On Sept. 26, the Oakland Athletics (A’s) played their final game in the storied yet crumbling Oakland Coliseum ahead of their relocation to Las Vegas, defeating the Texas Rangers 3-2 in a bittersweet victory. Despite the triumph and a sold-out stadium, the Coliseum was filled with a kaleidoscope of emotions, including fans’ feelings of anger and sadness. These are sentiments likely to resonate with Montreal Expos supporters, the last fanbase in Major League Baseball (MLB) to undergo a relocation before the A’s.
The game marked the end of a historic chapter for the A’s. Although Oakland was the A’s third home, after Philadelphia and Kansas City, it became its most decorated. Since their move from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968, the team won four World Series titles, including three consecutive championships from 1972 to 1974.
The A’s move to Vegas will be the latest departure in a series of team exits from Oakland following the Warriors’ move to San Francisco in 2019 and the Raiders’ relocation to Las Vegas in 2020.
The A’s departure, while heartbreaking, was not a shock to Oakland fans. The franchise has been burdened with the task of finding a new stadium to replace the historic Coliseum for years and has considered relocation several times. The A’s fanbase overwhelmingly considers the franchise’s relocation to Las Vegas as a direct result of poor management by the team’s owner, John Fisher. Fans have determinedly but unsuccessfully pushed for him to sell the team. Ahead of the A’s final game in Oakland, Fisher released a statement to saddened fans addressing his failure to find the team a new stadium in Oakland. He urged A’s fans to continue supporting the team and consistently highlighted his efforts to keep the team in Oakland.
Many fans found the letter insincere, including ABC7 Sports Director Larry Beil who ripped up the statement live on air. The disappointment over the A’s departure even caught the attention of U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris, a Bay Area native, who lamented the A’s departure from Oakland on the All the Smoke podcast.
To make matters worse for Oakland sports fans, the A’s relocation to Vegas will not be complete until the 2028 season. The A’s will play the next three seasons at Sutter Health Park, the stadium of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, as they wait for their new stadium to be built. During this time, the A’s will lack a home city and will simply be known as the Athletics.
For Montreal baseball fans, the A’s’ relocation draws reminders of the Expos’ move in 2004, and for some, even shines hopes of the return of an MLB franchise to the city. Montreal has been a candidate city to host a new franchise in the MLB in recent years. A survey conducted by The Athletic in 2022 of over 11,500 subscribers showed that 45.4 per cent of fans would like to see a new franchise in Montreal. While sports franchise relocations always cause sadness and disappointment among fans of the departing team, they can also bring excitement and opportunity to new cities which are desperate to call a major franchise their own.
A’s fans have every reason to be upset with the mismanagement of the team. The franchise’s owners have run the A’s like a business, prioritizing their financial interests over their fans. Pursuing flawed stadium projects in Oakland and managing the lowest payroll in the MLB by a wide margin is not the right strategy if your goal is to win championships. As A’s fans know, sports teams should be run as passion projects, not as financial ventures.
