Oakland No More
MLB Makes It Official: The Oakland Athletics are just the "Athletics."
You know when a sports story is so bonkers that people who don’t even follow the sport in question…uhm… have questions? On Monday, November 4th, 2024, Major League Baseball sent out a press release mandating that nobody refer to the former Oakland Athletics as “Oakland” anymore. The the team is scheduled to move to Las Vegas on or about the year 2028 and so are currently playing in West Sacramento, CA for a couple of years (to move out of Oakland but to still be in the East Bay’s TV market and the revenue that comes with that). This means a full-fledged professional baseball franchise will NOT have a city identifier. I swear, you cannot make this up.
As for why the team is moving out of Oakland in the first place, well that is a saga and a half. The quickest and the most civil way I can explain it as Athletics owner John Fisher (and I guess Major League Baseball by extension due to their condoning of this whole thing) wanted a new stadium in Oakland. The team and the city couldn’t come to terms on what that would look like and so, Fisher decided to move the team to Las Vegas. But see, even explaining it like that just raises a bunch of questions, right?
Like, why couldn’t the team and city come to terms on a new ballpark? Who’s to blame for the impasse? Why decide to move to a city when the city doesn’t even have a stadium built yet? Why Las Vegas in the first place?
Well, that last question is the easiest to answer. With Las Vegas diversifying its entertainment offerings and trying to rope in more affluent customers, the days of the city getting its cash from working-class stiffs hoping to win it big at $10 blackjack are over. And so, there’s expanded sports books, and bigger pool day clubs, Formula 1 races, and fighting in giant balls. Vegas has become a sports cash cow, and just over the last ten years we’ve seen the WNBA, NFL, and NHL field teams there. The NHL example, the Vegas Golden Knights, are a squad that was fully embraced by the city. That team was “Vegas Born.” You know who’s NOT Vegas Born? These fuggin’ guys:
So before this forced Vegas transplant of a team actually makes it to Las Vegas, it’s gotta spend a few years in Sacramento, which is the most un-Vegas city ever. And as if they are as ashamed as John Fisher should be, aren’t even going to mention the fact they’re crashing at their cousin’s pad for a couple of YEARS. The Athletics (which, used to go by OAK for short on scoreboards, and will now be the more gross-sounding ATH) completely alienated a fanbase just to go someplace where they won’t able to build a new fanbase, BEOFRE moving to a city (Vegas) that has NO DESIRE to have them there.
People who live in Las Vegas are Dodgers fans. Sure, there’s that one guy out there that’s probably a Diamondbacks fan, but he’s an outlier. But it is the fact where you can’t even say “Oakland” is a joke. So they are not the (future) Las Vegas Athletics, not the (former) Oakland Athletics, not the (current) Sacramento Athletics, just some regular ass vagabond “Athletics.” Poor orphans don’t even got a permanent home. It reminds me of that Simpsons Clip about the Spell-lympics.
Like, who do the owners expect to actually show up to games? Ever talk to someone from the Bay Area? They sure af are not going to go to Sacramento. (15:25 mark):
Well “Athletics,” I don’t usually offer this, but if you want you can crash on my couch. It’s way more pleasant than being stuck in the heat of Sacramento, that’s for sure. Hell, I’ll even call you Oakland, because you deserve as much.