Oakland A's Get Salty Over Move, Paint Over Sign
Despite ownership's worst efforts, the Oakland A's organization is set to move to Las Vegas in the coming years. Assuming they can actually finalize a plan on an extremely small plot of land, and A's owner John Fisher can find the rest of the money he won't put up himself to build the stadium.
And that they find a stadium to play in for the 2025 and 2026 seasons after their lease at the Coliseum expires.
It's been an unpopular move, to say the least, with even the mayor of Las Vegas saying she doesn't understand why the team won't just stay in Oakland.
READ: Even The Mayor Of Las Vegas Wants The A’s To Stay In Oakland
But Fisher is getting what he wanted, hundreds of millions of dollars in free handouts from Nevada taxpayers, and so the A's are on the move from one of the country's biggest media markets to one of its smallest. As local fans express their unsurprising displeasure, ownership is getting even more touchy about reminders of how they failed to keep the team where they've been since 1968.
A massive banner has, since 2017, hung on the outside of the Oakland Coliseum, proudly displaying the team's heritage with a "Rooted in Oakland" message.
Mar 29, 2018; Oakland, CA, USA; The stadium reads "Rooted in Oakland" before the game against the Los Angeles Angels at Oakland Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Well, as Fisher so comprehensively demonstrated over the past few years, that was all a cynical marketing attempt to drive local interest. And sure enough, with Las Vegas on the horizon, the team started removing the banner on Monday.
Temporarily Planted In Oakland Until Better Financial Offer Arrives
No matter how much team ownership pays lip service to caring about their local community, it's a harsh reminder that professional sports teams are not public concerns. They're private businesses, and billionaire owners make decisions based on maximizing revenues and profits, not local emotional attachment.
Relocation has become a common threat when organizations aren't offered enough public funding to pay for their stadiums, whether it be construction or renovation. The Brewers did it, the White Sox have threatened to leave, the Orioles were refusing to renew their lease because the $600 million offer was simply unacceptable. And that's just in the past 6-8 months.
Las Vegas is handing the A's nearly $400 million in free money, and the lesson, as always, is that what "roots" a privately owned team in their location is profit. Fisher can make much more of it in Las Vegas, and so now the A's will be "rooted" there…until Fisher increases the value of the organization to a high enough level where he can sell, and new ownership can run the same playbook to get money out of Jacksonville or Salt Lake City or wherever else.