A’s Owner Admits He Failed Oakland Fans As Team Preps Move To Las Vegas
The Oakland A’s owner is admitting that he failed Oakland fans as the team gets ready to move to Las Vegas. Will they have a better future in Sin City?
John Fisher is the owner of the Athletics and he says he tried to find a new home in Oakland that would allow the team to stay in the Bay Area, but he was ultimately unsuccessful in his efforts. Fans in Oakland have long griped about a lack of care from the owner and a poor stadium with the Oakland Coliseum. Now, the team will be packing its bags and will be playing in Sacramento for a few years until they’re ready to move to Las Vegas in 2028.
A’s Owner Admits He Let Down Fans In Oakland
Last November, the franchise announced that they will officially be leaving Oakland and the Bay Area all together and will have a future in Las Vegas. However, Fisher, who purchased the A’s back in 2005, claims that he did all he could to keep the team put. However, it was a tough battle because there have been so many issues there for so long. There’s the stadium, the lack of attendance, and the team’s poor performance among many variables.
John Fisher released a statement ahead of their final home game saying in part, “The upcoming series with the Texas Rangers will be the final games of the A’s stories 57 years in Oakland. And while the A’s previously played in Philadelphia and Kansas City, Oakland has been home for the greatest era in the franchise’s more than 123-year history.” I forgot that they once were one of the best franchises in the league! They’ve won 4 World Series championships! Fisher’s statement continued, “The A’s are part of the fabric of Oakland, the East Bay, and the entire Bay Area. When Lew Wolff and I bought the team in 2005, our dream was to win world championships and build a new ballpark in Oakland. Over the next 18 years, we did our very best to make that happen. We proposed and purchased five different locations in the Bay Area. And despite mutual and ongoing efforts to get a deal done for the Howard Terminal project, we came up short.” You can see his full statement shared on X (formerly Twitter) by @KleinschmidtJD below.
In Las Vegas, the team is expected to play on the site of the former Tropicana Las Vegas on the Strip. Again, that’s expected to happen in 2028 and in the meantime they’ll be playing home games in Sacramento, California.