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Count Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Joe Davis among those people who are disgusted by what’s happening with the Oakland A’s.
A’s ownership, led by businessman John Fisher, have already 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 played in minor league stadium with a capacity of 14,000 fans, which, if based on the attendance this year in Oakland, will still only 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 – a dinosaur of a stadium with little in the way of amenities.
Repeated attempts to reach a deal to build a new stadium in the Bay Area have gone nowhere, however.
That being said, everyone from the Oakland mayor and Reggie Jackson to Trevor May and Bryce Harper has ripped A’s ownership for how the move has been handled.
On Sunday, Joe Davis joined the chorus during Sunday’s Dodgers-Athletics game broadcast.
“Dodgers say good bye to the Oakland Coliseum today. Would like to do so on the heels of a victory. Boy, it’s hard 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 as the cheapest seats will reportedly cost $104.20.