The Oakland A’s Ownership Is A Disgrace

After spending decades in Oakland, the Oakland Athletics ownership announced in 2023 that they would be moving the club to Las Vegas. For me, news of the move really stung as the very first baseball game I went to was at the Oakland Coliseum. I ended up being a Giants fan, but I had no negative feelings towards the A’s other than bitterness of them beating the Giants in the ’89 Battle Of The Bay World Series. Every summer I would watch countless baseball games with my dad, and on days that the Giants didn’t play, or played earlier than the A’s, we would catch A’s games as well.

The A’s were a great team in the 1980s and early 90s. I grew up watching players like Ricky Henderson, Dennis Eckersley, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and Terry Steinbech. I stayed a fan as the Stephen Schott era brought about “moneyball” as Billy Beane got creative in ways to spend to stay competitive. It was hard to be a fan when the team basically became a farm system team for the big market teams like the Yankees. I think I really started to lose my fandom of the A’s when John Fisher took over in 2005.

So many fans of the A’s have stayed loyal to the club, and I applaud those fans that have done so. The ownership has taken fans for granted as they have expected their support as the club put a less and less competitive team on the field, especially more so over the last decade. The fans have stayed loyal to a team that has been thinking about leaving the Bay Area for years. The fans have been rewarded for their loyalty by a team abandoning the city and its fanbase that has loved them for so long.

Now to understand the A’s, you have to understand that they are considered a small market team. The team has never seemed to draw as many fans as their cross Bay rivals, even on years that they make the playoffs. The highest average attendance the team had on average since Fisher took over was back in 2014. Since then, there has been gradual decline in attendance every year, with the exception being in 2019. Coincidentally, that was one of the last seasons the A’s got near $110M in team payroll. Heading into the 2024 season, the A’s have slashed payroll over the last 5 years by around $30M per season.

One could think that players wouldn’t be inclined to go to a small market club do to no fans, but players haven’t wanted to go to Oakland because the team doesn’t want to pay them money. It’s safe to think that if there are no fans, there is no money to spend. That was proven to be somewhat true during Covid in 2020, but that year is an outlier in so many different ways. If the team doesn’t want to spend money to give the fans a player to be excited about, why would the fans become excited to watch a player who will just leave the club in a year or two because the club doesn’t want to pay the money for them?

A good example of not spending money on players you develop goes all the way back to the early 2000s. Stephen Schott and that ownership did not spend money to retain players. Because of that, great players like Tim Hudson, Jason Giambi and Miguel Tejada left the club in free agency. The A’s developed Barry Zito only to see him go to the Giants for a then team record of $126M.

The Oakland A’s have had a history of having a great farm system. In more recent years, stars of that system have included Matt Chapman, Matt Olson and Sonny Gray. All of those players got traded for young prospects because the A’s didn’t want to pay to retain them in free agency. The club then turns around and develops those players, only to trade them for prospects again to help keep the payroll low. Why would fans stay loyal to a club that doesn’t stay loyal to its players?

This is how the organization has treated the fans for years. Instead of bringing in players to help put fans in the seats, the ownership expected loyalty. The fans gave their loyalty for a long time too! Year after year the fans would show up to cheer the underdog A’s. Year after year the fans would pack the Oakland Coliseum when the team rewarded their loyalty with a playoff run. Now, the organization is trading away the fans. Now the organization is being greedy and deciding to trade in their loyal fans for money.

To me, it has felt like Fisher has tried to move the A’s out of Oakland since he bought the club back in 2005. When I lived in the Pacific Northwest I heard rumors of the A’s thinking about relocating to Portland. Even during that time, Fisher used the potential threat of the A’s leaving to try to leverage the city of Oakland to front most of the bill for a new stadium. Fisher has always been full of it, as I believe he never wanted the team to stay in Oakland.

The city of Oakland has done their best to stay relevant since the city lost the Raiders the first time. The welcomed them back only see the team leave again after the 2019 season. When the Raiders left, the team took jobs away from the city, and in turn, tax revenue. On top of that, the Golden State Warriors also left Oakland for San Francisco in 2019. Could it be that instead of the problem being with Fisher, the problem was with the city? I don’t believe that to be the case. Oakland negotiated as best as they could with a man who already had one foot out the door.

When the Raiders left Oakland for Vegas, it felt like the A’s began to see an opportunity for themselves. Oakland had some funding to approve for the A’s to give them a new stadium, but Vegas had more money to give. Fisher leveraged that. Fisher may have been losing money by fans not showing up to games, but why would the fans want to go?

Fisher clearly gave up on the fans a long time ago. He expected loyalty and gave none in return. In business, the common rule is that you have to spend some money to make some money. Fisher clearly has ignored that rule. He hasn’t spent money and expected to make some money. That clearly did not work in Oakland. Now he’s thinking that just by having a team in Vegas, the organization will suddenly get fans. I highly doubt that will be the case.

Oakland A’s fans have deserved better than they have gotten from the team ownership for a long time. Now they are saying enough. On Opening Day 2024, the fans showed their disapproval by staging a protest before and during the game. They showed up in the parking lot, but did not go in to watch the team play in person. A couple of A’s players wore a piece of apparel created by the group who organized the protest. The A’s sent a message to the players and their fans by demoting the two players. It’s the same message time after time.

What the organization has to look forward to in Vegas, if they ever get there, is a non existent fan base. Fans may show up in Vegas, but they will be fans of visiting teams. Those fans will make home games feel like away games for the players. The home fans will get an owner who demands loyalty and will give none in return. What the Oakland A’s ownership has done and how they have treated their fans has been nothing short of disgraceful. Shame on them.

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