Well, it is official. Baseball's vagabonds will be on the move at the end of the 2024 season.
After 57 seasons in Oakland, the A's will move to Sacramento and play at least through the 2027 season and possibly the 2028 season before moving to Las Vegas.
The A's will play in Sutter Health Park which has a seating capacity of 14,000 and former players are warning that the facility isn't up to snuff. Sutter Health Park currently is the home of the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple AAA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Ironically enough, the River Cats might start playing some of their games next year in Oakland. The A's have a three-year lease in Sacramento with an option for 2028. Of course, what will happen if there's no ballpark for the A's to play in by 2029?
What isn't clear though is if the team will still be called the Oakland A's. If it is I'm surely it will leave a bad taste in the mouths of Oakland fans. On Opening Day, A's fans boycotted the game with a protest outside the Oakland Coliseum.
Wherever, the A's play there isn't much to cheer about. The A's have had back-to-back 100 plus loss seasons and have started this season 1-6.
There might be a certain novelty in having MLB in Sacramento, but if the product is bad and the facility is bad then fans will continue to stay away. The folks in Vegas are even less enthusiastic about it.
I can only imagine how Connie Mack and Charlie Finley would react to this spectacle if they were still alive.
No comments:
Post a Comment