Oakland A’s Fans Deserve Better Than John Fisher

As a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, and a diehard sports fan, I feel compelled to write this. Several weeks ago the Oakland Athletics announced their intention to leave their home of the past 55 years on the east side of San Francisco Bay for Las Vegas, Nevada. This was the culmination of several years of speculation that the A’s would look to greener pastures for their new stadium, leaving behind the admittedly outdated Oakland Coliseum. While a stadium upgrade certainly is in order, owner John Fisher’s decision to abandon the city of Oakland and their loyal fans is an ugly stain on his already bad reputation and an ugly stain on Major League Baseball as a whole. 

I am not an A’s fan. I was born and raised across the bay in San Francisco as a lifelong fan of the San Francisco Giants. Although we certainly have a healthy and competitive rivalry with our green and gold clad cross-bay “rivals,” I, like most Giants fans, have a soft spot for the A’s. Our “rivalry” with them is far more about fun, regional bragging rights than it is about actual animosity (that’s reserved for the Los Angeles Dodgers). The annual “Battle of the Bay” series between the Giants and A’s are some of our most anticipated games every season. And now we’re losing that because of one cheap, silver spooned millionaire’s greed. 

John Fisher, the A’s owner, is notoriously cheap and—now that Daniel Snyder is out as the owner of the NFL’s Washington Commanders—is almost without a doubt the number one choice for worst owner in professional sports. Since buying the A’s in 2005, he has never spent the necessary money to make them into a winner. Although the famed sports movie “Moneyball” is based on an A’s season several years before Fisher’s purchase, the idea of a team that needed to be smarter than their competition to succeed due to their low spending has been an omnipresent theme for the A’s since Fisher’s purchase, and they have ranked in the bottom ten in MLB payroll every season since Fisher purchased them. 

Despite this ugly, penny-pinching form of ownership, the A’s still managed to put together an incredible run of success. They were a playoff regular for most of the 2010s, winning the American League West multiple times. Stars such as Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Donaldson, Jon Lester, Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Marcus Semien, Sonny Gray, and more came through Oakland, but none of them stayed. They were allowed to walk in free agency, or traded for pennies on the dollar before they reached free agency, all because Fisher was unwilling to open his pocket book and spend the money to keep them. 

This is a far cry from the glory days of the A’s. Under legendary owner Charlie Finley, the A’s were the team of the 1970s. They won three straight World Series titles in the early 70’s, regularly spent more than any other team in baseball, and boasted baseball legends such as Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Campy Campaneris, Sal Bando, Reggie Jackson, and Vida Blue. My mom grew up in the East Bay right around this time as an A’s fan and has told me stories about going to A’s World Series games as a young fan with her dad. Thankfully for the happiness of my childhood, my dad baptized me in the orange and black of the Giants (who have won three titles in my lifetime while the A’s last title was in 1989). 

The bigger issue over the past decade has been the A’s stadium. Although it certainly has character, the Oakland Coliseum is widely regarded as one of the worst facilities in all of professional sports. I personally have a soft spot for it in the same way that I did for Candlestick Park (where I attended many 49ers games as a kid and where the Giants played before I was born), but it certainly is a stark contrast to the Giants’ beautiful Oracle Park, or MLB’s other newest venues, such as the Texas Rangers’ Globe Life Park or the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park. 

Fisher and the A’s have wanted a new stadium for years but have been unwilling to privately fund a new stadium. This is a big problem in California, where very few stadiums receive significant public funds, especially recently. Fisher was clearly looking for the city of Oakland to cover the costs of building a new stadium, but the city was understandably unwilling to do so. Oakland has plenty of other issues right now, and if you are rich enough to own a professional sports team (professional sports teams in America have appreciated in value significantly since Fisher bought the A’s), you should be willing and able to fund your own new stadium. The city of Oakland negotiated with Fisher and the A’s President (a Fisher puppet) Dave Kaval, offering up stadium sites at Howard Terminal, but it has become more and more apparent over the past few years that the A’s were negotiating in poor faith. 

What makes the whole situation even more sad is that the A’s are the third team to leave Oakland in the last five years. The NBA’s Golden State Warriors moved across the bay the San Francisco in 2019 (this is a bit different from Las Vegas because it’s only a 15-minute drive across the Bay Bridge, and it’s also worth noting that the Warriors’ new arena, the Chase Center was completely privately funded by their ownership group; take notes, John) and the NFL’s Raiders left for Vegas in 2020 for the brand new Allegiant Stadium. 

Fisher has gotten approval for the move from MLB’s owners and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. Not only is he screwing over a great fan base and a great city, but he’s also bad for the sport. He doesn’t spend to make his team better, would rather trade away the homegrown stars that they develop and win with than pay them and keep winning, and has essentially run the A’s like a used car business for his entire tenure as owner. 

A’s fans are a rowdy, fun, loyal bunch who deserve better than Fisher. This has always been true, since they would always lose their favorite players after a few years of success due to his cheap ways, but it has never been more true in light of the recent relocation announcement. Oakland fans put together an incredible campaign over this past season as Fisher’s intention to move the team to Vegas became apparent. Partnering with fans of every MLB team, “Sell the team!” chants rang out in the Coliseum at every game and at every stadium that the A’s visited throughout the season. They rang out at the All Star Game in Seattle this past July. Slogans and posters were plastered all around the Coliseum but to no avail. A’s fans also received significant support from Schools Over Stadiums, a group started by Nevada school teachers hoping to prevent the use of public funds from going to Fisher’s new stadium in Las Vegas, which is itself another issue. 

As for how the A’s will do in Las Vegas from a fan base perspective, one only needs to look at their former (and now future) neighbors, the Raiders. When in Oakland, the Raiders had one of the most passionate, rowdy (sometimes scary) fanbases in the NFL. As a 49ers fan growing up, you would hear some Niners fans say that they wouldn’t wear red and gold into the Coliseum when the Niners played the Raiders in Oakland. The Niners played the Raiders in Vegas last season, and the crowd was so red that it looked, felt and sounded like a 49ers home game. This would have never happened in Oakland, but this has been the case for the vast majority of Raiders games since they relocated, no matter who the opponent. Though they may have increased their revenue by leaving Oakland for Vegas, the Raiders abandoned an incredible fanbase who had always loved them and supported them despite their years of ineptitude on the field, selling their soul in the process. The A’s are about to make the same, ugly mistake. From me to you, John Fisher, shame on you, you cheap, greedy scumbag.