Oakland says goodbye to major professional sports with A’s final game
OAKLAND, Calif. — There is no more “there there” for major professional sports in this Bay Area city.
The Oakland Athletics ceased to be Oakland’s Athletics after the team beat the Texas Rangers 3-2 on Thursday afternoon in front of a sell-out crowd. The matchup was the club’s final home game at the venerable Oakland Coliseum.
A’s fans, equally outraged and heartbroken, said goodbye with their typical grit and spirit. Some cried as they walked up to the ballpark for the final time; many hugged. Two women were spotted in funeral garb, black veils and all. Well-known stadium characters returned for a last hurrah, met by appreciative cheers from the stands as they paraded from section to section.
The A’s, which had called Oakland home since 1968, announced plans last year to build a stadium in Las Vegas by spring 2028.
In the meantime, the franchise will move to a minor league park in West Sacramento for at least three seasons, because Oakland stadium operators and the club couldn’t agree to a lease extension beyond this season. During that interim stay, the team will be known simply as “The Athletics.”
“It’s been a slow death, like going to the doctor and being told you have two years to live,” said former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, one of the East Bay’s most powerful politicians of the 1990s and the early 2000s. “There have been so many losses in Oakland, and I think this is the bottom.”
Fans have focused their anger squarely on one target: reviled owner John Fisher, heir to the Gap clothing fortune.
Fisher last year abruptly cut off talks with Oakland about a possible new waterfront stadium. But even before that, A’s fans despised Fisher for consistently keeping the team’s payroll at the bottom of the league and letting talented players leave via free agency.
At Thursday’s game, attendees expressed their fury at Fisher via posters — one read simply, “Unforgiveable” — and chants of “sell the team,” a mantra commonly heard at games over the last two seasons, even on the road.
A’s fans don’t believe Fisher did enough to invest in the team or find a way to stay in Oakland. He had floated proposals to build a new stadium near Oakland’s Laney College or in suburban Fremont or San Jose — none of which ever got far. But the most recent effort appeared to be progressing before Fisher pulled the plug.
Since then, he has faced pressure to sell to any number of interested Bay Area suitors who pledged to keep the team in Oakland. Green T-shirts with the word “SELL” became A’s fans’ de facto uniform.
KGO-TV sports anchor Larry Beil voiced many fans’ long-festering anger Monday when he went off on an open letter the reclusive owner sent to fans apologizing and explaining his motives. Fisher’s message about the failed efforts to build a new A’s stadium in Oakland: “We tried.”
Beil called it “a great work of fiction.”
“John, you’re a serial penny pincher,” he said. “You’ve destroyed your family’s great name and legacy because of your cheapness.”
Former A’s pitcher Trevor May also lashed out at Fisher.
“Be an adult. Get in front of a camera and say it with your chest,” May said of Fisher’s statement.
“You love owning stuff, just not your actions,” May wrote.
A representative for Fisher could not be reached for comment.
Oakland appeared to be on solid sports footing several decades ago, with the NFL’s Raiders back in town, the A’s approaching their “Moneyball” greatness and the Golden State Warriors enjoying a renovated state-of-the-art arena.
The A’s will be the last of those three to leave a city that once inspired a young Gertude Stein, played a key distribution role in World War II and gave rise to the Black Panthers.
The Raiders left for Los Angeles in 1982, came back to Oakland in 1995 and then uprooted for Las Vegas in 2020.
The Golden State Warriors moved to San Francisco’s Chase Center starting in the 2019-20 season after having played in Oakland since 1971.
Oakland even briefly had an NHL team: the California Golden Seals, which entered as an expansion franchise in 1967 and played nine seasons in Oakland before moving to become the Cleveland Barons, which ceased operations after two seasons.
Oakland native and former MLB player Bip Roberts, now a real estate investor in the East Bay, said he doesn’t buy the argument that his hometown lacks the audience or money to support a major-league team.
“Everything is in place for you to be successful” in Oakland, Roberts said. “When you think about those of us who have grown here, those of us who live here, we can afford to go to any sporting event regardless to the ticket price, right? To leave a large market such as this one and you go to a smaller market [Sacramento] and then to even a smaller market [Las Vegas], it’s not a great business deal, in my opinion.”
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Oakland’s median household income, $96,828, and that of Alameda County, $119,931, both top state ($95,521) and national ($80,610) figures, according to the most recent census data. They are lower, however, than San Francisco’s median household income, $126,730, and those of nearby Marin ($139,644) and San Mateo counties ($151,485).
However, Las Vegas has evolved into a kind of sports capital in recent years. The city — which will have the A’s, Raiders and NHL’s Golden Knights — hosted its first Super Bowl seven months ago, and last year it hosted the Stanley Cup Final and a Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Vegas is also seen as a future destination for an expansion NBA franchise.
The A’s departure hands the San Francisco Giants full run of the Bay Area market. By on-the-field metrics, the A’s have historically been at least equal to the Giants.Heading into Thursday’s action, the A’s were 4,613-4,384 (.513), while the Giants were 5,473-5,119 (.517).
The A’s have won six American League pennants and four World Series, while the Giants have captured six National League pennants and three World Series. The A’s swept the Giants in the 1989 Fall Classic.
It helps that the Giants — potentially on their way to finishing .500 or worse in their seventh season out of eight — play in one of MLB’s most admired ballparks, which has led them to blow the A’s out of the bay in attendance since Oracle Park opened in 2000.
A’s fans, repulsed by Fisher’s move, stayed away in droves this season. The franchise was dead last in attendance across MLB, averaging just 10,942 fans per game as of Wednesday. (Thursday’s crowd of more than 46,800 bumped that average up to 11,386.)
Roberts pinned the blame on A’s management. Even before Fisher and real estate developer Lewis Wolff bought the team in 2005, the franchise had a well-earned reputation for focusing on its bottom line at the expense of keeping talent long-term.
Prime examples of stars lost include Reggie Jackson in the ’70s, Mark McGwire in the ’90s and Jason Giambi in the early 2000s. More recently, East Bay native Marcus Semien left as a free agent in 2021, then won a World Series with the Texas Rangers last year.
“That was something that’s been ingrained in the organization, to get these players to have such a following and backing in the city, and then they’re gone,” Roberts said. “And I think it just wore on people.”
By the ninth inning Thursday, the packed crowd was on its feet. A’s players and staff took to the field after the final out, then tipped their hats to the fans, most of whom stayed in their seats long after play ended.
Manager Mark Kotsay — a former Oakland Athletic himself — took the mic, emotion in his voice, to thank the stadium staff, his team and the fans: “There are no better fans than you guys,” he said.
Then he asked the stadium to join him in one last rendition of its signature cheer: “Let’s go Oakland.”
Dana Varinsky reported from Oakland, and David K. Li from New York City.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/sports
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