Oakland Athletics' Las Vegas relocation approved by MLB owners

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How does a city lose three major sports teams in just five years?

In this video, we go inside the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum — once one of America’s loudest and most intimidating stadiums, home to the Raiders, Athletics, and Warriors, now a massive concrete ghost town sitting on 112 acres of empty land.

From its groundbreaking 1966 multi-purpose design to the disastrous Mount Davis renovation, the Raiders move to Las Vegas, the Warriors move to San Francisco, and the A’s controversial exit, we break down how Oakland’s sports empire collapsed.

This is the story of a stadium that once shook with noise… and now sits in silence.

MORE INFORMATION & SOURCES:

• Public historical records and archival footage of the Oakland Coliseum
• Historical records on the Raiders, Athletics, and Warriors departures
• Public reporting on the Howard Terminal proposal and Coliseum redevelopment plans
• Engineering references on multi-purpose stadium design and mid-century sports architecture

Inside The Catastrophic Failure of Oakland Coliseum

Oakland just lost every single professional sports team.

The Raiders. The Warriors. The A's.

And it's about to cost them $100 million a year.

For decades, Oakland was a sports town. Three major franchises. One stadium. The Oakland Coliseum was the heart of the city's economy.

Then, one by one, they all left.

The Warriors moved to San Francisco in 2019. The Raiders bolted to Las Vegas in 2020. And in 2024, the A's announced they're heading to Vegas too.
Now the Coliseum sits empty. The surrounding businesses are dying. And the city is hemorrhaging money.

But here's what nobody's talking about.

This wasn't just about losing teams.

This was an economic collapse that's going to take decades to recover from.
And the worst part? Oakland did this to themselves.

They refused to play the stadium game. They wouldn't compete with Vegas and San Francisco on subsidies. They thought they were being fiscally responsible.

Instead, they just signed their own death warrant.

Let's start with how this happened.

The Warriors were the first to leave. They moved across the bay to the Chase Center in San Francisco.

Why? Because San Francisco built them a $1.4 billion privately-funded arena in Mission Bay. State-of-the-art. Waterfront views. Corporate boxes that sell for millions.

Oakland couldn't compete with that.

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A’s slammed for advertising AI-generated Las Vegas ballpark

"When I close my eyes and think 'baseball, ' I literally think the exact opposite of this."

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• A’s release AI-generated Vegas stadium hype video, refuse to discuss it
  
• The A's new Vegas hype video is horrible AI, and they refuse to discuss it
  
• A’s slammed for advertising AI-generated Las Vegas ballpark (YouTube search)

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Originally Posted by TMC

Ex-A's owner rips 'despicable' Giants for team's relocation from Oakland https://trib.al/xCLtMrm

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Former Oakland Athletics co-owner Lew Wolff blamed the San Francisco Giants for the team's relocation in his new memoir, labeling the rival club's refusal to relinquish territorial rights as "despicable" and "shameful". Wolff argued the move was "100 percent due" to the Giants blocking a potential South Bay relocation. Read the full story at New York Post.

In a new memoir, Lew Wolff, the 90-year-old real-estate developer who owned a partial share of the Oakland Athletics for about a decade, pegs the blame for the team’s departure from Oakland not on the A’s themselves, but on the “despicable” behavior of their crosstown rivals, the San Francisco Giants.

Wolff writes in “Moments” that the A’s are no longer in the Bay Area “100 percent due to the nasty, shameful, and continuing opposition of the Giants,” who refused to relent territorial rights to Santa Clara County. That area includes San Jose, the most populous city in the Bay Area, which Wolff’s A’s coveted as a destination for their relocation.

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Originally Posted by TMC

Chapters:

• 0:00 These are 6 comments I see frequently
• 0:49 "Oakland fans should have shown up"
• 7:57 "There was no deal in Oakland"
• 10:16 "The A's will be different in Vegas"
• 12:22 "The A's were Rooted in Philadelphia and Kansas City first..."
• 14:48 "Oakland doesn't deserve an expansion team..."
• 16:49 "Vegas has better sponsor & media opportunities..."

How exactly did Oakland officials fail? Did they?

Oakland did everything they could to keep the A's. Direct public funding was always a no-go in Oakland, so the city worked hard to find federal grants and infrastructure funding (about $500 million) for Howard Terminal. HT would have been a massive $12 billion, 50 acre project on Oakland's waterfront, making John Fisher absurdly rich. The A's and city were about $97 million apart on a Wednesday, with hope that the gap could be closed by the end of the week and an announcement made. Instead, the A's announced Vegas on Wednesday night after the team left town for a road trip.

What makes this completely absurd is that Nevada gave them less money ($400 million) for a more expensive ballpark (need a roof in the desert) and zero ancillary development, as the A's only have a 9 acre plot in Vegas that is owned by someone else.

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[Vital Vegas] “Rumblings have predictably started about progress on the A’s ballpark slowing as available funding is depleted. The $1 billion funding shortfall remains unaddressed. No amount of breathless cheerleading by local journalists can alter that simple reality.”

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Golden State Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob said his unsuccessful bid to buy the San Diego Padres assumed that the entire 2027 MLB season would likely be lost due to labor strife.

Lacob’s group was one of a handful of final bidders in the MLB auction, which was ultimately won by billionaire José E. Feliciano and his wife Kwanza Jones for a league-record $3.9 billion.

Brodie Brazil analyzes recent public comments from Joe Lacob regarding a potential entry into Major League Baseball. The discussion explores the parallels between basketball and baseball business models, specifically focusing on revenue streams and the ongoing shifts in media rights that influence how sports franchises operate in the current landscape.

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The most miserable franchise in sports, is finally starting to win again! Owner John Fisher ran the A's out of Oakland -- but the Athletics remain one of the most miserable franchises in baseball.

Purely Baseball explores the decline of the Athletics, detailing the management choices and facility issues that led to fan dissatisfaction. This documentary chronicles the team's difficult transition away from Oakland, examining the impact of owner John Fisher's strategies on the franchise's legacy and competitive standing.

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FivePoints Vids explores the bizarre history of the Oakland Coliseum, examining its unique design challenges, infamous infrastructure failures, and intense fan experiences. This deep dive uncovers the strange series of events and structural quirks that turned a major multi-purpose stadium into one of the most unconventional venues in professional sports history.

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Originally Posted by TMC

Discussing the San Jose/Oakland MLB relocation saga.

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KCRA 3's Michelle Dapper and Sean Cunningham chat with Carmichael Dave and Jason Ross from Sactown Sports 1140 to talk about the chances of Sacramento being granted a Major League Baseball expansion team, what is being heard as a press conference is expected on May 28 to announce plans, as well as what hurdles stand in the way.