The Oakland A’s

November 1st, 2023

In just two weeks, MLB owners will meet to vote on the team’s relocation to Vegas following the 2024 season. There needs to be ¾ of the owners who approve the relocation for it to pass.

A’s owner John Fisher sees no value for baseball in Oakland. His main goal since becoming an owner in 2005 was to relocate the team. To do this to a team who’s been in Oakland since 1968 is frustrating for many baseball fans, myself included, so I can’t imagine the emotions that A’s fans are feeling. They expressed how they felt on June 13th of this season with a reverse boycott, in response to Fisher blaming fans and poor attendance as the reason for relocation. A’s fans packed the stadium that day with almost 28,000 fans, a huge bump from the average number of 3900. They held up signs that read “sell”, wore shirts that said “sell”, and chanted at Fisher to sell the team. Oakland fans hate John Fisher and they have every right to, he’s a terrible owner. I imagine it's difficult for diehard fans to repeatedly watch their team struggle, refuse to spend money, give away all their best players, and now relocate to Vegas and blame you for it. They also have every right to hate Rob Manfred, as he stated that if the relocation passes, he will waive the mandatory relocation fee that the A’s (owned by Fisher) would have to pay. These two are everything that is wrong with baseball. They have slowly but surely been behind the process of killing the game of baseball. Manfred is responsible for TV blackouts, lack of punishments for the Astros, harsh punishments for Trevor Bauer, some stadiums having casinos in them, attempting to wipe out the minor leagues, moving the All-Star game out of Atlanta for political considerations which lost the city hundreds of millions of dollars, calling the world series trophy “just a piece of metal”, and many, many more things. The fact that he is just opening the door for Fisher should make all baseball fans that much more pissed off at these two. The A’s had 4 world series wins, 17 division titles, the insane moneyball run, and some of the biggest names in the history of the sport. It’s common for owners not to take the fans' best interests into consideration, but relocation is like getting the red ring on your Xbox, as it is just an absolute gut punch. I feel for all the Oakland A’s fans.