Count Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Joe Davis among those who are outraged by the situation unfolding with the Oakland A’s.
The ownership of the A’s, led by businessman John Fisher, has announced that the team will be playing in Sacramento for the 2025, 2026, and 2027 seasons before moving to Las Vegas. Home games will be held in a minor league stadium with a capacity of 14,000 fans, which, based on the current attendance in Oakland, will likely still be half full. As of May 7, there were 553 sports teams in the United States with better attendance than the A’s.
Fisher, an heir to the Gap clothing fortune, bought the Oakland A’s in 2016 and inherited the team’s lease with the Coliseum – an outdated stadium with few amenities. Repeated attempts to reach a deal to build a new stadium in the Bay Area have gone nowhere.
Everyone from the Oakland mayor and Reggie Jackson to Trevor May and Bryce Harper has criticized A’s ownership for how the move has been handled. On Sunday, Joe Davis joined this chorus during the Dodgers-Athletics game broadcast.
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“Today, the Dodgers say goodbye to the Oakland Coliseum. We’d like to do so on the heels of a victory. Boy, it’s hard to believe this is happening, but you understand that this does happen,” Davis said. “Relocations are a part of the business of sports. This is the third move for the A’s when they go to Sacramento. The fourth will be when they go to Vegas if that actually happens. But the way this one has happened is shameful! It should be, anyway, because the people running it are apparently shameless. They are experiencing no embarrassment in any facet.
“You slash payroll by 50 percent, and you boost season ticket prices by 30 percent, and you wonder why people aren’t showing up. No, you don’t wonder. It’s seemingly intentional, insidious in fact.”
The A’s will play their final game in Oakland on September 26th, and it has already been announced that anyone who wants to attend will have to pay a premium, with the cheapest seats reportedly costing $104.20.
