The Oakland A's announced today they will be moving the team to Las Vegas after have purchasing land to build a new stadium.
What is unclear is when the A's will move to Vegas although the stated goal is for this to happen no later than the 2027 season. The lease at the Oakland Coliseum expires after the 2024 season but it is doubtful a new stadium in Vegas will be ready for the 2025 season. Needless to city, the City of Oakland is none too happy about this development and is probably disinclined to extend the lease. I think it would be more likely that the A's will play in a facility in or near Las Vegas on a temporary basis until the new stadium is ready to be opened.
The move is not a surprise considering the NFL Raiders also moved from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020 while the Golden State Warriors of the NBA moved from Oakland to San Francisco the year previous. The A's had called the Oakland Coliseum home since 1968 but has fallen into disrepair and is barely suitable for feral cats much less people. There have been attempts to build the A's a new stadium, but the city was no more interested in getting this done for the A's than they were for the Raiders much less the Warriors which had won three NBA championships in the years leading up to the move across the Bay.
Of course, it hasn't helped matters that the A's have dismantled the team which is likely on track to lose 100 or more games for a second consecutive season. A's fans had been planning a "reverse boycott" on June 13th to show their support for the team, but with today's Vegas announcement all bets are off.
The truth of the matter is the A's have always been baseball's vagabonds. Las Vegas will become their fourth stop in a trek which had made its way west from Philadelphia to Kansas City to Oakland. The Philadelphia A's had been owned by Connie Mack who also managed the team for 51 of the 54 seasons they were in the City of Brotherly Love. The team was either very good or absolutely terrible. Between 1910 and 1914, the A's won four AL pennants and three World Series titles. But after Mack dismantled the team, they endured seven consecutive last place finishes in the AL between 1915 and 1921 losing 100 or more games five times. The A's would rebound during the middle of the roaring 20's and won three consecutive AL pennants between 1929-1931 winning the Fall Classic in 1929 and 1930. But by the mid-1930's their losing ways returned. During the last two decades in Philadelphia between 1935 and 1954, the A's had 11 last place finishes in the AL.
In 1955, the team was sold to Arnold Johnson who moved the team to Kansas City. But Johnson was an associate of New York Yankees owner Dan Topping and the A's were essentially treated like a Triple AAA affiliate of the Bronx Bombers acquiring the likes of Roger Maris, Clete Boyer and Ralph Terry for little or nothing in return. After Johnson's sudden death in 1960, the team was sold to Charlie Finley.
Despite his commitment to keep the team in K.C., Finley couldn't wait to get the hell out and tried to move the team to Louisville, New Orleans, Atlanta, Dallas, Milwaukee and Seattle without success until the owners finally allowed him to move the team to Oakland prior to the 1968 season. The A's never enjoyed a winning season during their 13-year tenure in Kansas City.
Their fortunes would change in Oakland where they won five consecutive AL West titles between 1971-1975 along with three consecutive World Series titles between 1972-1974. While Finley drafted many good players like Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue and Rollie Fingers, he didn't want to pay them. With the advent of free agency, Finley dismantled the team and by 1979 the team was back to losing 100 games a season.
The A's returned to their winning ways under the ownership of the Haas family reaching the postseason during the strike shortened 1981 season and then won three consecutive AL pennants between 1988 and 1990 winning the World Series in 1989 during the infamous Earthquake Series against their Bay Area rival San Francisco Giants.
Since 1995, the team has undergone ownership changes thrice. None of these ownership groups have been willing to spend money or keep players on a long-term basis. The "Moneyball" philosophy of longtime GM Billy Beane helped somewhat. Between 2000 and 2020, the A's have reached the postseason 11 times including 7 AL West titles. Unfortunately, the A's only reached the ALCS once during this period back in 2006 when they were swept by the Detroit Tigers.
The A's have now actually been in Oakland longer than they were in Philadelphia. But it would seem big league sports are not viable in Oakland. Perhaps in a few years there might be minor league baseball in Oakland once time has healed the inevitable wounds.
Meanwhile, Vegas will add its third major sports team. Before the Raiders arrived Vegas in 2020, the NHL expanded there with the Golden Knights back in 2017. Can the NBA be far behind?
One other question. Will they still be called the Las Vegas A's or Athletics? I hope so for the sake of continuity and lineage. But if Rob Manfred can put a ghost runner on second during extra innings, expand the size of the bases and install a pitch clock then he could permit the team to change their name once they arrived in Las Vegas. I wouldn't bet against it.
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