New in PJ Media:
The Oakland Athletics, who claim to be a major league baseball team, announced Wednesday: “The A’s have signed a binding agreement to purchase land for a future ballpark in Las Vegas. We realize this is a difficult day for our Oakland fans,” all five of them, “and community.” Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao underlined the team’s statement by revealing that the city was “ceasing negotiations” with the A’s on a new ballpark. The move is going to take a while: the Athletics don’t expect to be playing in Vegas until the 2027 season, but it does appear certain that woke Oakland is about to lose its third and last major sports franchise.
The NBA’s Golden State Warriors crossed the Bay to San Francisco in 2019, and the NFL’s Oakland Raiders fled to Las Vegas the following year. The A’s statement noted that they’ve been trying without success to get a new stadium in Oakland: “For more than 20 years, the A’s have focused on securing a new home for the Club, and have invested unprecedented time and resources for the past six years to build a ballpark in Oakland. Even with support from fans, leaders at the city, county, and state level, and throughout the broader community, the process to build a new ballpark in Oakland has made little forward progress for some time. We have made a strong and sincere effort to stay here.” They’ve been trying to get permission to build a deluxe new ballpark at Howard Terminal on the Bay, as the rival Giants did so successfully with Oracle Park in San Francisco.
Thao, however, disputed that the team had been operating in good faith, saying:
I am deeply disappointed that the A’s have chosen not to negotiate with the City of Oakland as a true partner, in a way that respects the long relationship between the fans, the City and the team. The City has gone above and beyond in our attempts to arrive at mutually beneficial terms to keep the A’s in Oakland. In the last three months, we’ve made significant strides to close the deal. Yet, it is clear to me that the A’s have no intention of staying in Oakland and have simply been using this process to try to extract a better deal out of Las Vegas. I am not interested in continuing to play that game – the fans and our residents deserve better.
There is more. Read the rest here.
Namer says
The last time I was in Oakland was 40 years ago and it was a cesspool back then. Its got to be 100 times worse now. The A’s should have left years ago.
gravenimage says
Actually, Oakland was getting steadily better over the past thirty years–until about 3 years ago, with BLM and constant riots winked at by city officials. Crime has skyrocketed since then.
tgusa says
40 years ago I lived for awhile in Palo Alto. Nice place, the used to be managers house in an apartment complex. Back then it was one of the US cities with a super high murder rate. Not being from that area I didn’t know that until I moved out.
Kuffar says
When the politicians turn their city into an unlivable Sh !t hole, people move out. That includes sports teams.
gravenimage says
This Is Your City on Leftism: Oakland to Lose Its Last Major Sports Franchise as Athletics Shift to Vegas
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Yes–I live here and this is incredibly depressing. When I was a child in the 1970s the A’s had one of the best teams in MLB.