The city of Oakland has lost both the Athletics and the Warriors. People in the city have not gotten over it, as there was a ton of history between those two teams in Oracle Arena and in the Coliseum right next to each other.
In a recent memoir by former part-owner of the A’s, Lewis “Lew” Wolff, he blames the San Francisco Giants for the relocation of the A’s. It was a 128-page book. According to Evan Drellich of The Athletic, the Giants refused to relent territorial rights to Santa Clara County. The A’s wanted to relocate to San Jose, but were not allowed.
Wolff said that the A’s relocation to Las Vegas is “100 percent due to the nasty, shameful, and continuing opposition of the Giants.”
“My 10-year tenure with the A’s sort of disappeared. I thought we had a really good run during that period, and I wanted to really thank a lot of people,” Wolff said in a phone interview with The Athletic. “Since there’s so much activity about us leaving the state, I wanted to sort of set that record clear, whether anybody read it or not.”
Wolff would later say: “What I did not realize was that the amazing individuals comprising MLB … attract, employ or have around deceitful and dangerous sycophants, not all, but some. And these sycophants assassinated the A’s!”
“Even today, for some reason, they still control the area,” Wolff said of the Giants and Santa Clara County. “So when I read about expansion — you know, Nashville and Portland and Salt Lake (City) — why isn’t the Bay Area included in that? It was a two-team market. Now it’s a one-team market.”
We are still two years away from the opening of the new stadium in Las Vegas. There is no turning back now. Wolff may be hopeful that Oakland could receive an expansion team in the future; however, there have not been any real talks about it happening any time soon.
The city of Oakland has lost both the Athletics and the Warriors. People in the city have not gotten over it, as there was a ton of history between those two teams in Oracle Arena and in the Coliseum right next to each other. In a recent memoir by former part-owner of the A’s, Lewis “Lew” Wolff, he blames the San Francisco Giants for the relocation of the A’s.