The Oakland A’s have been a historic baseball franchise for decades.
But that history apparently doesn’t mean anything.
A’s owner John Fisher announced on April 4 that the team will move to Sacramento for the 2025-27 MLB seasons as the team prepares its permanent relocation to Las Vegas.
This caused a lot of controversy and confusion for the Oakland fans, especially me. I don’t like this move at all. There’s a lot of questions I have about the A’s moving to Sacramento.
The Last Dive Bar, a social media account that promotes Fisher selling the A’s so they can stay in Oakland, started a worldwide campaign. People throughout the country have supported it and brought signs to games and protests that read, “Sell the team”.
The A’s have been in Oakland since 1968 and have won four World Series titles, including three straight between 1972-74. Calling Oakland home is going to change next season when Fisher moves the team to Sutter Health Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants’ triple A team, the Sacramento River Cats.
Sharing a stadium with another team is going to be a hassle, which the A’s experienced for many years when they shared the Coliseum with the Raiders.Fisher did not like sharing a stadium, but now he wants to share another stadium with another team. Sounds contradicting.
Plus, Sutter Health Park has only 10,624 fixed seats and a total capacity of 14,014, which includes lawn seating and standing room. Another problem is the security. This is a minor league team’s stadium, so it’s not supposed to be a huge stadium. The A’s are a professional team with a stadium that can seat more than 40,000 fans. How are they going to allow crazy fans at a minor league stadium where that stadium is not built for that?
There is going to be less security around the stadium because of stadium size, which could create a greater chance of problems.
The A’s moving to Sacramento for the next three seasons is not a good idea in any way, and Oakland fans have demonstrated how opposed they are to this move and the one to Las Vegas.
Nearly 30,000 fans last season participated in reverse boycott showing ownership that they’d support the team if Fisher gave them something to support.
The fans in Oakland, myself included, want the A’s in Oakland as long as possible. The tradition and support in Oakland is unmatched in MLB, but the A’s moving to Sacramento could be the worst decision in franchise history.
It’s the die-hard fans who will pay the price.