The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the Oakland A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team plays its home games at the Oakland Coliseum. Throughout their history, the Athletics have won nine World Series championships.
Following the California Golden Seals' relocation to Cleveland in 1976, the Golden State Warriors' move across the Bay to San Francisco in 2019, and the Oakland Raiders' move to Las Vegas in 2020, the Athletics were left as the only Oakland franchise among the five major American professional sports leagues with teams in the San Francisco Bay Area. On April 20, 2023, the Athletics announced that they had entered a land purchase agreement with Red Rock Resort in Paradise, Nevada, near the Las Vegas Strip for a new ballpark, finalizing their plans to leave the Oakland area.[3][4][5][6] On May 9, 2023, the Athletics switched their planned location to the site of Tropicana Las Vegas, which will be demolished to make room for a 30,000-seat retractable roof stadium and a new 1,500-room hotel and casino.[7]
From 1901 to 2022, the Athletics' overall win–loss record was 9,210–9,654 (.488).[8]
The Athletics' name originated in the term "Athletic Club" for local gentlemen's clubs—dates to 1860 when an amateur team, the Athletic (Club) of Philadelphia, was formed. The team later turned professional through 1875, becoming a charter member of the National League in 1876, but were expelled from the N.L. after one season. A later version of the Athletics played in the American Association from 1882 to 1891.[citation needed]
The familiar blackletter "A" is one of the oldest sports logos still in use. An image in Harper's Weekly with the rival Brooklyn Atlantics shows that the "A" appeared on the original Athletics' uniform as early as 1866.[10]
Elephant mascot
After New York Giants manager John McGraw told reporters that Philadelphia manufacturer Benjamin Shibe, who owned the controlling interest in the new team, had a "white elephant on his hands", team manager Connie Mack defiantly adopted the white elephant as the team mascot, and presented McGraw with a stuffed toy elephant at the start of the 1905 World Series.[11] McGraw and Mack had known each other for years, and McGraw accepted it graciously. By 1909, the A's were wearing an elephant logo on their sweaters, and in 1918 it turned up on the regular uniform jersey for the first time.
In 1963, when the A's were located in Kansas City, then-owner Charlie Finley changed the team mascot from an elephant to a mule, the state animal of Missouri. This is rumored to have been done by Finley in order to appeal to fans from the region who were predominantly Democrats at the time. (The traditional Republican Party symbol is an elephant, while the Democratic Party's symbol is a donkey.)[12] Since 1988, the Athletics' 21st season in Oakland, an illustration of an elephant has adorned the left sleeve of the A's home and road uniforms. Beginning in the mid 1980s, the on-field costumed incarnation of the A's elephant mascot went by the name Harry Elephante, a play on the name of singer Harry Belafonte.[13] In 1997, he took his current form, Stomper, debuting Opening Night on April 2.[14][15]
Uniforms
Through the seasons, the Athletics' uniforms have usually paid homage to their amateur forebears to some extent. Until 1954, when the uniforms had "Athletics" spelled out in script across the front, the team's name never appeared on either home or road uniforms. Furthermore, neither "Philadelphia" nor the letter "P" ever appeared on the uniform or cap. The typical Philadelphia uniform had only a script "A" on the left front, and likewise the cap usually had the same "A" on it. In the early days of the American League, the standings listed the club as "Athletic" rather than "Philadelphia", in keeping with the old tradition. Eventually, the city name came to be used for the team, as with the other major league clubs.
After buying the team in 1960, owner Charles O. Finley introduced new road uniforms with "Kansas City" printed on them, with an interlocking "KC" on the cap. Upon moving to Oakland, the "A" cap emblem was restored, and in 1970 an "apostrophe-s" was added to the cap and uniform emblem to reflect that Finley was in the process of officially changing the team's name to the "A's".
The Athletics logo (1983–1992)
While in Kansas City, Finley changed the team's colors from their traditional red, white and blue to what he termed "Kelly Green, Wedding Gown White and Fort Knox Gold". It was here that he began experimenting with dramatic uniforms to match these bright colors, such as gold sleeveless tops with green undershirts and gold pants. The innovative uniforms only increased after the team's move to Oakland, which came at the time of the introduction of polyester pullover uniforms. During their dynasty years in the 1970s, the A's had dozens of uniform combinations with jerseys and pants in all three team colors, and in fact did not wear the traditional gray on the road, instead wearing green or gold, which helped to contribute to their nickname of "The Swingin' A's". After the team's sale to the Haas family, the team changed its primary color to a more subdued forest green and began a move back to more traditional uniforms.
Currently, the team wears home uniforms with "Athletics" spelled out in script writing and road uniforms with "Oakland" spelled out in script writing, with the cap logo consisting of the traditional "A" with "apostrophe-s". The home cap, which was also the team's road cap until 1992, is forest green with a gold bill and white lettering. This design was also the basis of their batting helmet, which is used both at home and on the road. The road cap, which initially debuted in 1993, is all-forest green. The first version had the white "A's" wordmark before it was changed to gold the following season. An all-forest green batting helmet was paired with this cap until 2008. In 2014, the "A's" wordmark returned to white but added gold trim.
From 1994 until 2013, the A's wore green alternate jerseys with the word "Athletics" in gold. It was used on both road and home games.
During the 2000s, the Athletics introduced black as one of their colors. They began wearing a black alternate jersey with "Athletics" written in green. After a brief discontinuance, the A's brought back the black jersey, this time with "Athletics" written in white with gold highlights. The cap paired with this jersey is all-black, initially with the green and white-trimmed "A's" wordmark, before switching to a white and gold-trimmed "A's" wordmark. Commercially popular but rarely chosen as the alternate by players, the black uniform was retired in 2011 in favor of a gold alternate jersey.
The gold alternate has "A's" in green trimmed in white on the left chest. With the exception of several road games during the 2011 season, the Athletics' gold uniforms were used as the designated home alternates. A green version of their gold alternates was introduced for the 2014 season, serving as a replacement to the previous green alternates. The new green alternates featured the piping, "A's" and lettering in white with gold trim.
In 2018, as part of the franchise's 50th anniversary since the move to Oakland, the A's wore a kelly green alternate uniform with "Oakland" in white with gold trim, and was paired with an all-kelly green cap.[16] This set was later worn with an alternate kelly green helmet with gold visor. This uniform eventually supplanted the gold alternates by 2019, and in 2022, after the forest green alternate was retired, it became the team's only active alternate uniform.
The nickname "A's" has long been used interchangeably with "Athletics", dating to the team's early days when headline writers wanted a way to shorten the name. From 1972 through 1980, the team name was officially "Oakland A's", although, during that time, the Commissioner's Trophy, given out annually to the winner of baseball's World Series, still listed the team's name as the "Oakland Athletics" on the gold-plated pennant representing the Oakland franchise. According to Bill Libby's Book, Charlie O and the Angry A's, owner Charlie O. Finley banned the word "Athletics" from the club's name because he felt that name was too closely associated with former Philadelphia Athletics owner Connie Mack, and he wanted the name "Oakland A's" to become just as closely associated with him. The name also vaguely suggested the name of the old minor league Oakland Oaks, which were alternatively called the "Acorns". New owner Walter Haas restored the official name to "Athletics" in 1981, but retained the nickname "A's" for marketing. At first, the word "Athletics" was restored only to the club's logo, underneath the much larger stylized-"A" that had come to represent the team since the early days. By 1987, however, the word returned, in script lettering, to the front of the team's jerseys.
Prior to the mid-2010s, the A's had a long-standing tradition of wearing white cleats team-wide (in line with the standard MLB practice that required all uniformed team members to wear a base cleat color), which dates back to the Finley ownership. Since the mid-2010s, however, MLB has gradually relaxed its shoe color rules, and several A's players began wearing cleats in non-white colors, most notably Jed Lowrie's green cleats.
The Oakland Coliseum—originally known as the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, and later named as Network Associates, McAfee, Overstock.com/O.co and RingCentral Coliseum—was built as a multi-purpose facility. Louisiana Superdome officials pursued negotiations with Athletics officials during the 1978–79 baseball offseason about moving the Athletics to their facility in New Orleans. The Athletics were unable to break their lease at the Coliseum, and remained in Oakland.[17]
After the Oakland Raiders football team moved to Los Angeles in 1982, many improvements were made to what was suddenly a baseball-only facility. The 1994 movie Angels in the Outfield was filmed in part at the Coliseum, filling in for Anaheim Stadium.
The Coliseum as seen in its original open grandstand configuration before being enclosed
In 1995, the Raiders moved back to Oakland. The Coliseum was expanded to 63,026 seats. The bucolic view of the Oakland foothills that baseball spectators enjoyed was replaced with a jarring view of an outfield grandstand contemptuously referred to as "Mount Davis" after Raiders' owner Al Davis. Because construction was not finished by the start of the 1996 season, the Athletics were forced to play their first six-game homestand at 9,300-seat Cashman Field in Las Vegas, Nevada.[18]
Although official capacity was stated to be 43,662 for baseball, seats were sometimes sold in Mount Davis as well, pushing "real" capacity to the area of 60,000. The ready availability of tickets on game day made season tickets a tough sell, while crowds as high as 30,000 often seemed sparse in such a venue. On December 21, 2005, the Athletics announced that seats in the Coliseum's third deck would not be sold for the 2006 season, but would instead be covered with a tarp, and that tickets would no longer be sold in Mount Davis under any circumstances. That effectively reduced capacity to 34,077, making the Coliseum the lowest-capacity stadium in Major League Baseball. Beginning in 2008, sections 316–318 (immediately behind home plate) were the only third-deck sections open for A's games, which brought the total capacity to 35,067 until 2017 when new team president Dave Kaval took the tarps off of the upper deck, increasing capacity to 47,170. The Athletics were the last remaining MLB team to share a stadium full-time with an NFL team, a situation that ended when the Raiders moved to Las Vegas in 2020.
Team president Dave Kaval has tried to upgrade the Oakland Coliseum by creating club and premium seating areas and renovating Shibe Park Tavern and various fan areas.[citation needed]
New areas
In 2017, the team created an outdoor plaza in the space between the Coliseum and Oracle Arena. The grassy area is open to all ticketed fans, and it features food trucks, seating and games like corn hole for every Athletics home game.[21][22] The following year, the team introduced The Treehouse, a 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) area open to all fans with two full-service bars, standing-room and lounge seating, numerous televisions with pre-game and postgame entertainment. The A's Stomping Ground transformed part of the Eastside Club and the area near the right-field flag poles into a fun and interactive space for kids and families. The inside section features a stage and video wall for interactive events, a digital experience that lets youngsters race their favorite Athletics players, replica team dugouts, a simulated hitting and pitching machine, foosball, and a photo booth. The outside area includes play areas, a grassy seating area, drink rails for parents, and picnic tables, a miniature baseball field and spiderweb play area.[citation needed]
Premium spaces
The team added three new premium spaces, including The Terrace, Lounge Seats, and the Coppola Theater Boxes, to the Coliseum for the 2019 season. The new premium seating options offer fans a high-end game-day experience with luxury amenities. The team also added two new group spaces – the Budweiser Hero Deck and Golden Road Landing – to the Coliseum.[citation needed]
Other additions
In addition, the tarps on the upper deck were removed; a modern version of the beloved mechanical Harvey the Rabbit to deliver the first pitch ball was re-introduced, while the playing surface at the Coliseum was re-named "Rickey Henderson Field". The team hosted the first free game in MLB history for 46,028 fans on April 17, 2018, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Athletics first game in Oakland.[23] The team tried a new concept within season ticketing in the A's Access plan that involved "general admission access to every home game with a set number of reserved-seat upgrades allotted", which was meant to replace previous attempts at subscription-based services that they tried with Ballpark Pass and Treehouse Pass.[24] On July 21, 2018, the Athletics set a Coliseum record for the largest attendance with a crowd of 56,310 when the team played host to the San Francisco Giants.[24][25]
New ballpark in Las Vegas
Early stages and negotiations
The team launched an advertising campaign called "Rooted in Oakland," to emphasize the club's apparent commitment to building a ballpark in its longtime home city prior to shifting their focus on Las Vegas.
On May 11, 2021, MLB permitted the A's to explore relocation possibilities should the team fail to get a replacement stadium for the aging Coliseum from the city of Oakland by 2024.[26] Among the cities and regions in consideration by the team was the Las Vegas Valley area of Nevada, the home of the National Hockey League's Vegas Golden Knights and the National Football League's Las Vegas Raiders, with the latter team having left Oakland in 2020 to play at Allegiant Stadium after being unable to get a football-only stadium in their previous home city. The team previously played six home games at Las Vegas' Cashman Field during the 1996 MLB season when the renovations for the Coliseum were not yet complete.[27] Several days later, the A's started exploring the possibility of relocating to the Las Vegas area and would later organize meetings with local government officials and tour potential sites there led by team owner John Fisher in the next week.[28] After a presentation at a June MLB owners meeting in New York City, team president Dave Kaval said that the A's were considering the Resort Corridor, the Cashman Field site and the Valley cities of Henderson or Summerlin, Nevada as possible locations for a ballpark. Kaval also said that the team was still continuing to explore "parallel paths" in not just Las Vegas but the team's long time home Oakland.[29] Kaval and Fisher would conduct more trips to the area to meet with officials again over the possibility of relocation starting with June 20 and 21.[30][31] By then, the A's shortlist for a potential ballpark in Southern Nevada ballooned to over 30 sites according to Kaval.[32]
In September 2021, Kaval said that the Athletics would finalize the list of possible ballpark sites in Las Vegas by November.[33] In November, the A's launched a survey for fans of the team's Triple-A affiliate the Las Vegas Aviators to determine potential interest for an MLB team in Las Vegas and a new ballpark.[34] The final results of the survey released a month later indicated that most Aviators fans and Las Vegas residents were interested in having an MLB team in the city.[35] In the same month, the A's made an offer for an undisclosed plot of land in the Valley for a $1 billion ballpark to be built there.[36] The Howard Hughes Corp, the owners of the Aviators, offered free land for the Athletics to build a new ballpark.[37] Previously, Team representatives had met with the Hughes Corp in Summerlin weeks before.[38]
In April 2022, the A's narrowed down the list to two possibles sites in the Las Vegas Strip: The Tropicana Las Vegas hotel and resort and the Las Vegas Festival Grounds.[39] Around the same time, the Tropicana resort's non-land assets were sold to the Bally's Corporation and approved by Nevada state regulators later that year.[40] Earlier in December 2021, the A's had submitted a bid to acquire the Tropicana site and redevelop it into a ballpark prior to the Bally's acquisition.[41] The MLB, in reaction to the A's interest in Southern Nevada, decided to remove a relocation fee for the team in the event that they move to the Las Vegas area.[42] In August, A's officials organized two meetings with casino owner and financier Paul Ruffin for a hypothetical new Las Vegas area ballpark on the Festival Grounds.[43]
In October 2022, Oakland missed a deadline to reach an agreement on a ballpark in the Howard Terminal with negotiations pushed back to another year.[44] Kaval said that the delay in negotiations would "all but doom our efforts" in keeping the team in Oakland.[45] On October 29, Commissioner of BaseballRob Manfred said in a SiriusXM interview with host Chris "Mad Dog" Russo that he was "not positive" the A's could remain in Oakland and that the team has made progress in exploring Las Vegas as a viable relocation site.[46]
In November 2022, a source familiar with the Athletics' negotiations with Las Vegas said that even if the team were to move to the city, the Triple-A Aviators would stay put and temporarily share Las Vegas Ballpark with their MLB affiliate while a new ballpark was under construction.[47] On November 3, Bally's CEO Lee Fenton said that the Tropicana site was "very much in the cards" for the Athletics to build a ballpark should the team relocate from Oakland to Las Vegas and revealed that Bally's held talks with the team.[48] On November 7, then-Nevada GovernorSteve Sisolak and other officials said that the state would not use a hotel room tax to fund a Las Vegas area ballpark for the A's like they did with Allegiant Stadium for the Raiders though he did not rule out other ways of publicly financing the ballpark such as infrastructure improvements or tax increment financing.[49]
In January 2023, the Athletics continued talks with Bally's Corporation over the possibility of converting the Tropicana hotel and resort into a new ballpark while talks with Ruffin over the Festival Grounds had stalled.[50] The news came out around this time when the Department of Transportation (DOT) refused to grant $182 million in federal funding for the Howard Terminal project and that the city of Oakland was considering obligation bonds as an alternative.[51][52] On January 26, the newly-elected Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo met with team officials to discuss the possibility of a public-private economic partnership program to finance a new ballpark in the Las Vegas area with Lombardo ruling out an increase in state taxes to pay for a ballpark. Lombardo's spokesperson Elizabeth Ray clarified that the Athletics or another MLB team looking to relocate to Nevada "may or may not be eligible for a variety of existing economic development programs in the state".[53]
In February, it was revealed that Resorts World Las Vegas President Scott Sibella and other hotel owners from the Strip and downtown Las Vegas met with Athletics officials for a ballpark at the Festival Grounds site with Sibella noting "We reinforced our support that we believe the best site is on the Sahara/L[as] V[egas] Blvd. Having the A's in Las Vegas will be great for the Strip communities and the LV community" and that the team "will have our full support". Derek Stevens, the co-owner of the Circa, Golden Gate and The D properties downtown, confirmed that he attended the meeting and said "I talked to with ownership in John Fisher and their President Dave [Kaval] for a while yesterday. This will be very good for Las Vegas, very good for jobs, very good for hotel rooms. The key thing is getting the location nailed down and moving forward." Stevens also made a case for luring the A's to southern Nevada over an expansion team claiming, "If Vegas doesn't land the A's, it could impact whether Vegas gets a team anytime in the near future. Having the [MLB] Commissioner [Rob Manfred] waive the relocation fee is huge. When people say they want an expansion team that is a 'Vegas Team,' people forget the expansion fee will be between $1 billion to $2 billion. Who in Vegas has that kind of money for an expansion fee and THEN have to deal with all the other elements like stadium costs and operating cash?"[54] On February 17, it was revealed that the Athletics were exploring the Rio hotel and casino as an option for a new ballpark and spoke with their owner Dreamscape properties.[55] The team also hired 11 lobbyists to represent them in the Nevada Legislature to form a public-private partnership with the state.[56]
After the Athletics' two-day games at Las Vegas Ballpark as part of Big League Weekend, Clark County Commission Chairman Jim Gibson elaborated on Lombardo's statement ruling out new taxes for an MLB-caliber ballpark but noted, "The governor has said no new taxes, but that doesn't mean there aren't public revenues available. We'll look to the governor and legislature to see what kind of appetite they have for whatever's required".[57]
Agreement and switching focus to Tropicana
In April 2023, it was revealed that negotiations between the City of Oakland and the Athletics organization had ended with the team moving forward with a new $1.5 billion 30,000-seat retractable stadium at the site of the Wild Wild West casino across Interstate 15 from the Golden Knights' T-Mobile Arena, financed through a public-private partnership including a special tax district after reaching an agreement with Red Rock Resorts to purchase it and develop the land with the backing of many within the state of Nevada and MLB.[58] The deal would have also required $500 million in public funding from the special tax district to finance the ballpark and would need approval from the Nevada Legislature in Carson City with June 5 as the end of the legislative session as the deadline to agree on a funding package and can call a special session in this case.[59] Prior to selecting the Wild Wild casino, the Athletics were offered the resort corridor of the Rio hotel and casino for $1 by the Dreamscope Cos but turned it down in favor of Wild Wild West after a previous deal on the Festival Grounds had collapsed.[60] Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao upon learning of the deal commented, "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."[5]
Within the Nevada Legislature, lawmakers said that a funding bill would arrive and that there was no timeline for immediate action yet along with some skeptical or opposed to handing out $500 million on the ballpark but would review the proposal.[61][62]
Shortly after announcing the stadium deal, team president Dave Kaval was interviewed by CBS affiliate KLAS-TV. He revealed that the Athletics had an agreement with the Aviators to play at the Aviators' Las Vegas Ballpark temporarily until their home on the Strip was complete.[63] Conversely, Aviators president Don Logan said that the natural grass field of Las Vegas Ballpark would not accommodate the team and the Athletics with a proposal to implement artificial turf on the stadium based on the Texas Rangers' Globe Life Field floated which was toured by the Athletics as a model for the new Strip ballpark while Rob Manfred has said that it was a feasible option for the A's to share Las Vegas Ballpark with the Aviators.[64][65] By April 22, the Athletics would reach a deal with the Southern Nevada Building Trades union to use workers and contractors from the area to build the new Strip ballpark which is expected to begin construction in mid to late 2024 contingent on the state of Nevada approving a financing package.[66][67]
Fans protest Fisher's proposed relocation to Las Vegas
On April 26, Kaval met with Nevada Democratic legislators, including Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager, to discuss the new ballpark for half an hour.[60] By April 28, the Athletics' ballpark would earn the support of several southern Nevada Chambers of Commerce.[68] Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman when asked about the $500 million needed for the ballpark responded "To make this work the owners need to make a bold statement upfront. What you want to see is the private ownership come in and be invested in our community and not just look to each of us who calls this home for more taxes. No thank you!”. However, Goodman's Clark County is currently negotiating with the Athletics to reach a deal on the ballpark with an option to extend the negotiations.[69]
In response to the team's planned relocation to Las Vegas, Athletics fans would hold a protest during the team's April 28 home game against the Reds, holding up signs that read "Sell", "Stay", "#FisherOut", "Kaval=Liar" and "Sell the Team" with the latter chanted in the stands along with "Stay in Oakland" (the same phrase used by Oakland Raiders fans urging the team to remain in Oakland prior to the team's move to Las Vegas). Controversially, the official MLB broadcast of the game cropped out these signs leading the league to apologize, "We were unaware of the edit. When it came to our attention, we corrected it as it isn’t consistent with our policy" said a spokesperson.[70][71]
In May, Yeager said the Nevada Legislature could "run out of time" to agree on sending $500 million to finance the Athletics' new ballpark in Las Vegas if the proposed funding bill does not materialize within the next "week or so." According to Yeager, "If something was going to happen, it really should have been in place last week". He also clarified, "There hasn't been a concrete plan presented to the Legislature. And I read in the media too, and it seems like every story talks about it in a different way. So in my mind, until there's some kind of concrete ask, there's really not much to discuss.” Yeager noted that another week is the realistic timeframe for approval and that until the state knew what the economic impact of the proposal might be it was not certain if they would move on or not.[72] In the same month, 800 registered Nevada voters from Clark County, Washoe County and the rural areas of the state were asked about their opinion on public funding for the Athletics' new Strip ballpark with 41% in favor, 38% opposed, 14% neither in favor nor opposed and 7% had no opinion with support for public funds the highest in Clark County.[73] Additionally, the Athletics are expected to close their land deal for the ballpark by late 2023.[74] On May 4, Lombardo announced that a legislative package for the Athletics proposed ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip is being created with a deadline of May 26 with other options such as a special session if it can't be passed in time.[75][76] However, the Athletics are considering alternative options in the Las Vegas area if they fail to secure legislative support for $500 million in the new Strip ballpark. Additionally, language for a potential funding bill would likely be available at the end of the week.[77] Despite this, the Athletics struck a deal with Bally's to build a new ballpark on the previously explored Tropicana Las Vegas site and reduce the share of public funding from $500 million to $395 million with the possibility of it's eventual opening delayed to 2028 if the construction timeline changes while Bally's would build a casino-hotel adjacent to the ballpark and the tax package for the revised proposal is similar to the original one at Wild Wild West Casino but that the legislative language needed to be finalized.[78][79][80] The deal was officially announced by the Athletics and Bally's on May 15.[81] In response to the Bally's deal, a Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman Justin Hopkins told the website LVSportsBiz.org "Our project team would like to know more about the Athletics’ construction plans, including their anticipated start date and how their access needs will be affected by the construction. We want to ensure that we coordinate with their needs and any other ongoing work in the area, as we strive to be good partners with our community and stakeholders. If there are any adjustments we can make to our schedule or prioritize certain tasks to facilitate potential stadium work, we would like to know so that we can act quickly," though he added “NDOT has not yet heard from the Athletics about the ballpark proposal at Tropicana”.[82] Aside from the deal with Bally's, the Athletics pitched a tax district to pay for the new Strip ballpark.[83] The reason for why the Athletics switched the site of the proposed ballpark from Wild Wild West Casino to the Tropicana Las Vegas was due to Culinary Union 226 didn't support the site change.[84] By May 12, Culinary Union 226 eventually reached an agreement with the Athletics to provide union contracts for their workers on the new Strip ballpark.[85] However, the project had an issue with Nevada lawmakers who were willing to provide only $195 million in tax credits instead of $395 million for the Athletics.[86] Moreover, Clark County officials were concerned that taxpayers would be on the hook to cover debt payments and that property taxes would be increased to pay them.[87] By May 23, the Athletics reached a "loose agreement" for a financing package less than $500 million with state officials after weeks of discussion with a reduction of contributions from Clark County.[88] The proposal would involve $180 million from the state of Nevada of which $90 million would be repaid from the ballpark's revenues while $150 million would come from Clark County which would be repaid from a tax district set up on the site and the public total would be between $350 million and $380 million. Additionally, a credit enhancement would be used for the ballpark to improve the chances of repayment along with a two-year debt reserve account and the ballpark itself would be owned by the Las Vegas Stadium Authority similar to Allegiant Stadium upon completion while Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. will contribute to the project free of charge.[89] On May 24, Governor Joe Lombardo officially announced the agreement with the Athletics, Treasurer Zach Conine and Clark County officials in a press release with the bill for it sent to the Nevada Legislature. In the press release, Lombardo said
“This agreement follows months of negotiations between the state, the county and the A’s, and I believe it gives us a tremendous opportunity to continue building on the professional sports infrastructure of southern Nevada. Las Vegas is clearly a sports town, and Major League Baseball should be a part of it.”[90]
After the Athletics' tentative deal with the state of Nevada and Clark County was announced, Commissioner Rob Manfred said the owners could vote on the team's relocation to Las Vegas during the June 13–15 meetings in New York City. According to Manfred, "It's possible that a relocation vote could happen as early as June. It's very difficult to have a timeline for Oakland until there's actually a deal to be considered. There is a relocation process internally they need to go through, and we haven't even started that process."[91]
On May 26, the Athletics officially released renderings of the new $1.5 billion 30,000-seat ballpark in Las Vegas to the public designed by Schrock KC Architecture.[92] The team also saw the language for the stadium bill leaked to the public which contained many of the confirmed details of the tentative agreement such as public funding capped at $380 million and the Las Vegas Stadium Authority as it's owner with the bill itself officially named the Southern Nevada Tourism Innovation Act introduced into the Nevada Legislature for a vote.[93][94][95][96]
Since the early 2000s, the A's have been in talks with Oakland and other Northern California cities about building a new baseball-only stadium. The team had said it wanted to remain in Oakland. On November 28, 2018, the Athletics announced that the team had chosen to build its new 34,000-seat ballpark at the Howard Terminal site at the Port of Oakland. In 2018 the team announced its intent to purchase the Coliseum site and renovate it into a tech and housing hub, preserving Oakland Arena and reducing the Coliseum to a low-rise sports park as San Francisco did with Kezar Stadium.[97] In April 2023, the City of Oakland officially ended discussions with the Athletics organization after the announcement of a new ballpark in Las Vegas, claiming that the team was using the proposed site in Oakland to leverage a better deal in Las Vegas instead of any real intentions to stay within the city.
Fremont
After the city of Oakland failed to make any progress toward a stadium, the A's began contemplating a move to the Warm Springs district of suburban Fremont. Fremont is about 25 miles (40 km) south of Oakland; many nearby residents are already a part of the current Athletics fanbase.[citation needed]
On November 7, 2006, many media sources announced the Athletics would be leaving Oakland as early as 2010 for a new stadium in Fremont, confirmed the next day by the Fremont City Council. The plan was strongly supported by Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman.[98] The team would have played in what was planned to be called Cisco Field, a 32,000-seat, baseball-only facility.[99] The proposed ballpark would have been part of a larger "ballpark village" which would have included retail and residential development. On February 24, 2009, however, Lew Wolff released an open letter regarding the end of his efforts to relocate the A's to Fremont, citing "real and threatened" delays to the project.[100] The project faced opposition from some in the community who thought the relocation of the A's to Fremont would increase traffic problems in the city and decrease property values near the ballpark site.
San Jose
In 2009, the City of San Jose attempted to open negotiations with the team regarding a move to the city. Although parcels of land south of Diridon Station would be acquired by the city as a stadium site, the San Francisco Giants' claim on Santa Clara County as part of their home territory would have to be settled before any agreement could be made.[101]
By 2010, San Jose was "aggressively wooing" A's owner Lew Wolff, the city as the team's "best option", but Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said he would wait on a report on whether the team could move to the area, because of the Giants conflict.[102] In September 2010, 75 Silicon Valley CEOs drafted and signed a letter to Bud Selig urging a timely approval of the move to San Jose.[103] In May 2011, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed sent a letter to Bud Selig asking the commissioner for a timetable of when he might decide whether the A's can pursue this new ballpark, but Selig did not respond.[104]
Selig addressed the San Jose issue via an online town hall forum held in July 2011, saying, "Well, the latest is, I have a small committee who has really assessed that whole situation, Oakland, San Francisco, and it is complex. You talk about complex situations; they have done a terrific job. I know there are some people who think it's taken too long and I understand that. I'm willing to accept that. But you make decisions like this; I've always said, you'd better be careful. Better to get it done right than to get it done fast. But we'll make a decision that's based on logic and reason at the proper time."[105]
On June 18, 2013, the City of San Jose filed suit against Selig, seeking the court's ruling that Major League Baseball may not prevent the Oakland A's from moving to San Jose.[106] Wolff criticized the lawsuit, stating he did not believe business disputes should be settled through legal action.[107]
Most of the city's claims were dismissed in October 2013, but a U.S. District Judge ruled that San Jose could move forward with its count that MLB illegally interfered with an option agreement between the city and the A's for land. On January 15, 2015, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the claims were barred by baseball's antitrust exemption, established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1922 and upheld in 1953 and 1972. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo commented that the city would seek a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.[108] On October 5, 2015, the United States Supreme Court rejected San Jose's bid on the Athletics.[109]
Peralta
A 2017 plan would have placed a new 35,000 seat A's stadium near Laney College and the Eastlake neighborhood on the current site of the Peralta Community College District's administration buildings. The plan was announced by team president Dave Kaval in September 2017.[110] However, three months later, college officials abruptly ended the negotiations.[111]
The Bay Bridge Series is the name of a series of games played between (and the rivalry of) the A's and San Francisco Giants of the National League. The series takes its name from the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge which links the cities of Oakland and San Francisco. Although competitive, the regional rivalry between the A's and Giants is considered a friendly one with mostly mutual companionship between the fans, as opposed to White Sox–Cubs, or Yankees–Mets games where animosity runs high. Hats displaying both teams on the cap are sold from vendors at the games, and once in a while the teams both dress in original team uniforms from the early era of baseball.
The series is also occasionally referred to as the "BART Series" for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system that links Oakland to San Francisco. However, the name "BART Series" has never been popular beyond a small selection of history books and national broadcasters and has fallen out of favor. Bay Area locals almost exclusively refer to the rivalry as the "Battle of the Bay".[112]
Originally, the term described a series of exhibition games played between the two clubs after the conclusion of spring training, immediately prior to the start of the regular season. It was first used to refer to the 1989 World Series in which the Athletics won their most recent championship and the first time the teams had met since they moved to the San Francisco Bay Area (and the first time they had met since the A's also defeated the Giants in the 1913 World Series). Today, it also refers to games played between the teams during the regular season since the commencement of interleague play in 1997. Through the 2021 regular season, the Athletics have won 71 games, and the Giants have won 65 contests.[113]
Through the 2021 season, the A's also have edges on the Giants in terms of overall postseason appearances (21–13), division titles (17–10) and World Series titles (4–3) since both teams moved to the Bay Area, even though the Giants franchise moved there a decade earlier than the A's did.
On March 24, 2018, the Oakland A's announced that for the Sunday, March 25, 2018 exhibition game against the San Francisco Giants, A's fans would be charged $30 for parking and Giants fans would be charged $50. However, the A's stated that Giants fans could receive $20 off if they shout "Go A's" at the parking gates.[114]
In 2018, the Athletics and Giants started battling for a "Bay Bridge" Trophy[115] made from steel taken from the old Bay Bridge, which was taken down after a new bridge was opened in 2013.[116][117] The A's won the inaugural season with the trophy, allowing them to place their logo atop its Bay Bridge stand.[118]
The A's have held a rivalry with the Los Angeles Angels since their relocation to California and to the AL West in 1969. The A's and Angels have often competed for the division title.[119] The peak of the rivalry was during the early part of the millennium as both teams were perennial contenders. During the 2002 season, the A's famous "Moneyball" tactics led them to a league record 20-game winning streak, knocking the Angels out of the first seed in the division. The A's finished 4 games ahead while the Angels secured the Wild Card berth.[120] Despite the 103-win season for Oakland, they lost to the underdog Minnesota Twins in the ALDS. The Angels beat the heavily favored New York Yankees, then beat the Twins, and then won the 2002 World Series. During the 2004 season, the teams were tied for wins headed into the final week of September with the last three games being played in Oakland against the Angels.[121] Both teams were battling to secure the lowest remaining wild card spot. Oakland lost two of the three games to the Angels, and they were eliminated from the playoff hunt. The Angels were swept in the playoffs by the eventual champion Boston Red Sox.[122] The Athletics lead the series 527–479, and the two teams have yet to meet in the postseason.
The City Series was the name of baseball games played between the Philadelphia Athletics and the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League, that ran from 1903 through 1955. After the A's move to Kansas City in 1955, the City Series rivalry came to an end. Since the introduction of interleague play in 1997, the teams have since faced each other during the regular season (with the first games taking place in 2003) but the rivalry had effectively died in the intervening years since the A's left Philadelphia. In 2014, when the A's faced the Phillies in inter-league play at the Oakland Coliseum, the Athletics did not bother to mark the historical connection, going so far as to have a Connie Mack promotion the day before the series while the Texas Rangers were in Oakland.[123]
The first City Series was held in 1883 between the Phillies and the American AssociationPhiladelphia Athletics.[124] When the Athletics first joined the American League, the two teams played each other in a spring and fall series. No City Series was held in 1901 and 1902 due to legal warring between the National League and American League.
The Athletics have retired six numbers, and honored one additional individual with the letter "A". Walter A. Haas, Jr., owner of the team from 1980 until his death in 1995, was honored by the retirement of the letter "A". Of the six players with retired numbers, five were retired for their play with the Athletics and one, 42, was universally retired by Major League Baseball when they honored the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking the color barrier. No A's player from the Philadelphia era has his number retired by the organization. Though Jackson and Hunter played small portions of their careers in Kansas City, no player that played the majority of his years in the Kansas City era has his number retired either. The A's have retired only the numbers of Hall-of-Famers who played large portions of their careers in Oakland. The Athletics have all of the numbers of the Hall-of-Fame players from the Philadelphia Athletics displayed at their stadium, as well as all of the years that the Philadelphia Athletics won World Championships (1910, 1911, 1913, 1929, and 1930). Dave Stewart was about to have his #34 jersey retired by the Oakland Athletics in 2020, but the ceremony was postponed until further notice, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions were raised if there would be a formal ceremony after no news about a reschedule happened in 2021 before it was announced in April 2022 that Stewart would have his jersey retired on September 11, 2022.[125][126] Stewart broke the A's tradition in that his number was a re-retirement, as well as his not being in the Hall of Fame.
On September 5, 2018, the Athletics held a ceremony to induct seven members into the inaugural class of the team's Hall of Fame. Each member was honored with an unveiling of a painting in their likeness and a bright green jacket. Hunter, who died in 1999, was represented by his widow, while Finley, who died in 1996, was represented by his son. If the team ever gets a new stadium, a physical site will be designated for the Hall of Fame, as the Coliseum does not have enough space for a full-fledged exhibit.[127] In August 2021, it was announced that players Sal Bando, Eric Chavez, Joe Rudi, director of player development Keith Lieppman, and clubhouse manager Steve "Vuc" Vucinich would be part of the class of 2022; in November 2021, Ray Fosse, who had died the previous month, was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame.[128][129] The Athletics Hall of Fame class of 2023, to be inducted August 6, featured players Jason Giambi, Bob Johnson, Carney Lansford and Gene Tenace, and longtime public address announcer Roy Steele.[130]
The Athletics have all of the numbers of the Hall-of-Fame players from the Philadelphia Athletics displayed at their stadium, as well as all of the years that the Philadelphia Athletics won World Championships (1910, 1911, 1913, 1929, and 1930).
Also, from 1978 to 2003 (except 1983), the Philadelphia Phillies inducted one former Athletic (and one former Phillie) each year into the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame at the then-existing Veterans Stadium. 25 Athletics have been honored. In March 2004, after Veterans Stadium was replaced by the new Citizens Bank Park, the Athletics' plaques were relocated to the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society in Hatboro, Pennsylvania,[131][132][133] and a single plaque listing all of the A's inductees was attached to a statue of Connie Mack that is located across the street from Citizens Bank Park.[134][135]
As of the 2020 season, the Oakland Athletics have had 14 radio homes.[137] The Athletics' flagship radio station is KNEW and the team has a free live 24/7 exclusive A's station branded as A's Cast to stream the radio broadcast within the Athletics market and other A's programming via iHeartRadio.[138] Going into the 2020 season, the Athletics had a deal with TuneIn for A's Cast and no flagship radio station in the Bay Area but changed their plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic keeping fans from attending games.[139] The announcing team features Ken Korach and Vince Cotroneo.
The first blog that spawned the full-fledged popular sports blog site SBNation was dedicated to the Oakland Athletics.[143][144]
Eric Shaun Lynch, a former member of The Howard Stern Show's Wack Pack who went by the name "Eric the Actor" (and previously, "Eric the Midget"), was a huge fan of the Athletics and would occasionally talk about them on Stern's show. Following his death in September 2014, the on-air personalities offered a tribute to him by using Lynch's signature sign off "bye for now" when ending a broadcast of an Athletics game. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, when American baseball teams were using cutouts of fans to show solidarity to them being absent, the Athletics used a cutout of Lynch and placed it among other cutouts of the team's fans.
^Clair, Michael (March 17, 2017). "Why do the A's wear green? You can thank Charlie Finley". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media. Retrieved January 6, 2018. Before Finley came on board, the then-Kansas City A's wore baseball's standard blue-and-red combination. In 1963, that all changed as Finley outfitted the team in glorious gold (Finley said it was the same shade the United States Naval Academy used) and kelly green for the very first time.
^For photos of the plaque, see Montella, Ernie (June 5, 2004). "Wall of Fame Day in Hatboro, Pennsylvania". Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society. Archived from the original on December 19, 2010. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
^Jordan, David M. "Vet Plaques Come to Hatboro". Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society. Archived from the original on September 6, 2008. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
Bergman, Ron. Mustache Gang: The Swaggering Tale of Oakland's A's. Dell Publishing Co., New York, 1973.
Dickey, Glenn. Champions: The Story of the First Two Oakland A's Dynasties—and the Building of the Third. Triumph Books, Chicago, 2002. ISBN1-57243-421-X
Jordan, David M. The Athletics of Philadelphia: Connie Mack's White Elephants, 1901–1954. McFarland & Co., Jefferson NC, 1999. ISBN0-7864-0620-8.
Katz, Jeff. "The Kansas City A's & The Wrong Half of the Yankees." Maple Street Press, Hingham, Massachusetts, 2006. ISBN978-0-9777436-5-0.
Kuklick, Bruce. To Everything a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia 1909–1976. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 1991. ISBN0-691-04788-X.
2023 Oakland Athletics season
