's moved?

 

I think the whole idea of MLB franchises owning "territorial rights" to minor league cities went down the shitter decades ago.

I think with the example of the Twins at the front of the list, we're going to see teams adopt the Euro model of having the "reserve team" play right in your home market -- in essence, it'll be the JV team.

What is now Class AAA will become Class AA.

 

The Athletics, Inc. have had 50 years to fix it.

 

No.
The In-N-Out is out on Camrose.

 

So without a professional sports team, Oakland's basically Long Beach. Except Long Beach has a baseball team with a better record.

Living in Walnut Creek between 1972 and 1984, it was always way easier getting to the Mausoleum post-BART than Candestick. The weather was nicer. The view of the East Bay hills was prettier. But even back during the Swingin' A's era, the stadium wasn't a wonderful experience. Because it was a concrete circle, the last row of seats behind the plate at somewhere like Tiger Stadium were closer to the field than sitting right behind the dugouts at the Coliseum. Foul ground was ridiculous. And as I've said before, the third deck felt like you were directing air traffic at the airport down Hegenberger Road rather than watching a baseball game.

It worked for the Raiders, who only needed to fill the place eight or so times a season. But 81 games at a stadium surrounded by parking lots and next to the 66th Avenue federal housing project was less than ideal. (Candlestick wasn't much better.) The A's at least had great teams while the Giants were crappy, which gave the a slight advantage for years. But once San Francisco constructed a real baseball park and started playing exciting baseball, Oakland was never going to match that.

The Raiders (twice) and Warriors leaving only left the city in a much weaker negotiating position. Jack London Square was one last Hail Mary plan that wasn't feasible. As somebody pointed out, if they had chosen somewhere near the I-580/680 junction in Pleasanton before land prices went crazy-go-nuts, they might have saved the team and what was a small but enthusiastic corp of A's fans.

It's not as much of a slog to get from Contra Costa to Oracle, compared to the 'Stick. And with the new schedule, baseball fans will see their favorite teams at least every other year. But there was something fun about having the Tigers make two trips out west every year, even if Ken Holtzman and Vida Blue mowed them down like California poppies.

Honestly, the land on which the Coliseum sits has been worth way more as something other than a crumbling multipurpose stadium for decades. Maybe apartments/condos/tech/arts studio replacing that area would do more for Oakland's economy in the long run. And I'm guessing Coliseum Station will be renamed once they tear the ballpark down.