Oakland has lost three teams in five years.
Oakland has a rich sports history; for decades, three clubs from the main sports leagues of North America coexisted here – the Athletics (baseball), Golden State (basketball) and the Raiders (American football. Moreover, the NFL club was founded in the city itself.
And while all the franchises were based in Oakland, they collectively won 10 national championships. The Raiders won the Super Bowl twice (1976 and 1980). In 1981, the team moved to Los Angeles, where they once again became the NFL champion (1983), but in 1995 the club returned to northern California. The Athletics won the World Series four times (1972-74 and 1989). Golden State has won the NBA championship four times (1975, 2015, 2017 and 2018).
These teams grew into legends. For example, it was in Oakland that the legendary coach John Madden became the NFL champion, after whom the computer game developer EA named the simulator. It was in Auckland that the football club acquired a corporate identity recognizable throughout the world.
Baseball’s Athletics dominated the ’70s, and then, thanks to the movie Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, they were involved in radically changing not only baseball, but all team sports. And already in the 21st century, the main basketball dynasty of the century, led by Steph Curry, was born in Oakland: the Golden State Warriors, who played their home games here, reached the NBA finals for five years in a row (and became champions three times).
But starting next season there will be no one in Auckland. In 2019, Golden State moved across the bay to San Francisco, and a year later the Raiders moved to Las Vegas. There are only 25 kilometers between the basketball club’s new and old arena, but Auckland fans felt betrayed.
And at the end of September, the Athletics will play their last game at the Oakland Coliseum. Over the past few years, fans have clashed with Athletics owner John Fisher. They demanded to sell the franchise, boycotting going to the match. And in the last match, the club attracted a full house, but in response only received a mockery from Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred (“It’s nice to see that at least for one evening in Oakland the same number of spectators came as the league average,” – said Manfred). At the same time, all the main difficulties for the baseball club lie ahead. And partly because of him, the city lost its football team.
The Raiders left town for the old stadium.
All three teams left Oakland through no fault of their own. The city’s sports infrastructure is simply outdated. As early as the beginning of the last decade, Raiders owners complained that their revenues lagged far behind other NFL teams. And the club had to share the stadium with the baseball franchise.
Moreover, the club began to complain about the problem with the arena back in the 80s of the last century. The owner of the club, Al Davis, and after his death, his son Mark, tried to find a new place to build the stadium or negotiate with the Oakland mayor’s office to co-finance the reconstruction.
However, the plan to reconstruct the arena was not the highest priority, since it was necessary to negotiate with the owners of the Athletics. Davis was looking for a site for a new stadium not only in the Oakland area, but also in other cities around the country, such as San Antonio. In 2015, the club announced that it intended to move to Los Angeles and build an arena for $1.78 billion. However, the NFL rejected this option, preferring the project of the Rams and Stan Kroenke.
After this, Davis began working on a move to Las Vegas. Local authorities agreed to co-finance the stadium, highlighting $750 million for this by increasing the hotel tax. The city agreed to invest in the project in part because the local university is now forced to share a stadium with a professional franchise. Davis himself initially planned to invest only $500 million and attract outside investors, but after their refusal, Davis’ expenses increased up to $1.15 billion
When the Raiders’ plan to move to Vegas became known, the city of Oakland tried to hold on to the club and offered to help Davis partially with the $1.3 billion reconstruction of the Coliseum, but the billionaire refused, preferring to build a modern stadium. When other franchise owners approved the move, the city filed an antitrust lawsuit against the league and club. But he was rejected. As a result, in 2020 the club moved to Nevada.
The relocation of the baseball club became the most scandalous in many years
The Athletics have a similar story. John Fisher tried to get funds from the city to reconstruct the arena or build a new facility. However, unlike the NFL, the leadership of Major League Baseball also put pressure on the city. After the departure of the football club, it statedthat Fischer has the right to move the team in 2024 if there is no new stadium.
Claims to the Coliseum by the Athletics began at the end of the last century. There is no salary cap in Major League Baseball, so team victories depend on the owners’ contributions. The club won the World Series three times in the early 1970s, but then began to cut corners. After the opening of the institute of free agents, the club’s owners could not compete for the best players, since they did not earn enough from tickets.
The Coliseum was renovated in the mid-90s, but over the years the arena has become seriously outdated. Negotiations with the city did not lead to success, and Fisher began looking for options for relocation with the authorities of other cities. Las Vegas turned out to be a priority, as it was also ready for co-financing.
The move was officially approved at the end of 2023. Vegas will invest $380 million for a new arena costing $1.5 billion. The remaining funds should come from private investment. The arena will be built on the site of the iconic Tropicana casino, which was demolished on October 9 amid fireworks.
It is planned that the stadium will be built by 2028. And for the next three years, the Athletics will play in a small stadium in Sacramento, where a minor league baseball team also plays. True, not everyone is sure that the club will be able to build everything in three years. Therefore, Fisher, in a conversation with Oakland fans, said that the move was no less nervous for him than for them.
At the same time, the move of the football Raiders was, in general, favorably received by the American community, because many were tired of the club playing in a “baseball” stadium, but the appearance of the Las Vegas Athletics aroused criticism.
Fisher accused is that he deliberately invested the minimum in Oakland, because the less successful the club, the more likely it is that the move will be approved. In Nevada, an online survey of local residents was conducted in 2023, and 86% said they were unfavorable about the move of a baseball club to Vegas, for the sake of which the stadium would raise municipal taxes.
Moreover, even other Las Vegas franchises negatively noted the baseball club’s move. A Davis saidthat it was Fisher and his policy towards the Athletics that was one of the main reasons for the Raiders’ move. After all, it was he who partially prevented the reconstruction or construction of a new stadium in Auckland.
There was even conspiracy theorythat the entire unfortunate modern history of the Athletics is an attempt by the league management to get rid of Oakland. In 2005, Major League Baseball blocked the sale of the team to Bill Gates, and he wanted to build a new stadium with his own money. Former league commissioner Bud Selig publicly said that the Kansas City Athletics’ move to Oakland in 1968 was “the worst decision in the history of baseball.”
And on top of that, in February 2024, after the announcement of the team’s future relocation, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodwin statedthat the Athletics should have reached an agreement with Oakland and remained in California. True, she later partially retracted her words, but still added that Oakland is an ideal place for this franchise.
Moreover, it is not a fact that the franchise will be successful in Las Vegas. The Raiders are suffering due to the massive influx of tourists that are turning home games into away games. The Vegas residents themselves think his main team is not even the NFL club, but the hockey Golden Knights.
Oakland’s main problem is its proximity to San Francisco
The only club that left Oakland relatively without scandals was Golden State. It’s just that the team initially did not identify itself as a city club, but represented the entire bay. In 2019, the club quietly moved to neighboring San Francisco, but still lost part of its loyal audience.
In general, the story of the loss of their professional clubs looks unusual for the USA, because Oakland and San Jose are without San Francisco included in the top 50 largest markets in the country. The problem of the city is its cultural and historical identity.
Auckland – originally worker a city next to fashionable San Francisco. And the main core of fans are simple workers northern California. This fact in itself should not hinder the success of franchises; for example, the NFL and NHL have the successful Steelers and Penguins from industrial Pittsburgh. But the problem lies precisely in the proximity to San Francisco. In fact, most of the area’s funds were spent in the “city by the bay.” The standard of living here is higher, so the local clubs are richer. Under these conditions, Auckland club owners had to spend a lot more money just to compete for spectators, sponsors and local broadcasters. And baseball’s Giants and football’s 49ers also don’t want to share influence in the region.
Starting next season, of the four leading leagues in North America, only one club in the bay will not be based in San Francisco or identify with the city – the San Jose Sharks. By the way, in Oakland in the 20th century they also tried to launch an NHL team (Oakland Seals, and later California Golden Seals), but it was unsuccessful. And now the city is left with nothing.
