MLB was stolen from Oakland.

9 comments

1. 

2. How do you plan to hold them accountable? Like, specifically?

   The A’s are gone, and they ain’t coming back. The Raiders and Warriors also left Oakland. In the space of less than 10 years, the city lost all three of its major sports franchises.

3. What do you mean the fight isn’t over? Yes, the league, JF and elected officials had the chance to do the right thing but the key word here is “had”.
   No amount of “fighting” from the fans or the community will bring the A’s back to Oakland.

4. 

5. I’m watching the same thing happen in Anaheim. Fans are starting to realize the owner is rolling out a subpar product year after year. They are starting to talk about not going to games. All I can think about is it’s Oakland all over again. It’s FJF all over again. But MLB allows it. Sad that teams are allowed to tank.

6. 100%

7. Watching the documentary on the Expos that came out on Netflix recently made me wonder…..where’s the Oakland documentary?

   Anytime I team gets ripped from its city its frustrating, but everything OP is stating is true…there was no valid reason the A’s HAD to leave, it was a choice.

   In 2001 the MLB owners voted to contract 2 teams. The twins and the Expos, the A’s, Marlins, and Rays were “runners up” in that convo and the whole thing seemed to be an effort by MLB to force cities to build new stadiums.

   Since than, twins got a new ballpark, Expos moved to Washington and got a new ballpark, marlins got a new ballpark.

   The A’s and Rays have been used by MLB in recent years as the sole reason baseball cant expand to more teams, “we have to fix Oakland and TB first”.

   I dont know about the rays attendance, i do know they drew fewer fans than the A’s prior to the vegas move being anounced, but i dont know if they ever had any sold out games…..I do know the A’s had some sold games…seemed like every season prior to the fan boycott. Selling out a the coliseum was not an easy or trivial feat, the coliseum was one of the largest venues in MLB, I think Toronto and Dodger stadium might be the only two ballparks with a higher seating capacity, so sell outs at the Coliseum werent meaningless.

   The Expos are remembered fondly now, but I dont think they had the same history as the A’s. Definitely not the same number of WS wins, or even playoff appearances. Andre Dawson was mad when Cooperstown put an Expos logo on his HoF plaque, while Rickey, who played for what seems like half the teams in MLB, was from Oakland and there was never any doubt which logo would be on his plaque.

   The Expos never got a Hollywood movie made about them….the A’s did.

   And yet, no one outside of a very vocal fan base (everyone here) seems to care.

   I hate what happened. I will never go to another MLB baseball again, never watch a single inning on TV. Baseball is dead to me

   FJF, and Manfred, and the entire MLB.

8. Let’s go Oakland

9. Here’s something to ponder. Why do you think all the major sports leagues are in or on their way to Vegas. It’s money, and billionaires like to make more of it. The sports part is secondary.

   Vegas is an event city. Arenas and stadiums are nice to hold large events in. These places can’t get funding without a sports tenant. The Raiders put a bad product on the field but mostly sell out their games at high prices in the country’s highest grossing stadium. The Golden Knights NHL team sell out their games in the country’s second-highest grossing arena.

   We can hate JF, but he knows the same thing that the NBA knows. Vegas is money. 40m visitors a year spend their 3 to 4 day stay looking fir ways to spend their money.

   After the A’s move and the stadium is built, JF could receive an offer for both. No expansion fee is part of the deal.