UTK Special 11/20/23

Exit Oakland

The Oakland A’s are, functionally, no more. The franchise remembered for mustaches, free agency, earthquakes, steroids, and Moneyball will exit after 2024, for parts unknown. The Vegas stadium is years away and in the short term, it appears that Oracle Park is the likely interim. (I think the scheduling will be a nightmare and frankly, I think having the A’s barnstorm would be better all around, aside from the players.)

I feel for the A’s fans, but I also think they should look at their own history. When the Kansas City Athletics moved at the behest of their controversial owner Charlie Finley, it was only a year before they had a new team, the promise of a new stadium, and more importantly, a new owner, one that carried the franchise to a golden era in the late 70s and early 80s. Trading one season of baseball for a swap of Finley to Ewing Kaufmann was a win on every level.

Oakland could very easily do the same. There’s certainly money in the bay, with interest from multiple owners and groups. By the time the process is done, my guess is we’ll see a conglomerate not unlike what owns the Golden State Warriors, who moved from Oakland themselves. Trading John Fisher for, well, almost anyone else who can collect a billion or so dollars and has the political capital to get a stadium done would be a win.

Just as the Royals became a better franchise than the A’s before them, Oakland could get much the same. A better stadium, a better owner, and maybe they lure back Dave Forst and his crew to make the sequel to Moneyball. Forget the name, the colors, and the history and make it a modern statement on a town that’s misunderstood and struggling in many ways, but that can be a beacon of hope in the way that it seems only sports can be.

Stadium deals seldom make financial sense for cities, but they often make for powerful symbols. Indianapolis lured the Colts with a new stadium and 40 years later parlayed that into being one of the biggest convention cities in America. That’s happened in Nashville, in Atlanta (twice), and Frisco, Texas, a town virtually built on sports.

I’m not sure that Alex Padilla can call the Senate into motion the way that Missouri did when they lost the A’s, but there’s always the chance that saying “antitrust exemption” loud enough makes Rob Manfred twitchy. I’ve long said Oakland has an easy case to be made to be a top expansion candidate and it could get stronger if the team focuses on that, rather than holding onto green and gold. One of the few things I know about modern Oakland is that at the end of every 99% Invisible, Roman Mars says it’s produced in “beautiful downtown Oakland”, and the way he says it makes me believe it is. (He opens with it in the clip below!)

Imagine - it’s not impossible given Vegas’ financial issues and the declining accounts of Fisher that the stadium there doesn’t get built on schedule. It’s hard to imagine the circumstances where it could happen, but Oakland could have their new stadium and team at about the same time that the A’s finally have a home, and who knows what damage would be done to Fisher’s team in the interim. Heck, if the Angels come back up for sale, that’s a route too. Wave goodbye to Fisher, Oakland. Turn your back on him fully and start work on your next team.