OT: Oakland A's moving to Vegas

[Wadzup]

Why is it a blackeye, Oakland's attendance has been **** for yrs on yr on end. I don't get why leagues try to keep sports teams in cities that don't want/support em. Arizona in hockey is the thing

Well considering the Raiders had the #30 home attendance last year AFTER moving. The question becomes ‘why are the A’s talking about attendance’

Nobody is flying to LV to watch the A’s… if the ownership cared about attendance, they would’ve moved to an actual destination. The A’s just like 20% of the NBA &MLB just need to go away. Nobody cares. Just a watered down product.

The Raiders stadium was 95.5% full last year while having BY FAR the most expensive tickets if you were trying to buy them on the secondary market. The average Raiders ticket went for over $500. The next closest team - thr Patriots - went for $360. Vegas has no issues with filling Allegiant.

I'll take back the NBA doing the best of the four in Vegas. It's the NFL by far since it's only 8 games and people from opposing teams can make a Vegas weekend from it (NFL always has the best traveling fans for that same weekend thing).

But as far as locals being able to support 40-plus games (with limited opposing fan bases having to fill a good chunk of the arena/stadium), basketball is ingrained in the Vegas culture through all the AAU national tournaments being there. I'd guess that every single American and Canadian player in the NBA has played in multiple events in Vegas in their teenage years (and going through that the past 5 years with my son on that circuit ... those kids love it). I think it would be a major FA draw, in turn being a franxhise like the Lakers/Heat where it will take absolutely horrible management not to have them in the mix.

[HotelVitale]

I get it, but I don't get it.

A's had poor attendance and old stadium, owner needs a change and he's unwilling to invest into Oakland more I guess?? Whatever, Moneyball.

But why Vegas? He's gonna build an indoor stadium right ? And if it isn't a dome, it will be 110 on the field during June through September. Just seems like a bad investment location. Vegas too has some water supply issues going on, it just seems unstable for the moment.

No more SF bay-series.... sad times.

Water supply issues is BS. Vegas is one of the best at recycling their own water. Why would they keep building houses here if they are so worried about the water?

Who is 'they' here? Developers are the ones that build houses so they can make money.

The different local governments could technically stop them but most local politicians are connected to local business concerns, and they also don't want to say no to economic and population growth in their areas. They'll also mostly be gone by the time it matters, and even if not they'll just say 'let's not dwell on the past, we have a serious problem to face now.' And it'll more or less work.

[PhilBlackson]

Sad...I loved Ricky Henderson, Conseco, just doesn't feel right to me, like killing the Supersonics.

[ReddoverKobe]

The A's drew an announced crowd of just 3,035 fans on April 3 for the first game of a series with the Cleveland Guardians. It rose to 3,407 the next night -- but 11 of 13 Triple-A games that day attracted larger crowds and four of them more than doubled the A's total.

That is brutal. I feel bad for A's fans but am excited to catch a brewers series out there at some point

[Wadzup]

The A's drew an announced crowd of just 3,035 fans on April 3 for the first game of a series with the Cleveland Guardians. It rose to 3,407 the next night -- but 11 of 13 Triple-A games that day attracted larger crowds and four of them more than doubled the A's total.

That is brutal. I feel bad for A's fans but am excited to catch a brewers series out there at some point

Those numbers aren't just Triple-A bad but the Double A Akron RubberDucks average more than that and that is also with the MLB Guardians being up the road.

To be fair, as a Guardians fan, I can emphasize with the As attendance woes. The organizations operate with the same philosophy. Losing stars has also turned off a ton of fans in Cleveland at least from going to the games (Guardians have been like 20-32 in the league for attendance the past 20 years).

The difference is that even if the Guardians don't draw huge crowds, they have always been top 10 in TV ratings. I think the As have also been near the bottom there. The As also haven't been consistently good since the early 2000s so no surprise people aren't at least tuning in to watch a horrible, and low budget, product.

[CS707]

Sad...I loved Ricky Henderson, Conseco, just doesn't feel right to me, like killing the Supersonics.

Ricky is my favorite player all time. Dave Stewart, Eck… I miss that era of baseball.

[BostonCouchGM]

Sad...I loved Ricky Henderson, Conseco, just doesn't feel right to me, like killing the Supersonics.

Ricky is my favorite player all time. Dave Stewart, Eck… I miss that era of baseball.

I hated that era because that whole team was juiced up and destroyed my Red Sox

[Papi_swav]

I thought Utah Salt Lake City wanted a team. I think Utah will support an MLB team

[CS707]

Sad...I loved Ricky Henderson, Conseco, just doesn't feel right to me, like killing the Supersonics.

Ricky is my favorite player all time. Dave Stewart, Eck… I miss that era of baseball.

I hated that era because that whole team was juiced up and destroyed my Red Sox

I remember Greenwell… that was my buddy’s favorite player. He’s still a Bay Area Red Sox fan because of that 88 season.

[C3H6N6O6]

I have always found it weird how people are fans of privately owned teams which use city/state's name for financial reasons instead of being a fan of the team/player whose play style they like.

[Papi_swav]

I have always found it weird how people are fans of privately owned teams which use city/state's name for financial reasons instead of being a fan of the team/player whose play style they like.

maybe because ppl actually live in that specific state/city and can actually go and watch them play live and watch them on their local television ?? i don't understand how is that weird at all

[DFan]

They’ve been trying to get out of Oakland years. Before the Rockies were established, there was some talk they would move to Denver.

[Dick Tate]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Another blackeye for professional sports.

I guess but not really and honestly could not care less. I and most fellow Sonics fans would’ve been thrilled had the Kings ended up in Seattle. There’s no moral high ground here.

[Wadzup]

I have always found it weird how people are fans of privately owned teams which use city/state's name for financial reasons instead of being a fan of the team/player whose play style they like.

You can still be both. I'm not a huge MLB fan, by far no. 3 for me as far as team sports (way behind NBA and NFL) and for "team" I root for, it's the Guardians even though if I had to name my 10 favorite players, Jose Ramirez would be the only Guardians one on that list.

Same for NBA to a bit lesser degree. I root for both team and individual players on the Cavs. But there are definitely a bunch of non Cleveland players I love watching, including Jalen Brunson, who unfortunately rn is the enemy, lol.

[Little Italia]

Now the Timberwolves just need to move to LV and they have all 4 major sports teams.

[Doctor MJ]

Who wants to play baseball in that desert heat lol have fun. They just need an NBA team now I guess.

I came in here to say a) I'm sad whenever a champion leaves a city, but b) to me the only time I'm really bothered is when the lone team from a bigger market moves to a smaller market - because to me really raises questions.

But you make a great point. I had assumed they must have a dome to play in...but they don't. Attendees are going to get sunstroke. It's irresponsible to approve this until they get a more protective stadium for the Vegas summer. I'm honestly surprised this wasn't a dealbreaker.

[clyde21]

not surprising, inept ownership mixed with a corrupt and gross city, lasted longer than I thought actually

[Jailblazers7]

I think it’s also possible to have a complicated relationship with a team. My dad is a huge Pirates fan who grew up in the 60s/70s and love Roberto Clemente. My experience as a Pirates fan has been terrible ownership and losing teams. But when we had the McCutcheon MVP years the city was electric and the Pirates were a legit bonding force for the city. I get why owners would move a team but when a team/city has a shared identity it doesn’t get better than that.

[Wadzup]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Another blackeye for professional sports.

I guess but not really and honestly could not care less. I and most fellow Sonics fans would’ve been thrilled had the Kings ended up in Seattle. There’s no moral high ground here.

Seattle should (and will) get the Sonics back eventually through expansion. Maybe it's the moral high road I'm taking, but the Cleveland Browns were in the same boat as the Sonics (got moved despite having a huge fan base and were able to retain the name).

As bad as the "new" Cleveland Browns have been, it's still better getting an expansion team than it would have been getting, say, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (which would have happened if the NFL didn't grant Cleveland an expansion team). There is just something dirty about a new city taking over an original one's history... I'm sure I'm a bit jaded there because the Cleveland Browns I rooted for as a kid (and the one my dad/uncles rooted for before that) is one of the top 5 most successful organizations in the history of the NFL... they are just now called the Baltimore Ravens. The one I now root for is one of the worst ran in NFL history, but at least it wasn't poached.

Fwiw, the NFL is a league (since careers are so short and 90 percent of the roster is turned over in a 5 year period) where you almost have to root for city/team over player, so a little different than NBA/MLB.

[AleksandarN]

I remember growing up watching Ricky Henderson and the bash bothers dominating

Don’t forget Mr Moustache