Thread by @jamesvenes

Bud Selig was on record as thinking the #Athletics moving to Oakland was a mistake, because it somehow "hurt" the #Giants. That's silly.

The SF/Oakland/Berkeley metropolitan area is 13th-largest in the USA. Add in the South Bay, which also has fans, and it'd be 6th-largest.

The SF Bay Area is in no way a one-team market. The #Giants didn't have any right to be the only one just because "we were here first!"

Keep in mind they almost moved to another state twice, first.

Remember it was the #Athletics who offered South Bay rights to let them stay.

Also note that Selig undoubtedly helped his frat brother Lew Wolff get in as part of the #Athletics front office.

Say what you will about their seriousness, but they had multiple stadium sites they tried to make progress on, including Fremont and San Jose.

But, lo and behold, the #Giants didn't want the #Athletics to build in San Jose. It would hurt them! The South Bay was their territory!

Just ignore the fact the A's did the Giants a solid with that, and now we're finding out what some of us have already had an idea about.

What idea? That part of the #Athletics giving up their stake in the South Bay was contingent upon the #Giants building a new ballpark there.

So what happened? They built near downtown San Francisco...and the South Bay rights situation was never looked at again. Convenient.

For a while, the #Athletics and #Giants had similar attendance figures. During the late 80s and early 90s, the A's were outdrawing the Giants. They had great teams and the Haas family was willing to spend on their rosters. Fans showed up. Funny how that works.

Steve Schott and Ken Hoffman followed the Haas family as #Athletics owners, and while they had some great teams - and good attendance - the Coliseum was gradually falling lower down the list as a preferred place to play in. The #Giants got their new place. So did many others.

Along the way, #Athletics ownership stopped spending on their best players. Eric Chavez remains the last player they really paid to keep. They traded numerous stars. We were told "it's about the name on the front of the jersey, not the back."

The #Athletics front office began conditioning fans to accept that they would not be keeping their best players because they couldn't afford to, because the Coliseum was a dump.

Enter John Fisher.

Oh, here and there the #Athletics have still been good, but especially under Fisher, the team has become cheaper than ever. Over time, the Fisher ownership group has slowly run the team into the ground.

A few years ago, Dave Kaval was the rah-rah guy #Athletics fans thought we needed to help spearhead the quest to finally get a nice, new place in Oakland.

They had some fan-friendly ticket programs. Attendance was still solid, if lower overall.

Then, covid-19 hit. Baseball went a year and change with no crowds. When crowds were allowed back to games, something changed with the #Athletics, who were pushing Howard Terminal hard.

The Howard Terminal site is not without flaws. It's long been known as a contaminated site that would require loads of money for cleanup alone, long before any shovels hit dirt. Gotta clean that dirt up first.

But the #Athletics stopped being fan-friendly. They raised prices. They cut services. They undercut the value of being a Season Ticket Holder.

They continued to trade their best players, often in deals that have not panned out well. They've pushed fans away.

All the while, it's been "Neither the Coliseum nor the Coliseum site is viable. We need this site. We need money from so-and-so. Blah blah blah."

Unsurprisingly, #Athletics fans stopped giving the team their money. The value wasn't there. Now it's being used against the fans.

Amazingly enough, a lot of progress on Howard Terminal was happening. Of all the #Athletics stadium site projects, it got further along than the rest.

Instead of crossing the finish line, Fisher and Kaval have pulled the rug out, pushing hard for Las Vegas after all. That's BS.

It's clear to see the #Athletics have no tangible plan for a Las Vegas site. They don't even have any renderings, yet they're still trying to dip their fingers into the coffers of others so they won't have to pay as much.

Cheap, cheap, cheap.

The bigger question hanging over all this might just be how complicit people like Bud Selig then and Rob Manfred now have been in keeping the #Athletics down in order to make for a better excuse to move them out of Oakland.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

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