Being an A's Fan Sucks Right Now
In just a few hours we should be seeing a joint statement from the Oakland A's, state officials, legislative leaders, and Clark County, which isn't a good sign for baseball in Oakland. Reports out there are saying that the financing is pretty close to what the A's were asking for, but we won't know the details of what's in the bill until the bill is presented.
But we're not going to talk about the what-ifs right now. Many lifelong A's fans are having similar feelings to the ones they had when the A's announced that they'd shifted their focus solely to Las Vegas back on April 19. Feelings of hopelessness, despair, and even loss.
Yes, this is just a sports team, but for the fans that have stuck around through everything that ownership has put them through, being an A's fan is a part of their identity. Going to A's games or watching them on tv is their chosen way to unwind after a tough week at work, or to share a part of their childhood with their own kids.
Now, because A's owner John Fisher is dead-set on increasing his own wealth while trying to do so on the cheap, those outings, those memories, that sense of identity are all about to be packed into a U-Haul.
Some fans have been focused on any news that comes out of Las Vegas and have found glimmers of hope along the way. Anything that puts off this sense of dread for even a few days longer. But on Tuesday night when it was announced that the funding for the Las Vegas ballpark project would likely be good enough to get a deal done in Nevada, a lot of that hope for a lot of A's fans went out the window.
Baseball fans that aren't losing their teams to a different city are filling up comments sections across the internet with their advice for how to go on, but this is a journey that everyone has to go on for themselves. Not every A's fan will become a Giants fan, but there will be a few. Not every A's fan will choose a new team, but there will be some that do. Not every fan wants to still watch baseball, but some will. A handful of fans may even follow the A's to Las Vegas. This is an individual journey and there are no wrong answers.
John Fisher has taken this community that has been built (and torn down) since 1968 and has fragmented it. A lot of us have been ushered into A's fandom through our families. We have all welcomed new family members over the years, and have said goodbye to loved ones, but the A's, and the Coliseum, were always there.
That continuity and that connection from our familial past, to our present, and into our futures, is being severed.
But at least John Fisher will increase the value of the team by finally delivering a ballpark to the franchise before he sells the team in a few years.