The Oakland Athletics 2018 Offseason Season Thread | One and Done Again

[DB Cooper]

 

[ICE CITY CF]

Man I'm an eternal optimist, sang the same tune with friends and family for the longest time regarding the A's stadium.

After tonight's alternating statements, even I'm ready to concede it's over.

It gets worse the deeper in the thread it goes.

 

[DB Cooper]

A’s were the first team I started following once I got into sports as a kid. Man, this is depressing..

 

[GreenNGold89]

I've also expected them to figure this thing out in Oakland and I think they've been fairly close but unfortunately doesn't look good now. The Bay Area is too big of a market for only 1 team and I'm sure some owners down in LA won't be happy about that. Vegas made much more sense as an expansion team but it is what it is.

It's sad to me as this was my favorite sport and team growing up, but this ownership has made it miserable the last couple of years. From gutting the team, raising ticket prices, and a horrible experience all around. They did it all intentionally to bring attendance numbers down to help them justify the move and looks like it worked.

Guess it's time to create a new screen name.

 

[Coupé It]

Sorry guys.

What they’ve done to the City of Oakland is despicable.

Warriors, Raiders, and the A’s. They’re acting like the City never existed.

City deserves better. The people deserve better.

 

[sfc415]

It's sad to me as this was my favorite sport and team growing up, but this ownership has made it miserable the last couple of years. From gutting the team, raising ticket prices, and a horrible experience all around. They did it all intentionally to bring attendance numbers down to help them justify the move and looks like it worked.

Guess it's time to create a new screen name.

This is how I've felt about the A's for a while. I'm a Giants fan, but I've always wanted the A's to do well since they're a Bay Area team. It just always felt like ownership themselves don't give a damn about the team, so why should I even bother going to games? What is the point of going to games when there is zero intention to field a competitive team or even just keep the Coliseum clean?

Definitely makes sense that it was done on purpose because the owner never had any intention of staying in the Bay. Some people keep trying to blame the city,I don't believe for one second that the Raiders and A's couldn't have figured something out with Oakland; moving to Vegas was all about the money.

The Coliseum might not be in the best part of Oakland, but it was always extremely convenient to get to both via BART and driving. Was there no way to just refresh the stadium and make legitimate improvements in the surrounding area, instead of making excuses about why everything needed to be moved to Vegas? (same applies to the Warriors; Oracle was 100% fine the way it was).

To me this is a uniquely American concept; I can't imagine an owner in Europe straight up moving to a different city and changing the identity of the team. It would literally be a death wish to even try to do that

I have no idea how some Bay Area natives still support the Raiders. That @#$@ was a complete betrayal, and not for the first time either. Hope you guys don't do the same with the A's.

 

[raider5]

This is how I've felt about the A's for a while. I'm a Giants fan, but I've always wanted the A's to do well since they're a Bay Area team. It just always felt like ownership themselves don't give a damn about the team, so why should I even bother going to games? What is the point of going to games when there is zero intention to field a competitive team or even just keep the Coliseum clean?

Definitely makes sense that it was done on purpose because the owner never had any intention of staying in the Bay. Some people keep trying to blame the city,I don't believe for one second that the Raiders and A's couldn't have figured something out with Oakland; moving to Vegas was all about the money.

The Coliseum might not be in the best part of Oakland, but it was always extremely convenient to get to both via BART and driving. Was there no way to just refresh the stadium and make legitimate improvements in the surrounding area, instead of making excuses about why everything needed to be moved to Vegas? (same applies to the Warriors; Oracle was 100% fine the way it was).

To me this is a uniquely American concept; I can't imagine an owner in Europe straight up moving to a different city and changing the identity of the team. It would literally be a death wish to even try to do that

I have no idea how some Bay Area natives still support the Raiders. That @#$@ was a complete betrayal, and not for the first time either. Hope you guys don't do the same with the A's.

When the Raiders left Oakland I was pretty upset about it, but I also knew that financially Mark Davis couldn't do it and needed a hand-out that Oakland would never give him. At the time too, he was willing to do something with the A's on the current coliseum site to help do something together but the A's ownership didn't want anything to do with it. They wanted to build their own stadium on their own and on their terms. Libby Schaff (former Mayor of Oakland) also put all her eggs in the A's basket because she consistently said she would prefer a stadium for the A's because they play 80+ games a season vs the Raiders 10 games a season (only 10 cause we'd never make playoffs ). The irony is that they wanted to do their own thing and get the Raiders out of their site and now they are following the Raiders playbook and going to Vegas.

So for me, as much as i hated the Raiders leaving Oakland...and I still hate it to this day...I know Mark Davis was stuck man...and then when Vegas offered him $750M in free money, how could he not say yes to that?

This one feels different because Fisher is filthy rich. He can afford to front a stadium. He can afford to pay for a team. But he chooses not to because he's making money either way and that's all he cares about. Yes, Oakland officials don't make it easy and getting anything built in the Bay Area is difficult, but at the end of the day Fisher hasn't shown anything to say he cares about anything other than the bottom line and fans are fed up with him and the rest of the A's execs.

And the Warriors were leaving Oakland for SF no matter what, there was no stopping that train.

 

[sfc415]

I don't know. I think many of us can put up with a dump stadium and a (relatively) broke owner if there is an actual effort to improve and win games. As misguided as the Raiders were in so many ways, you could tell that at least they were trying to put out a competitive and entertaining team, which is why it was still fun to hit up the Coliseum even when the team wasn't doing well (IMO).

When an owner can't meet the goals of an organization, he should take the L and sell rather than just uproot a critical part of the city's identity. That's how it works in leagues in other countries, and it's a shame that it's allowed to happen here so often.

 

[raider5]

I don't know. I think many of us can put up with a dump stadium and a (relatively) broke owner if there is an actual effort to improve and win games. As misguided as the Raiders were in so many ways, you could tell that at least they were trying to put out a competitive and entertaining team, which is why it was still fun to hit up the Coliseum even when the team wasn't doing well (IMO).

When an owner can't meet the goals of an organization, he should take the L and sell rather than just uproot a critical part of the city's identity. That's how it works in leagues in other countries, and it's a shame that it's allowed to happen here so often.

I wouldn't be surprised if Fisher ultimately ends up selling the team once he realizes he can make a good profit after the stadium gets built in Vegas. That'll be the final dagger to annoy us fans

 

[DB Cooper]

Welp, time to make one final drive from So.Cal up to the Coliseum sometime before they leave. Wish I didn’t live so far away. Would have been nice to attend more games.

 

[GreenNGold89]

No chance I’d root for this organization in Vegas. **** Bud Selig for allowing this team to go to Fisher rather than Lacob.

 

[DB Cooper]

Ya, me neither. I’m not going to talk any sh…but my time rooting for the A’s will come to close.

 

[cedric ceballos]

It sucks to see. Admittedly the city of Oakland hasn’t done themselves any favors in all this. But the A’s ownership also hasn’t operated in good faith.

The crazy thing though is that unless the A’s change the way they do business and run that organization. It’s just going to be more of the same in Vegas once the novelty of a MLB team in the city wears off. You can only rely on visiting fans so much and they’re ultimately going to have to build a fanbase out there.

Aside from that. Whenever these owners, especially small market owners hold cities hostage and threaten to move if they don’t get a new ballpark to compete, it’s just a bunch of disingenuous bs. They get their new ballpark and continue to operate with the same penny pinching ways they were doing beforehand.

 

[DB Cooper]

He’s officially gone…