The Cost of Pro Sports: How Oakland Was Abandoned by Its Teams

The Warriors went across the bridge. The Raiders left for Sin City. And now the Athletics seemed destined to follow. Oakland has lost its pro sports franchises, an indication of the harsh realities of the relationship between a franchise, its city, and its fans.

I grew up in the 1990s. During that decade there were a few sports teams logos that seemed to be everywhere and were the definition of cool. The Chicago Bulls, Green Bay Packers, and Pittsburgh Steelers come to mind. But there were two logos that just always felt so iconic, especially when viewing the use of them from a hip hop lens. Those two teams happened to play in the same city at the time. They were the Raiders and Athletics and they both played in Oakland, California.

That is no longer the case of course. The Raiders moved on to Las Vegas, in a new stadium that looks like a place that Darth Vader might call home. The Golden State Warriors after winning 3 of 5 consecutive trips to the NBA Finals decided to cross the bridge to San Francisco and also leave Oakland behind in 2019. All that has remained are the Athletics. A team with the worst record, the lowest attendance, and the second lowest payroll in the MLB. And because of this lack of success on multiple fronts, all indications have pointed to the Athletics joining the Raiders in Las Vegas once…