COMMIE OAKLAND MAYOR TRYING TO STEAL A’S NAME

Aug 3, 2023,

The Oakland A’s are set to move to Las Vegas, but that will take time. They need to tear down the Tropicana and build their new stadium, which will take them through the 2024 season. So, the Commie Oakland Mayor is trying to literally steal the A’s brand name as a concession. After years of trying to build a new stadium in Oakland and years of Oakland turning into a toilet with rampant crime,  270%  higher, and homeless out of control, the A’s decided to move to Las Vegas. The Warriors moved out, and then the Raiders moved to Las Vegas. BTW, the Raiders have the highest ticket sale numbers in the entire NFL.

Oakland Homeless Camp on Fire for 3rd Time

Attendance. The average attendance at Oakland Athletics games in 2022 was 9,973. The Las Vegas Golden Knights average attendance last year was 18,027. Las Vegas Aviators, a minor league base ball team, averaged 6,910 fans last year. And that’s in an open stadium during the summer months at 117 degrees.

As Reported in The California Globe:

Oakland Mayor Thao’s talk with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred,

“The mayor was clear that in order to negotiate the terms of that lease extension we would be looking for many of the same things that we had been discussing with the A’s,” said the Mayor’s Chief of Staff Leigh Hanson. “Those included the team obviously remaining in Oakland and insisting the owners do not approve the relocation application. If that did not work, we would want to have conversations about retaining the brand of the A’s, similar to the Cleveland Browns and other teams that kept their name. Then finally the guarantee of an expansion team in Oakland.”

Complicating matters was that the Athletics could circumnavigate any deal like that, and instead play temporarily at Oracle Park in San Francisco, a minor league stadium in Las Vegas, or at another nearby site for a few years while waiting. As the Athletics said in in a statement, it is what the league and players union decide on, not the City of Oakland.

“It really comes down to the league and the union and their decision to what makes the most sense,” said Athletics team president Dave Kaval. “We’re kind of deferring to them on that. We’re providing all the necessary information that they need. But in the end, we’re going to take direction from the league in the interim.”

The MLB itself has also challenged Thao’s claims on discussing a lease extension, saying that it had not been discussed during meetings last month. Thao’s office fired back this week that it had been discussed.

“I think it’s disingenuous and unfortunate,” said Hanson. “I’m trying to give the benefit of the doubt. We didn’t have the lease agreement in front of us, we were not discussing specific terms, it was a conversation about the mayor’s goals, and the topic of an extension of the Coliseum lease definitely came up. I was in the room.”

Then like a good Woke warrior, They brought race into it

“Well, I won’t make it specific to MLB, but Mayor Thao is a young woman of color in a position of power, and she’s quite used to being underestimated. 

“Whenever a Mayor or other public official starts making demands like that a league, nine out of ten times the owner decides to move,” explained Roger Pataki, who studies sports team relocations. “Maryland lawmakers in 1982 and 1983 began making more and more demands of the NFL’s Baltimore Colts, and were even attempting to keep them in Baltimore through eminent domain. well, in 1984, the day before it was to be enacted, the owner literally moved the team to Indianapolis overnight.”

“It’s funny that she mentions the Browns, because the same thing happened. Local officials were failing to keep the team in the 90s, made a bunch of threats, and they lost the team. This is all very general, and in both cases, the owner became such a pariah that they are still hated in those cities respectively today. I have personally witnessed someone saying something good about former Browns owner Art Modell in Cleveland and that person being punched. And now it is al eerily similar now with the Athletics and John Fisher trying to move the team.”

“But what Thao did, threaten to take the team name and try to bully the MLB into giving them an expansion team, is just hurting the team. For any A’s fans, yes, Fisher is the main reason here why the team is going to Vegas. You have every right to be mad with him and want him to sell the team. But Thao sort of just screwed the city too.”

“She didn’t realize that the Athletics is not an Oakland name. It’s a legacy name of the team. The team played as the Philadelphia Athletics for 53 years. Kept the name. Then they moved to Kansas City. Kept the name. Then, in 1968, they moved to Oakland. Kept the name. There is no way they are going to ruin that 122 legacy run like that. The Browns kept their name during the move, sure, but they had always been in Cleveland. This is the Athletics third city, soon to be fourth.

“Even worse is demanding an expansion team. Oakland has proven for years that they can’t figure out a new stadium, and the MLB will not give an expansion team unless it is approved. Right now, several teams have mentioned relocation, with the Tampa Bay Rays the next most likely to move because of stadium issues. The MLB needs to figure those out first before any expansion.

“Mayors before Thao are solely known as the Mayors who lost the Raiders and Warriors. She does not want her defining image to be that of the person who lost the Athletics. But she is playing it all wrong, and she just might have ruined any real chance to keep the team as a result. It’s just sad because the A’s really do have a lot of fans in Oakland and don’t deserve this. They deserve better than Fisher and Thao.”

The owners vote on the A’s relocation is likely to be held soon.