A Long, Sad Goodbye

It might not be officially official yet, but it's pretty obvious to everyone that the A's are leaving Oakland for Las Vegas.  It reminds me of when the Expos moved from Montreal to Washington.  Everyone knew what was going to happen.  They were just waiting for the inevitable announcement confirming it.  What happened in Montreal 20 years ago was sad.  What's happening in Oakland may be worse.

The situation in Oakland has been bad for a while.  It's actually pretty amazing that the A's have stuck around this long.  The Raiders left.  The Warriors went across the Bay.  Yet the A's are still there.  They've tried multiple times to get the funding for a new stadium (in Oakland) that they desperately need.  They've failed every time, so they're stuck still playing in a cavernous stadium that's widely regarded as the worst venue in professional sports (for both players and fans).

They've also given fans very little reason to go to games.  They have the lowest payroll in baseball and have barely made an attempt to feign being competitive in the last couple of years.  Plus, the stadium's a piece of crap.  Yet they still raised ticket prices to make people watch a terrible team in a terrible stadium.  Is there any wonder then that Oakland's attendance numbers have been abysmal this season?

What's ironic, of course, is that the lack of attendance is the excuse they're gonna end up using to get out of Oakland.  Meanwhile, they're the ones choosing not to spend any money on the team itself or improving the stadium (although, I'm not sure how many "improvements" you can actually make to the Coliseum).  Which is almost certainly intentional.  Making it look like no one in Oakland cares makes it that much easier to move to Las Vegas.

There's the dedicated group of A's fans who doesn't want to see the team go and places the blame on the owners.  Their argument is that if the team gives them a reason to show up, they will.  And, even though the writing is on the wall, some of them will be A's diehards til the end. Unfortunately for that fan group, the end is approaching.  Even they know it.

While it's easy for the fans to blame the owners and the owners to blame the fans, the real culprit here (as I argued a few weeks ago) is the City of Oakland.  They've seen two of their three teams move and know what it'll take to keep the last one left.  Yet they won't do it.  Leaving the A's with pretty much no choice.  Whether they want to remain in Oakland or not is irrelevant.  The city is basically forcing their hand.

Twenty years ago, when MLB moved the Expos, it had just as much to do with Washington as it did with Montreal.  Major League Baseball wanted a team in D.C., and that was the way to get it.  Sure, the Expos had attendance problems and played in a not-so-good stadium, but their issues were mostly financial.  Had the situation been different, the Expos might still be in Montreal today.

Instead, there was the long, drawn out au revoir that started with speculation MLB might contract two teams, including the Expos, then having the team play a handful of "home" games in Puerto Rico for two seasons.  It didn't really soften the blow.  It just made things more awkard, in fact.  Everyone knew the team was moving, so, beyond the nostalgia factor, what reason was there to get (or remain) invested?

All indications are that Oakland's goodbye will be just as long, drawn out and awkward.  The A's lease at the Coliseum expires after next season, which means 2025 is the earliest they could move.  Except their retractable-roof stadium on the Las Vegas Strip won't be ready until 2027.  And that's if everything goes according to plan.  So, what do they do for those two years?  

Do they play in the current Minor League stadium in Las Vegas?  Or do they play an additional two lame-duck years in Oakland?  Is that even an option?  Oakland has made it clear that if the A's are planning on moving, they don't want them there anymore.  And do you really want four years of what we're seeing in Oakland right now?  Because that's not a good look for anybody.

I also find it funny how the team slogan is "Rooted In Oakland," and not just because of how ironic it is.  There are fans who act like the A's "belong" in Oakland, too.  Which, of course, is ironic in its own right.  They've only played in Oakland since 1968!  They started in Philadelphia and spent 12 years in Kansas City before moving to Oakland.  So, when they finalize the move to Las Vegas, it'll be the fourth stop in franchise history!

Of course, it's not a done deal yet.  The A's do have that binding agreement for land in Las Vegas, but the City of Oakland may make an 11th-hour deal for a stadium that keeps the team there.  That scenario's obviously unlikely, but it would be the city's way of showing they actually do care and actually do want the team there.  Because, frankly, it's been their lack of interest that got the A's looking elsewhere in the first place!

So, yes, this is the beginning of the end.  Much like the Expos, there were a few years of speculation about the possibility of moving combined with cautious optimism that they'd stay, followed by a few years of being resigned to the fact that a move seemed inevitable, followed by the "yes, it's really happening" realization.  The A's haven't reached that point yet, but it's getting close.  And everyone knows it.

Fans in Oakland seem to have already come to terms with it.  Which means the A's will spend their final years in Oakland playing in a mostly-empty cavernous stadium that looks and feels as old as it is.  It's a far cry from their heyday, when they won three straight World Series from 1972-74 and went to another three straight from 1988-90.  In those days, the Coliseum was regularly sold out.  Now you can count the fans individually.  And it'll sadly be that way until the A's long farewell to Oakland draws to a close.