In American professional sports leagues, team names follow a pretty standard convention. First, you get the name of the city or state where the team is based, then you get the name of their mascot. That’s why we call teams names like the Dallas Cowboys, the Detroit Red Wings, and the Miami Heat, to name just three. It’s almost always the case, so when a team deviates from that format, it stands out.
Which is why some baseball fans might have noticed that, of Major League Baseball‘s 30 teams, one name stands out lately. So, why is the team formerly from Oakland now just called the Athletics?
With Major League Baseball debuting on NBC and Peacock this week, let’s dig into the Athletics’ complex current moment.
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Why don’t the Athletics have a city in their name now?
Calros Cortes of the Athletics celebrates a single in the bottom of the fourth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Sutter Health Park.
Like many of the oldest Major League clubs (remember, the Dodgers were once based in Brooklyn), the Athletics did not begin in their most recognizable home city. The club actually started all the way across the country on the East Coast, where they were the Philadelphia Athletics for the first half of the 20th century, and then the Kansas City Athletics for a 12-year stretch from 1955-1967.
In 1968, the Athletics arrived in Oakland, giving us the most recognizable incarnation of the team. The Oakland Athletics, or Oakland A’s, were a fixture of West Coast baseball for decades, operating out of the Oakland Coliseum and, among other things, becoming one of just two teams (the other being the Yankees) to ever threepeat World Series titles.
But that all changed at the end of the 2024 season. Following the lead of the NFL’s former Oakland Raiders, the A’s announced plans to go through with a relocation to Las Vegas, Nevada, which will include construction of a state-of-the-art new ballpark on the Vegas Strip. The ballpark is not yet completed, but the A’s moved away from Oakland beginning with the 2025 season, and dropped the city name from their branding. For now, at least, they’re simply the Athletics.
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Where are the Athletics playing baseball right now?
If all goes well, the Athletics will become the Las Vegas Athletics by the 2028 season, when they plan to move into their new park. For the moment, though, the A’s aren’t playing in Vegas, and they’re also not playing in Oakland. The club currently makes its home at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, where they’ll continue to host games throughout the 2026 season.
Regardless of where they’re from at the moment, be sure to catch the Athletics on Peacock when they play at the Los Angeles Angels on June 28 at 3 p.m. ET, and again as part of July 5’s “Star Spangled Sunday” at home in West Sacramento against the Miami Marlins at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Did You Know MLB Is Back on NBC and Peacock?
The MLB is back on NBC and Peacock this season with the addition of Sunday Night Baseball in primetime and plenty of Peacock-exclusive games on the slate this season. Find the full schedule right here.
The line-up features plenty of storied rivalries from across the league. Sunday Night Baseball will be home to division rivalry games including Diamondbacks-Dodgers (March 26); Braves-Phillies (April 19); Tigers-Royals (May 10); Rangers-Angels (May 24); Cubs-Cardinals (May 31); Mets-Phillies (June 21); Yankees-Red Sox (June 28); Padres-Dodgers (July 5); Mariners-Astros (August 16); and Padres-Giants (Sept. 13). Catch it all on Peacock right here.
MLB Activations for Opening Day: in NYC or California this week? Get ready for opening day with massive “baseballs” embedded outside MLB’s New York headquarters and at Universal CityWalk Hollywood, featuring tune-in for NBC’s games this week!
Fans can also find a “basepath” leading from the giant baseball outside MLB’s headquarters to NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Center headquarters. There, fans can take swings in batting cages; try out their fastball with speed clocks for measuring them; enjoy photo ops with the World Series trophy; and catch all the action with a viewing screen to watch the opening day games!