JOHN FISHER IS RUINING THE A’S:
The Oakland Athletics were once one of the greatest franchises in professional sports, with a dedicated fanbase and rich tradition. However, over the past few years, their organization has been deteriorating. Widely hated owner, John Fisher has refused to invest in the team, and it shows. Between 2022 and 2023, the Athletics have won only 110 out of the 324 games they played. In addition to a poor on-field product, their stadium isn’t up to major league standards. The once-great Oakland Coliseum hasn’t been maintained and has become disgusting.
Instead of making an effort to restore the great tradition of baseball in Oakland, John Fisher decided to pull the plug and relocate his team. The Athletics released plans for a new ballpark on the Las Vegas strip. The renderings of the stadium look like baseball’s version of the Sydney Opera House. However, the stadium won’t be ready until sometime between 2027 and 2029. Meanwhile, the Athletics’ lease of the Oakland Coliseum will be terminated at the conclusion of this season. The team recently announced that from 2025 until the stadium in Las Vegas is ready, they will play their home games in Sutter Health Park in Sacramento. Sutter Health Park is a minor-league park that seats 14,000 fans and is the current home of the Class AAA RiverCats. A major league team playing in a stadium that can only fit 14,000 people is pathetic. The average attendance of an MLB game in 2023 was north of 29,00 fans. Fisher’s lack of investment in his organization has gone too far! How could the MLB allow this?
While the MLB hasn’t taken action, I believe karma will. After doing some research I’ve concluded that the small capacity is about to cost John Fisher a lot of money. Over the next decade, the Athletics' most exciting years will be specifically when they can’t sell more than 14,000 tickets.
THE 2025-2027 A’S MIGHT BE GOOD:
The Oakland Athletics have been one of, if not the worst team in the MLB over the past two years. However, the 2024 Athletics already look a bit better. The team got off to a rough 1W-4L start to the season, just as we expected. Then, out of nowhere, the team won 5 of their next 10 games, like a competent baseball team. The team’s two best hitters are two young guys who will be around for a while. Their 26-year-old catcher Shea Langeliers and their 24-year-old second baseman Zack Gelof have been bright spots in their lineup. In exactly 100 plate appearances, the duo has put up 6 home runs and driven in 12 runs. Langeliers and Gelof will both be with the team for the foreseeable future and should develop into very solid hitters at the top of the lineup. Furthermore, a couple of young arms have started to blossom in the bullpen. Led by the 26-year-old Kyle Muller and the 25-year-old closer Mason Miller, the A’s bullpen is starting to come together.
On top of this slimmer of hope, the Athletics are about to get major reinforcements from their minor league system. 12 of their top 14 prospects are expected to be ready for the big leagues either this year or the next. Capitalized by shortstop Jacob Wilson, the number 63 prospect in all of baseball, the list of players the A’s will bring up is very solid. Between the 8 players on the Athletics in their 20s playing at an average level or better, and the 12 prospects, the Athletics have a decent team in the works.
Since only one of the twelve are top-100 prospects, I don’t expect the Athletics to be World Series Contenders. Nonetheless, they’ll have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs, especially with the new expanded format. The average attendance at playoff games in 2023 was 43,277 people. If the Athletics make the playoffs in Sacramento, they’ll only be able to sell 14,000 tickets to each game. Tickets to MLB playoff games cost up to thousands of dollars. Therefore, if the A’s make the playoffs in Sacramento, the amount of money John Fisher would miss out on would be laughable, possibly over a million dollars per game. All of this is because he refused to invest in his team in Oakland.
THE 2028+ A’S MIGHT BE BAD:
While the next couple of years of Athletics baseball may be fun and exciting, the A’s will eventually return to their old ways. Since John Fisher bought the team in 2005, they’ve been in an endless cycle. First, the team is horrible. Then they develop some good young players and become good for a few years. But once the players become proven and established, instead of giving them the contracts they deserve, Fisher ships them out of town and restarts the cycle. The lows: 2007-2009 (226W-259L, 46% wins), 2015-2017 (212W-274L, 43% wins), and 2022-2023 (110W-214L, 34% wins).
The highs: 2012-2014 (278W-208L, 57% wins), and 2018-2021 (316W-230L 58% wins).
In the same way players like Josh Donaldson, Sonny Gray, Matt Chapman, and Matt Olson were developed into stardom by the Athletics and traded away, the new guys will come and go as well. Shea Langeliers, Zack Gelof, Mason Miller, Kyle Muller, Jacob Wilson and plenty more players will develop into stars in Sacramento, before being traded away when the team moves to Las Vegas. The Athletics will have a window of success that will last three to four years, but it’ll be wasted in Sutter Health Park. Not only is the capacity of the ballpark an issue, but the fanbase as well. No fan will invest money in jerseys and tickets from the team if they know the team will be leaving shortly. Between ticket sales and merchandise sales, the loss will be colossal. During their most recent high point, the Athletics’ value grew by 220 million dollars in 3 years. The lease of the Coliseum for three years would cost approximately 35 million dollars. Therefore, if my analysis is correct and the Athletics have a window of success between 2025 and 2027, John Fisher will lose out on insane amounts of money. It’s hard to put an exact number on it, but I believe it could be north of 100 million dollars.
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