With baseball owners approving the Athletics’ move to Las Vegas, some see the departure as the death of the working-class sports fan.
One by one, they have left Oakland.
First, the Warriors headed back across the bay to San Francisco in 2019, a return for a basketball franchise whose recent championship reign has been defined more by glitz than grit. Then, a year later, it was the itinerant Raiders heading to Las Vegas, the eye patch on their gridiron bandit logo obscuring an apparently wandering eye.
On Thursday, the final departure became all but official: Major League Baseball owners unanimously approved a move to Las Vegas by the Athletics, who not long ago used the marketing catch phrase “rooted in Oakland.”
There is still much for the ball club to sort out. The Athletics have another year on their lease in Oakland and their new stadium — a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat ballpark with a retractable roof for which the Nevada Legislature approved public financing — won’t be ready until 2028. Where they will play in between is an open question. The Nevada teacher’s union is angling to put the subsidy on the ballot for voters.
But the A’s impending move, as inevitable as it has seemed, landed in Oakland like a fastball to the ribs.
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