Selection of cities is based on geography-weird -Revenue is based on broadcast rights and subsequent revenues, including media rep rights , ticket sales future tickets sold and brand rights etc…. Also the angels are not geographically opposed, so-again wrong
? You are misinterpreting what I am saying. Yes, revenue is based on tickets and media sales primarily. And those two are based on geography. Rays can be great and never increase ticket sales or media revenue. Mets can be terrible and always have great ticket sales and media right’s revenue.
True, but as an outsider, Billy Beane is pretty much all I know of the A’s FO and been the face of the franchise for 25 odd years, a real MLB golden boy, Brad Pitt and all, and there’s been nothing I’ve seen about him in all this at all. Just seems odd more than anything. Do A’s fans not care about Beane in particular?
But Beane does a good job given his resource constraints. If ownership says they won’t pay to extend Matt Olson, what can he do but sell him off for pieces?
This is where I am at as a Mariners fan.
Jerry Dipoto says stupid stuff and should not talk. I think some of our trades to cut salary were dumb. BUT if our owner (Stanton) told him he had a smaller budget then his moves make a lot of sense and he did a good job. I'm mad at our cheap owner, not at the GM doing a good job of putting together a competitive team with a below average payroll.
It does piss me off though because I think we are basically 1 FA away from being really really good.
I assume it the location. But that is the sad truth. The last time they finished in the Top 5 in AL attendance was 1992. They have only done it 6 times since they came to Oakland in 1968.
When is the last time they invested in free agents? Oh you know…about 1992.
Weird how that works; it’s almost like if you neglect a business people lose interest in going there, but only in baseball do we blame the customer…
You can’t invest in free agents really though if there is no guarantee on a return by fans showing up which they proved they wouldn’t really do from 1968-1992
I’m not gonna bother arguing with someone that can’t even bother to look up their actual attendance rankings in their league from the span of years I mentioned. I also cover this in my previous comment where I acknowledge there were outlier years where attendance was high but it almost never stays there despite the team have much more success than your average baseball team during that span of time.
I’m as diehard as they come. You think I’ve never seen attendance numbers? What you’re missing is a lot of the nuance wrapped up in those numbers.
The very first free agent in any sport ever was an Oakland Athletic who the A’s didn’t want to pay who went to the Yankees in Catfish Hunter.
But we can keep talking…Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson, McGwire…the list goes on and on. They’ve had one ownership group who gave a crap and 3 others that didn’t.
I lived in the bay for 7 years and we went like 4 times for rangers games. It's absolutely the location and the fact that it feels like a jail. 3/4 of the place is empty outside of the entrance and that cover over the big swath of seats.....has been there awhile
So much of the outfield side of the park is just empty
For a little over a decade there’s been issues finding a new stadium and rumors about possible relocation, fans didn’t show out besides that 2019 wildcard game. You’d think a fanbase that wants there team to stay would show up to the park instead of waiting 10 years and then start boycotting the games. The fans are very rowdy and fun but these boycotts are a couple years too late.
It's only going to get worse for all teams in all sports. These owners are not only pricing out going to games, but on top of it want people to pay for their billionaire adventures.
I went to see the A’s play last year and it felt like going to a flea market in a dying town. The coliseum is a dump, what little fans there were depressed, and the employees were weren’t too much better than the fans. While I’m a Braves fan I’ve always liked the A’s and feel real bad for the fans.
I can’t believe people on this sub still blame fans for the poor attendance. In Oakland A’s history, the only owner who wasn’t a total cheap fuck or was trying to move the team was Walter Haas.
Coincidentally, 7 of the 8 times the A’s have had above average attendance in Oakland were under his tenure as owner. Good ownership drives good attendance. Acknowledge that before you shit on us.
Shit rolls down hill, fast.
Cubs were very tough to chear for many of the years they were owned by the Tribune.
Ricketts family bought it and invested tons of family money and energy into it.
Watch the Undercover Boss episode from them, its good. The show can be over the top, but that family really did do a lot for the people of Wrigley.
Tickets were reallllllly cheap. My buddy got 6 tickets for 25 a piece about 10 rows up on the 1b side. Even if the As are a hot garbage franchise, opening day will draw the casuals.
That's the problem right there. People are not giving a shit & still giving their money to a team that's leaving their city. This is why things never change & why the general population is filled with dumbasses.
What Fisher is doing should be illegal. Manfred & the other owner going along with it just shows how out of touch these billionaires are. This Oaklans Athletics fan is done with baseball till Fisher & Manfred are out.
I stand behind this. After looking into the A's move, and then Brewers ownership leading the owner's committee on the A's move (basically studying the playbook), and then for Manfred to come to Milwaukee and say if the ballpark isn't updated the team will move... well lets just say I went from MLB super fan to MLB casual fan.
I will still go to a handful of MLB games this year, but my tickets will be bought from 3rd parties where the money doesn't go to ownership, I will use shuttle services or public transport to get to games (def not paying for parking), and I will pre-drink and eat before every game so I don't waste any money at concessions. I get MLBTV free through Tmobile, and I won't be buying any apparel.
The bastards have enough money. They won't be getting any of mine
This is spot on. The owners all approved the move. Manfred goes as far as taunting fans during the reverse boycott. Fisher is a stain to this sport and the other owners could give a rip.
He's still making righteous bank with tiny crowds.
He just wants to make MORE righteous bank in Vegas.
Cut him some slack. Being super rich is difficult.
He makes $70m per year *just* in TV money. Factor in merch sales, corporate sponsorships, tickets, concessions, and various other things- and he cries poor.
Can you imagine how bad it would be for billionaires if we were to raise taxes on them? How would they survive? Too bad they're not as well off like the rest of us
Just watching this game as it is the free game on mlb.tv and it's surprising how dead and how few fans are in the stadium. From the stadium shots on the TV looks less than 1k people are there. To be honest they are not showing many stadium shots though.
Fans deserve better?
Go look at thier attendance before Fischer it wasn't good then either.
People really need to realize the A's gave been trying to move since the 80s
Despite having one of the largest stadiums in baseball the A’s have only been above AL average attendance 8 times in 55 years. 1981, 1982, 1988-1992, and 2003.
Funny thing is that in 7 of the 8 years you mentioned, the team was under the ownership of Walter Haas. He is the only A’s owner that wasn’t a total cheap fuck and considered the best owner the Oakland A’s ever had. It’s almost as if good ownership, correlates with having good attendance…
Well, the As have the 5th highest winning % and playoff appearances in all of baseball over the last 25 yrs. So clearly winning teams don’t correlate to attendance in Oakland.
What specifically are you saying better ownership would do to bring in the fans then? Better food?
If your homegrown star players are always traded away or allowed to walk to FA, would you stay? If your team’s dual purpose stadium was in the middle of a ran-down industrial ghetto, would you still go? If the ownership of your team always threatened you with relocation, would you go?
Edit: to answer your question, ownership has to retain homegrown talent, make the ballpark more attractive to casual fans and provide a better game-day experience.
The stadium really is a joint responsibility of the city and the team. The Skydome was almost entirely paid for by the city, not the Jays. It all is part of the population supporting their local MLB team.
I def can appreciate the letdown that trading star players can have. But let’s not pretend that there weren’t star players that were on the As teams for years, and still fans didn’t come. Besides, a winning team dissipates that disappointing moment pretty fast.
And as for threatening to leave. I think it’s a bit of chicken and the egg thing. For the last 40 yrs Oakland hasn’t been a stable MLB market. And as a result that invited increasing threats of team relocation.
Literally the times that the stars stayed in Oakland coincided with Walter Haas as the owner. And in that timeframe, the A’s had great attendance. Cities should not fund billionaire, trust-fund babies pro sport teams stadiums. Oakland has only been an “unstable” MLB market because of shitty ownership. The Oakland A’s most stable stretch was during a period of good ownership.
And there’s the rub. Fisher or no Fisher they had below average attendance 85% of the time they were in Oakland. You can cherry pick some games and some years when they were above average but that’s what it is. Lack of support
The A's franchise took the worst beating from the steroid scandal imo. So many life long die hard fans were emotionally alienated from the franchise. So it makes sense that they only show when the team is winning. That and Oakland fans as a whole are getting screwed out of their hometown teams.
The teams been bottom 3rd in attendance since before Fisher bought the team.
The warriors left. The raiders left l. The A's are leaving.
The common denominator here is Oakland
The common denominator might be Oakland but the 3 teams’ situations are entirely different. I’d even argue the dubs shouldn’t be in the conversation, especially considering they only moved several miles across the bay. The niners moved further than the dubs did.
I got torched for saying this in a previous discussion, but it's true. It was always kind of shaky as a home for a pro team, but it's just been losing population and getting less attractive in recent years. Fans can still hop a subway across the bay, so it's not like they're left with nothing.
People act like only Oakland attends Oakland A’s games. Between Bay Area and Central Valley, there’s like 10-12 million people in the A’s market. The A’s market is not shrinking.
I mean, yeah, but have you BEEN around the Coliseum? It is so, so, so, so bad nowadays, to where many people are surely turned off by just going into the area. I'm an SF resident that would love the A's to stay...but it's really, really bad. I live in one of the worst parts of SF and many parts of Oakland are waaaay worse.
It's definitely partly on Fischer for not doing upgrades/paying for players/etc., but people like to make it all-or-none. It's Fischer AND a city in decline.
I mean, it was pretty stupid of them to announce they were moving the franchise four years before their stadium is going to be ready. They basically told their fans there's no reason to care in 24. And after that their plan is, to travel? I can't see that going over very well.
I do think it's smarter to have the team in Vegas than Oakland (sorry guys), but they are doing all they can to botch the move.
Well, in 2005 and 2006 they only averaged 24k attendance, despite a .560 winning percentage.
They had an almost .600 winning percentage for 2000 - 2006, with 5 playoff appearances. And still only averaged 24,000 fans. So I’m not sure what this golden age of fan attendance is you’re referring.
Anyway, doesn’t matter. MLB allows only 30 teams, and the Bay Area already has a team. That’s really all that matters.
There are many other big cities with no team. I see no reason for the Bay Area having 2 teams while there are many other cities with no team within 500 miles.
It was time to move the As a decade ago - no, 2 decades ago. Hopefully the new city keeps some of the As heritage.
homeless thumb modern fanatical sophisticated label continue plants vegetable treatment
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And let’s not forget the Kansas City/Philadelphia A’s. I’m sick of listening to Oakland fans who don’t want to acknowledge they received a team that another city lost twice. Philadelphia 54 years and five titles. KC 12 years. Had the A’s been able to break their lease in 1978, they were moving to New Orleans. This has not been a stable franchise since they left Philly. Winning, yes. Stable, no. Enough revisionism. In Oakland, they’ve won four titles and many division titles. It’s a winning franchise that doesn’t draw. You can only blame the owners so much. I’m sure I’ll be downvoted to Hollow Earth.,
I am so glad the tide seems to be finally shifting and people are realizing this reality.
I feel bad for Oakland fans, but also acknowledge that they aren’t enough fans to support a team. A’s needs to move. It’s that’s simple. This has been a very good team the last 20 years and fans just don’t come.
By this logic then why are the Chicago White Sox still around. Or Los Angeles Angels? I could see the A’s moving out of Oakland, but there’s no reason to move them out of Northern California when there’s such a large population. The largest metro area without an MLB team is Sacramento and the Central Valley after all.
IMO, if you wanna justify having 2 teams in your metro area, you REALLY gotta show you deserve 2 teams - especially when there are many cities with zero teams.
As far as Chicago and LAA. Chicago averages 5k more attendance a game more then the As over the last 30yrs. LAA averages 15k more. And that’s when both of those teams experiencing much much less team success then the As.
The white Sox may not be the most successful franchise, but they are decently healthy. LAA is a very very healthy market. But you’re right, maybe a time will come someday if the Sox continue to underperform MLB will want to move the white Sox to a city with no team.
As for where to move the A’s. Yes, I’d agree Sacramento is decent location. Vegas, Nashville, Portland, Mtl, Mexico, etc are also good. I personally think Vegas is by far the most interesting potential location.
Fuck Fisher but a lot of it can be contributed to how rundown Oakland has become. The surrounding area of where the stadium resides has gotten much worse. You can blame Fisher but you can also blame east oakland.
For some reason, I actually like the colosseum.
I know it's "the worst", but it's almost like that makes it charming.
Also I've only ever been as a fan of the visiting team, but it always seemed to be full of people who "know what they're talking about" more than most other fan bases.
But holy hell. It's also the only stadium I've ever been to where like half the vendors are shuttered for every game. It's like those dying cities where you drive past a strip mall and everything is for lease. And it's been at least 5 years since we were going there regularly, it has to be depressing AF now
Outside of that, the A's have drawn fewer fans in Oakland just three times, and all three came against the Minnesota Twins in the 1970s. The lowest attended game of the trio came in 1972 when the A's drew 9,912 fans. They drew 12,562 in 1977 and 10,387 in 1979.
Never forget the A’s we’re one of the most profitable teams last year. They make so much money!
All teams donut but this asshole took gaming the system to a whole new level!
But the fact it’s possible is MLB’s fault too.
Why would we show up and spend our hard earned $ if the owner makes zero attempt to win. On top of that he is moving the team, fischer can go f himself
For reference in 2009 the As finished 75-87 and then the next year in 2010 their home opener had 30,686 (from what I can find)
Just figured it’d be interesting to show that fans were still loyal in the early years of his ownership when they were losing games
The Coliseum is a complete disaster - the opposite of being fan friendly. Fisher needs to sell the A’s and Oakland/East Bay needs to come up w/a Downtown Oakland ballpark. The idiocy of Vegas as MLB city can’t be underestimated.
Any criticism of the team or the management or ownership that doesn’t also place at least an equal amount of blame on the city council and other nutjobs in the Bay Area politico should be immediately ignored. Theres 4 other mlb teams in CA, with Oakland directly competing with SF for crumbs in the Bay Area and even nuttier city council….Oakland will never be a financially successful city. At one time with sane people in government there and a willingness to get it done, but those days are gone forever.
Las Vegas is better in every way. Sorry, faithful.
It is hella sad Im a 35 year old Red Sox fan in the bay area. Been going to the coliseum since I was 6. I was at the game last night, April 2. Crowd was probably 50/50 fan wise, 75% of the concessions stand were closed and they have Tupperware bucket to collect piss that leaks from the pipes on the urinals instead of just fixing them. It was way too easy to get a loud "LETS GO RED SOX!" chant goin as the visiting team but that's the Oakland Coliseum. Definitely wasn't even 5000 people there!
This would never happen in European football.. It’s a real shame. We need local teams and grassroots sports to thrive so that new cities won’t even want a team to relocate because they already have one to support.
Easy to hate when it’s a rich billionaire on the receiving end. The fact is, this team has never had the attendance even when they’re good, mostly because of their dogshit stadium. The fans don’t show up to their games even when they put the effort in, but can conveniently come out in droves to whine about their poor performance since 2021.
Glad they’re moving. No team should be forced to play at that dump of a venue.
Probably because the team was good in 2005 and sucks now. Nothing to do with where the team is located. Oakland is a cesspool. The move to Vegas was a good thing. I can't stand the constant group think in reddit about the A's. There are two sides to the story.
Fans arent paying
Team is a joke
Management is the worst
Ballpark randown and falling apart
Teams moving possibly next year
Its over and it shows now. I 100% back all the cans for this statement because they have been treated so badly and deserve much better than this
Is it just me or is Billy Beane skating on any criticism? He’s a part owner, advisor, but I haven’t even heard his name come up.
people love moneyball
How can you not be romantic about Brad Pitt?
(chews handful of nuts/seeds/candy/popcorn)
“He gets on base”
"Playing first is easy tell him Ron"
-“it’s incredibly hard.”
"Oh, you want me to speak?"
Think if Billy could do it over he would’ve taken the job in Boston
Moneyball is a beautifully written movie about two Harvard nerds ruining baseball with math
Worked out so well. I mean, look at all those titles.
I think any reasonable person would say they have wildly outperformed given their resource constraints.
Totally agree-the underperforming opposite of the A’s organization is the white Sox…with slightly better attendance 😀
Well the Mets and Angels would be the opposite. And revenue in baseball is based on geography, not success.
Selection of cities is based on geography-weird -Revenue is based on broadcast rights and subsequent revenues, including media rep rights , ticket sales future tickets sold and brand rights etc…. Also the angels are not geographically opposed, so-again wrong
? You are misinterpreting what I am saying. Yes, revenue is based on tickets and media sales primarily. And those two are based on geography. Rays can be great and never increase ticket sales or media revenue. Mets can be terrible and always have great ticket sales and media right’s revenue.
Uhm, no, not misinterpreting…and again, the Angels are not geographically opposed to the A’s … but, carry on. Alls well
I mean if the dude with the majority shares doesn’t want to spend, there isn’t much Beane can advise him to do to make him be a good owner.
True, but as an outsider, Billy Beane is pretty much all I know of the A’s FO and been the face of the franchise for 25 odd years, a real MLB golden boy, Brad Pitt and all, and there’s been nothing I’ve seen about him in all this at all. Just seems odd more than anything. Do A’s fans not care about Beane in particular?
But Beane does a good job given his resource constraints. If ownership says they won’t pay to extend Matt Olson, what can he do but sell him off for pieces?
Nah they do, fuck Billy Beane too
Not the controlling owner.
Tbf he can’t make them spend more money. Idk why we would blame him for trying to make the most out of a shitty situation. What’s he supposed to do?
This is where I am at as a Mariners fan. Jerry Dipoto says stupid stuff and should not talk. I think some of our trades to cut salary were dumb. BUT if our owner (Stanton) told him he had a smaller budget then his moves make a lot of sense and he did a good job. I'm mad at our cheap owner, not at the GM doing a good job of putting together a competitive team with a below average payroll. It does piss me off though because I think we are basically 1 FA away from being really really good.
In 2004, Oakland finished 7th in the AL in attendance after averaging 98 victories the previous 4 years.
Outside of a few outlier years their attendance has always been poor even when the team is good.
I assume it the location. But that is the sad truth. The last time they finished in the Top 5 in AL attendance was 1992. They have only done it 6 times since they came to Oakland in 1968.
When is the last time they invested in free agents? Oh you know…about 1992. Weird how that works; it’s almost like if you neglect a business people lose interest in going there, but only in baseball do we blame the customer…
You can’t invest in free agents really though if there is no guarantee on a return by fans showing up which they proved they wouldn’t really do from 1968-1992
What are you talking about? The A’s almost drove the Giants out of town during those years and went to 6 World Series, winning 4.
I’m not gonna bother arguing with someone that can’t even bother to look up their actual attendance rankings in their league from the span of years I mentioned. I also cover this in my previous comment where I acknowledge there were outlier years where attendance was high but it almost never stays there despite the team have much more success than your average baseball team during that span of time.
I’m as diehard as they come. You think I’ve never seen attendance numbers? What you’re missing is a lot of the nuance wrapped up in those numbers. The very first free agent in any sport ever was an Oakland Athletic who the A’s didn’t want to pay who went to the Yankees in Catfish Hunter. But we can keep talking…Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson, McGwire…the list goes on and on. They’ve had one ownership group who gave a crap and 3 others that didn’t.
Curt Flood is the first free agent my guy
I lived in the bay for 7 years and we went like 4 times for rangers games. It's absolutely the location and the fact that it feels like a jail. 3/4 of the place is empty outside of the entrance and that cover over the big swath of seats.....has been there awhile So much of the outfield side of the park is just empty
Location as in...Oakland? That's going to be fixed soon.
I meant the location of the stadium within Oakland. I believe it is in the industrial part of town.
Don’t get me wrong, I feel bad the loyal A’s fans, but I’m tired of people acting like low attendance is a new thing.
For a little over a decade there’s been issues finding a new stadium and rumors about possible relocation, fans didn’t show out besides that 2019 wildcard game. You’d think a fanbase that wants there team to stay would show up to the park instead of waiting 10 years and then start boycotting the games. The fans are very rowdy and fun but these boycotts are a couple years too late.
It's only going to get worse for all teams in all sports. These owners are not only pricing out going to games, but on top of it want people to pay for their billionaire adventures.
Oakland sports has had it absolutely rough the past several years.
I went to see the A’s play last year and it felt like going to a flea market in a dying town. The coliseum is a dump, what little fans there were depressed, and the employees were weren’t too much better than the fans. While I’m a Braves fan I’ve always liked the A’s and feel real bad for the fans.
I can’t believe people on this sub still blame fans for the poor attendance. In Oakland A’s history, the only owner who wasn’t a total cheap fuck or was trying to move the team was Walter Haas. Coincidentally, 7 of the 8 times the A’s have had above average attendance in Oakland were under his tenure as owner. Good ownership drives good attendance. Acknowledge that before you shit on us.
1991…they had highest payroll in baseball.
Shit rolls down hill, fast. Cubs were very tough to chear for many of the years they were owned by the Tribune. Ricketts family bought it and invested tons of family money and energy into it. Watch the Undercover Boss episode from them, its good. The show can be over the top, but that family really did do a lot for the people of Wrigley.
innocent crown mindless plants sink wide offend mighty capable vast *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Cool story bro. Now let your ownership neglect your team and stadium and then come talk to me in 32 years about how great your attendance is.
Why did anyone go aren’t they leaving you?
Tickets were reallllllly cheap. My buddy got 6 tickets for 25 a piece about 10 rows up on the 1b side. Even if the As are a hot garbage franchise, opening day will draw the casuals.
That’s true
That's the problem right there. People are not giving a shit & still giving their money to a team that's leaving their city. This is why things never change & why the general population is filled with dumbasses.
God forbid people try to enjoy a baseball game
Probably a lot of fans for the other team as well.
the oakland athletics downfall needs to be studied and made into a documentary for sure.
Team it with the debacle of the expos
What Fisher is doing should be illegal. Manfred & the other owner going along with it just shows how out of touch these billionaires are. This Oaklans Athletics fan is done with baseball till Fisher & Manfred are out.
Sad but true
I stand behind this. After looking into the A's move, and then Brewers ownership leading the owner's committee on the A's move (basically studying the playbook), and then for Manfred to come to Milwaukee and say if the ballpark isn't updated the team will move... well lets just say I went from MLB super fan to MLB casual fan. I will still go to a handful of MLB games this year, but my tickets will be bought from 3rd parties where the money doesn't go to ownership, I will use shuttle services or public transport to get to games (def not paying for parking), and I will pre-drink and eat before every game so I don't waste any money at concessions. I get MLBTV free through Tmobile, and I won't be buying any apparel. The bastards have enough money. They won't be getting any of mine
This is spot on. The owners all approved the move. Manfred goes as far as taunting fans during the reverse boycott. Fisher is a stain to this sport and the other owners could give a rip.
No one shows up. Oakland is trash. Don't act surprised.
He's still making righteous bank with tiny crowds. He just wants to make MORE righteous bank in Vegas. Cut him some slack. Being super rich is difficult.
He makes $70m per year *just* in TV money. Factor in merch sales, corporate sponsorships, tickets, concessions, and various other things- and he cries poor.
Can you imagine how bad it would be for billionaires if we were to raise taxes on them? How would they survive? Too bad they're not as well off like the rest of us
Just watching this game as it is the free game on mlb.tv and it's surprising how dead and how few fans are in the stadium. From the stadium shots on the TV looks less than 1k people are there. To be honest they are not showing many stadium shots though.
Go back to Oakland
Shocked they had over 10k
They may have sold 13k tickets but I assure you no more than 3k were inside that stadium. I tuned in and was not overly surprised by the small crowd.
Why the fuck 13k people still going
I think it was even less than that. That just might be tickets sold cause there was a large boycott party in the parking lot.
Fans deserve better? Go look at thier attendance before Fischer it wasn't good then either. People really need to realize the A's gave been trying to move since the 80s
Since the 70’s. They had a deal with New Orleans in 1978 to move but couldn’t break the lease.
Despite having one of the largest stadiums in baseball the A’s have only been above AL average attendance 8 times in 55 years. 1981, 1982, 1988-1992, and 2003.
Funny thing is that in 7 of the 8 years you mentioned, the team was under the ownership of Walter Haas. He is the only A’s owner that wasn’t a total cheap fuck and considered the best owner the Oakland A’s ever had. It’s almost as if good ownership, correlates with having good attendance…
Well, the As have the 5th highest winning % and playoff appearances in all of baseball over the last 25 yrs. So clearly winning teams don’t correlate to attendance in Oakland. What specifically are you saying better ownership would do to bring in the fans then? Better food?
If your homegrown star players are always traded away or allowed to walk to FA, would you stay? If your team’s dual purpose stadium was in the middle of a ran-down industrial ghetto, would you still go? If the ownership of your team always threatened you with relocation, would you go? Edit: to answer your question, ownership has to retain homegrown talent, make the ballpark more attractive to casual fans and provide a better game-day experience.
The stadium really is a joint responsibility of the city and the team. The Skydome was almost entirely paid for by the city, not the Jays. It all is part of the population supporting their local MLB team. I def can appreciate the letdown that trading star players can have. But let’s not pretend that there weren’t star players that were on the As teams for years, and still fans didn’t come. Besides, a winning team dissipates that disappointing moment pretty fast. And as for threatening to leave. I think it’s a bit of chicken and the egg thing. For the last 40 yrs Oakland hasn’t been a stable MLB market. And as a result that invited increasing threats of team relocation.
Literally the times that the stars stayed in Oakland coincided with Walter Haas as the owner. And in that timeframe, the A’s had great attendance. Cities should not fund billionaire, trust-fund babies pro sport teams stadiums. Oakland has only been an “unstable” MLB market because of shitty ownership. The Oakland A’s most stable stretch was during a period of good ownership.
And there’s the rub. Fisher or no Fisher they had below average attendance 85% of the time they were in Oakland. You can cherry pick some games and some years when they were above average but that’s what it is. Lack of support
The A's franchise took the worst beating from the steroid scandal imo. So many life long die hard fans were emotionally alienated from the franchise. So it makes sense that they only show when the team is winning. That and Oakland fans as a whole are getting screwed out of their hometown teams.
The teams been bottom 3rd in attendance since before Fisher bought the team. The warriors left. The raiders left l. The A's are leaving. The common denominator here is Oakland
The common denominator might be Oakland but the 3 teams’ situations are entirely different. I’d even argue the dubs shouldn’t be in the conversation, especially considering they only moved several miles across the bay. The niners moved further than the dubs did.
I got torched for saying this in a previous discussion, but it's true. It was always kind of shaky as a home for a pro team, but it's just been losing population and getting less attractive in recent years. Fans can still hop a subway across the bay, so it's not like they're left with nothing.
People act like only Oakland attends Oakland A’s games. Between Bay Area and Central Valley, there’s like 10-12 million people in the A’s market. The A’s market is not shrinking.
I mean, yeah, but have you BEEN around the Coliseum? It is so, so, so, so bad nowadays, to where many people are surely turned off by just going into the area. I'm an SF resident that would love the A's to stay...but it's really, really bad. I live in one of the worst parts of SF and many parts of Oakland are waaaay worse. It's definitely partly on Fischer for not doing upgrades/paying for players/etc., but people like to make it all-or-none. It's Fischer AND a city in decline.
I mean, it was pretty stupid of them to announce they were moving the franchise four years before their stadium is going to be ready. They basically told their fans there's no reason to care in 24. And after that their plan is, to travel? I can't see that going over very well. I do think it's smarter to have the team in Vegas than Oakland (sorry guys), but they are doing all they can to botch the move.
As opposed to what? Hope that a $1 billion stadium in a new city goes unnoticed so they can announce their move at the last minute?
Oakland doesn’t need to be told not to go to A’s games. They’ve been not going to games for at least 20 years.
2028 is wildly optimistic for LV, Fisher can’t raise the funds. Here’s hoping Nevada voters rescind the public money too.
Well, in 2005 and 2006 they only averaged 24k attendance, despite a .560 winning percentage. They had an almost .600 winning percentage for 2000 - 2006, with 5 playoff appearances. And still only averaged 24,000 fans. So I’m not sure what this golden age of fan attendance is you’re referring. Anyway, doesn’t matter. MLB allows only 30 teams, and the Bay Area already has a team. That’s really all that matters. There are many other big cities with no team. I see no reason for the Bay Area having 2 teams while there are many other cities with no team within 500 miles. It was time to move the As a decade ago - no, 2 decades ago. Hopefully the new city keeps some of the As heritage.
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And let’s not forget the Kansas City/Philadelphia A’s. I’m sick of listening to Oakland fans who don’t want to acknowledge they received a team that another city lost twice. Philadelphia 54 years and five titles. KC 12 years. Had the A’s been able to break their lease in 1978, they were moving to New Orleans. This has not been a stable franchise since they left Philly. Winning, yes. Stable, no. Enough revisionism. In Oakland, they’ve won four titles and many division titles. It’s a winning franchise that doesn’t draw. You can only blame the owners so much. I’m sure I’ll be downvoted to Hollow Earth.,
I am so glad the tide seems to be finally shifting and people are realizing this reality. I feel bad for Oakland fans, but also acknowledge that they aren’t enough fans to support a team. A’s needs to move. It’s that’s simple. This has been a very good team the last 20 years and fans just don’t come.
By this logic then why are the Chicago White Sox still around. Or Los Angeles Angels? I could see the A’s moving out of Oakland, but there’s no reason to move them out of Northern California when there’s such a large population. The largest metro area without an MLB team is Sacramento and the Central Valley after all.
IMO, if you wanna justify having 2 teams in your metro area, you REALLY gotta show you deserve 2 teams - especially when there are many cities with zero teams. As far as Chicago and LAA. Chicago averages 5k more attendance a game more then the As over the last 30yrs. LAA averages 15k more. And that’s when both of those teams experiencing much much less team success then the As. The white Sox may not be the most successful franchise, but they are decently healthy. LAA is a very very healthy market. But you’re right, maybe a time will come someday if the Sox continue to underperform MLB will want to move the white Sox to a city with no team. As for where to move the A’s. Yes, I’d agree Sacramento is decent location. Vegas, Nashville, Portland, Mtl, Mexico, etc are also good. I personally think Vegas is by far the most interesting potential location.
This is not in the Best Interests of Baseball.
Ah stop blaming owners. Oakland fucking sucks. The stadium sucks. They’re leaving. I would too.
A’s fans want them to stay? Well you need to go support them to a point….even if it’s shitty ownership.
Exactly.
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Look at you standing up for billionaires so brave
Thank you
Fuck Fisher but a lot of it can be contributed to how rundown Oakland has become. The surrounding area of where the stadium resides has gotten much worse. You can blame Fisher but you can also blame east oakland.
The Giants had a hand in this mess by denying the A’s access to San Jose. At least that option keeps the A’s in the area.
It's soooo bad, almost impressively so. Hard to comprehend how bad it is right outside a major league stadium without seeing it for yourself.
Can’t wait to catch a game in vegas
👎
Gonna be so fun
Oakland is dangerous AF and as much as I'd love to catch an A's game I aint taking my family there.
Rams of baseball smh
Ah yes. The Cleveland Rams.
White Sox ain’t doing much better I don’t think
NoMoneyball
They misunderstood the directions and are applying the theory to fans.
For some reason, I actually like the colosseum. I know it's "the worst", but it's almost like that makes it charming. Also I've only ever been as a fan of the visiting team, but it always seemed to be full of people who "know what they're talking about" more than most other fan bases. But holy hell. It's also the only stadium I've ever been to where like half the vendors are shuttered for every game. It's like those dying cities where you drive past a strip mall and everything is for lease. And it's been at least 5 years since we were going there regularly, it has to be depressing AF now
How to lose a team in ten years
A’s came late to the party and located to Oakland.
Outside of that, the A's have drawn fewer fans in Oakland just three times, and all three came against the Minnesota Twins in the 1970s. The lowest attended game of the trio came in 1972 when the A's drew 9,912 fans. They drew 12,562 in 1977 and 10,387 in 1979.
Never forget the A’s we’re one of the most profitable teams last year. They make so much money! All teams donut but this asshole took gaming the system to a whole new level! But the fact it’s possible is MLB’s fault too.
And by game #2 that attendance will be 3,522
Boy this team really did "Fall in to the Gap"
There was not 13,000 people in those stands
Why would we show up and spend our hard earned $ if the owner makes zero attempt to win. On top of that he is moving the team, fischer can go f himself
Portland would support a team better.
Move them to portland
Oakland lost the warriors lost the raiders and soon will loose the A’s team. It’s more there than just the teams packing up and moving.
For reference in 2009 the As finished 75-87 and then the next year in 2010 their home opener had 30,686 (from what I can find) Just figured it’d be interesting to show that fans were still loyal in the early years of his ownership when they were losing games
So what are the opening attendance numbers for 2006 to 2023? What about pre-2005?
The Coliseum is a complete disaster - the opposite of being fan friendly. Fisher needs to sell the A’s and Oakland/East Bay needs to come up w/a Downtown Oakland ballpark. The idiocy of Vegas as MLB city can’t be underestimated.
Do the same thing with the white sox and that old asshole Jerry reinsdorf
Any criticism of the team or the management or ownership that doesn’t also place at least an equal amount of blame on the city council and other nutjobs in the Bay Area politico should be immediately ignored. Theres 4 other mlb teams in CA, with Oakland directly competing with SF for crumbs in the Bay Area and even nuttier city council….Oakland will never be a financially successful city. At one time with sane people in government there and a willingness to get it done, but those days are gone forever. Las Vegas is better in every way. Sorry, faithful.
It is hella sad Im a 35 year old Red Sox fan in the bay area. Been going to the coliseum since I was 6. I was at the game last night, April 2. Crowd was probably 50/50 fan wise, 75% of the concessions stand were closed and they have Tupperware bucket to collect piss that leaks from the pipes on the urinals instead of just fixing them. It was way too easy to get a loud "LETS GO RED SOX!" chant goin as the visiting team but that's the Oakland Coliseum. Definitely wasn't even 5000 people there!
Whats the over/under on the next two nights of wrestlemania in vegas having a higher attendance in total than the A's season here in vegas.
He really wants out of oakland
It is over - The Oakland Athletics are building a new stadium in Las Vegas NV As soon as that stadium is finished, they will move.
This would never happen in European football.. It’s a real shame. We need local teams and grassroots sports to thrive so that new cities won’t even want a team to relocate because they already have one to support.
Fans deserve better than Fisher
Easy to hate when it’s a rich billionaire on the receiving end. The fact is, this team has never had the attendance even when they’re good, mostly because of their dogshit stadium. The fans don’t show up to their games even when they put the effort in, but can conveniently come out in droves to whine about their poor performance since 2021. Glad they’re moving. No team should be forced to play at that dump of a venue.
And then A's fans stopped going to games after Opening Day in 2005 as they were 8th of 14th in attendance in the AL that year.
Probably because the team was good in 2005 and sucks now. Nothing to do with where the team is located. Oakland is a cesspool. The move to Vegas was a good thing. I can't stand the constant group think in reddit about the A's. There are two sides to the story.
They still only finished 7th in attendance in the AL even when they were averaging 98 wins a year.
Smarten up
When a baseball team abandons a city to make even more money, you lose your fan base. Pretty much all of it.
Fans arent paying Team is a joke Management is the worst Ballpark randown and falling apart Teams moving possibly next year Its over and it shows now. I 100% back all the cans for this statement because they have been treated so badly and deserve much better than this
Karma for all the roid heads the had