The Oakland Athletics have made their decision, that might surprise some, to relocate the organization to Las Vegas. After the announcement of the move, frustrations have hit the highest point recently as many A’s fans have called for John Fisher, the owner of the A’s, to sell the team and to stay in Oakland.
Cameron Chitwood, a current teacher at Tracy High and life-long A’s fan, referred to the news of the team’s plans to move to Vegas as a “big gut punch.”
One of Chitwood’s favorite memories was bringing his son to his first game and the picture that he has of them overlooking the field. Chitwood recalled the A’s announcing their move just a week after and feeling disappointment.
Due to their current lease on the Coliseum expiring at the end of the 2024 season, the A’s have made a deal to move the team to Sutter Health Park, home to the Sacramento River Cats, until the 2028 season.
One major difference between the two ballparks is the stadium capacity, with the Coliseum holding over 63,000 fans and Sutter holding just over 14,000 fans. The A’s might actually end up benefiting from the smaller capacities.
“The ballpark will appear and feel more crowded due to such a decrease in capacity. The overall baseball experience is much better with more seats filled up than empty,” Paul Giuliacci, the Deputy Director of the San Francisco Giants Community Fund, said.
Giuliacci has spent over 25 years in the Giants front office and knows the ins and outs of decisions made by ownership and how it impacts the team and its fans.
Meanwhile, the new ballpark will be built on the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard. The A’s released four renderings of their plans for the ballpark that is reported to be worth around $1.5 billion.
Oakland fans kicked off the 2024 season in style as they continued their protests on opening day by purchasing tickets to the game and organizing a block party outside. Many fans participated in the protest as the paid attendance for the home opener was 13,522 people with many of them never entering the ballpark.
Even some of the players have been quietly disapproving of the move, including some standout young players like Esteury Ruiz and Brent Rooker, by wearing wristbands made by The Last Dive Bar, a group created by A’s fans that have been very critical of the ownership lately. Fisher then responded by sending Ruiz down to AAA and benching Rooker.
“Fisher is constantly prioritizing saving money instead of producing a quality team for us,” Malakai Jacobo, an outfielder on the Tracy High Baseball Team, said.
Fisher has been widely criticized for some time now due to his “cheap nature” and unwillingness to sign star players. Some of the big names he has let go in free agency in recent years include Matt Olson, Marcus Semien, Matt Chapman, Sean Murphy and Sonny Gray.
It will be interesting to see if the A’s will continue their same patterns as they go about their decisions amidst all the frustrations around the organization.
