It was introduced this week that the Athletics, in the end, had come to an settlement with a bunch of politicians to construct a brand new stadium for the membership, which has been caught in an outdated facility for years.
If that sounds acquainted, it’s as a result of the identical scenario, with the identical reasoning, has been enjoying out for greater than 100 years. The Athletics, a vagabond franchise that initially hailed from Philadelphia earlier than transferring to Kansas Metropolis, Mo., after which Oakland, Calif., have by no means appeared content material with the place they had been.
From a stadium restricted by prohibitive blue legal guidelines in Philadelphia to a unexpectedly rebuilt minor league park in Kansas Metropolis to a Brutalist concrete palace in Oakland, they’ve all the time had their eye out for one thing higher. They explored Denver, they poked at San Jose and Fremont, they’d a number of websites picked out in Oakland. However now, in an agreement announced by Nevada’s governor that also faces a number of hurdles, they wish to construct a stadium on the Las Vegas Strip that might theoretically be prepared for the 2027 season.
It’s a scenario inflicting optimism in Vegas, heartbreak in Oakland and undoubtedly some eye-rolling all over the place else. The A’s, with 9 World Sequence titles and 17 100-loss seasons, have seemingly been on the verge of a transfer for many of their existence.
“It’s potential {that a} relocation vote might occur as early as June,” Commissioner Rob Manfred informed reporters on Thursday when requested concerning the Las Vegas deal. However in line with how far the plan has to go, and the way a lot it has already changed in the previous couple of weeks, he cited a earlier location for the stadium, reasonably than the workforce’s present plan to construct on the positioning of the Tropicana Las Vegas.
The workforce’s status for restlessness is earned. The Athletics are tied with the Braves (Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta) and the Orioles (Milwaukee, St. Louis and Baltimore) for essentially the most traveled franchises. However in a wierd sufficient quirk, the A’s have had solely 4 stadiums of their 123 seasons of play — fewer than all however a handful of groups.
Sadly for the A’s, none of their 4 parks would get confused for a basic like Boston’s Fenway Park or a contemporary marvel just like the Rangers’ Globe Life Area.
A have a look at these 4 stadiums makes it clear why A’s have had a perpetual wandering eye.
Columbia Park
1901-1908 | World Sequence titles: 0
High Participant: Eddie Plank, P, 51 wins above substitute
Constructed for a brand new workforce in a brand new league by which nobody knew what to anticipate, Columbia Park was instantly too small. It had a capability of 9,500, though extra folks watched from close by rooftops. The workforce tinkered with it, however even at its peak it held fewer than 14,000 followers.
The stadium’s most notable second, a minimum of when it comes to absurdity, got here within the 1905 World Sequence when Connie Mack’s Athletics and John McGraw’s New York Giants conspired to pretend a rainout to keep away from enjoying to a sparse crowd.
As recounted in The New York Times, Recreation 3 was scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 11, however with a crowd of round 4,000 folks, and pay for the golf equipment being fully depending on ticket gross sales, the managers agreed to fake {that a} gentle drizzle earlier within the day had made the sector unplayable. Sammy Strang, a utility participant for the Giants, helped promote the ruse, with The Instances saying, “A typical pantomime was that of Strang, who jumped underneath the stand, and, trying to the sky, stretched forth his arms and beckoned to the moisture to let itself fall.”
The gambit labored. The groups performed Recreation 3 the subsequent day, with a reported crowd of 10,991 that just about tripled Wednesday’s gate.
The Athletics performed three extra forgettable years at Columbia and inside a decade of them leaving, the stadium was torn down and changed with housing.
Shibe Park
1909-1954 | World Sequence titles: 5
High Participant: Lefty Grove, P, 68.4 WAR
Hoping to capitalize on his workforce’s reputation, Charles Shibe, the first proprietor of the Athletics, constructed baseball’s first steel-and-concrete stadium, beating Fenway Park by three seasons and Wrigley Area by 5. The choice paid off, with The Instances reporting that Philadelphia’s first sport of the 1909 season was attended by a record 30,162 fans. The Athletics led the A.L. in attendance for 3 straight years.
Shibe Park was house to some nice groups, with the Athletics successful 9 pennants and 5 World Sequence titles there, however possession routinely cited the state’s restrictive blue laws for limiting their capability to play house video games on Sundays, placing the membership at a drawback to different groups. The workforce, determined to boost cash, additionally alienated followers by blocking the close by rooftop bleachers with a 34-foot wall that was nicknamed Connie Mack’s Spite Fence.
As Shibe Park began to put on down, the Athletics by no means recovered from promoting off the 1930 champions. They completed in final or second-to-last place 14 occasions in a 20-season interval from 1935 to 1954, drawing solely 304,666 followers of their final season in Philadelphia — fewer than they’d in all however one in all their seasons at tiny Columbia Park.
A fireplace was set within the stadium in 1971, destroying most of it. “Fireplace ravaged Connie Mack Stadium the opposite day,” Arthur Daley wrote in The Times, referring to Shibe underneath the title it utilized in its later years. “If nothing else, it lit some nice recollections.”
The stadium’s well-known nook tower, with Mack’s authentic workplace, was demolished in 1976. A church constructed a sanctuary on the positioning.
Municipal Stadium
1955-1967 | World Sequence titles: 0
High Participant: Ed Charles, third base, 14.4 WAR
George E. Muehlebach deserves some credit score for predicting that the stadium he inbuilt 1923 for his minor league workforce, the Kansas Metropolis Blues, may in the future be the house of a significant league squad. In truth, it was all alongside: the Kansas Metropolis Monarchs of the Negro leagues had been tenants of the stadium. However together with his eyes on a Nationwide or American League workforce, Muehlebach designed the stadium with massive footings to permit for growth. Sadly, when Arnold Johnson bought the Athletics and moved the workforce to Kansas Metropolis in 1955, it was discovered that the footings, and practically the whole stadium, wanted to be rebuilt.
Price overruns resulted within the stadium’s capability being far decrease than anticipated, and the park was barely prepared when the season started.
The A’s completed sixth of their first season in Missouri and wouldn’t get that prime once more, ending their 13-season run there with a file of 829-1,224 and no postseason appearances. Attendance at Municipal Stadium was within the A.L.’s backside three in all however one of many workforce’s seasons.
It wasn’t all unhealthy. Charles O. Finley purchased the workforce in 1960 and, amid numerous shenanigans, he presided over an unbelievable accumulation of expertise, with the Corridor of Famers Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter starting their careers in Kansas Metropolis.
The stadium was demolished in 1976. A backyard with a plaque sits on the previous web site, surrounded by a housing improvement.
Oakland Coliseum
1968-Current | World Sequence titles: 4
High Participant: Rickey Henderson, left area, 72.7 WAR
Constructed within the multipurpose stadium craze of the Sixties, Oakland Coliseum was quirky from the beginning. Its round design gave the Coliseum by far essentially the most foul territory in baseball. It was dug right into a hill, placing its enjoying floor 21 ft beneath sea stage. Feral cats, leaking sewage and a possum that lives in one of many tv cubicles wouldn’t come alongside till later.
The A’s had a number of eras of dominance within the park, successful three straight World Sequence titles within the Nineteen Seventies and going to the Sequence in three straight years from 1988 to 1990 (successful as soon as), however attendance different wildly, dropping as little as 306,763 (3,787 per sport) in 1979 and reaching a peak of two.9 million (35,805 per sport) in 1990.
Unpopular adjustments to the stadium on the behest of the Oakland Raiders of the N.F.L. made a boring stadium incongruous and ugly. The upkeep of the park grew to become unmanageable, and the workforce’s numerous homeowners constantly complained concerning the lack of facilities.
An aggressive sell-off of promising gamers over the previous couple of years, mixed with the workforce’s apparent desire for Las Vegas, resulted in a huge fan backlash. The workforce averaged only 9,849 fans a game last season, and issues are even worse this 12 months, at 8,695. It doesn’t assist that the workforce, at 10-42 by way of Thursday, was on tempo for the worst file of baseball’s trendy period.
With the Raiders already having left for Las Vegas, the Golden State Warriors having moved to San Francisco and the A’s lease expiring after the 2024 season, the Coliseum advanced might quickly don’t have any everlasting tenants. It will then very seemingly be consigned to an identical destiny because the A’s three earlier parks, none of which left greater than a plaque to recollect them by.