Even with Las Vegas move, there is a bright side for Oakland A’s fans

People who accuse Oakland A’s owner John Fisher of sabotaging his franchise in order to justify a move to Las Vegas should ask themselves one simple question: Why would he bother? Name the last professional sports owner who put a franchise move to a vote of his fellow owners and got voted down. I’ll wait. There have been plenty of owners in all sports with stadium situations far better than what Fisher has in Oakland who nonetheless decided they could get a better deal elsewhere and followed the money, with the blessing of their commissioner and their fellow owners.

So what’s the good news for Oakland A’s fans?

There is some good news for Oakland A’s fans. One is that when the A’s leave for Las Vegas, they will be taking Fisher with them. Las Vegas fans, accustomed to the instant success of the WNBA Aces and the NHL Golden Knights, may find themselves with buyer’s remorse when they find out what sort of owner they have inherited for their baseball team.

The other piece of good news for Oakland fans can be gleaned from perusing a list of all the cities that have lost teams in the past 70 years or so: Boston, St Louis, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, New York, Washington (twice), Kansas City, Seattle, and Montreal. You may notice that if you look at the MLB standings today you will find all of those cities represented (except for Montreal and Brooklyn, which is a borough of New York). Boston, St. Louis, and Philadelphia were two-team cities and the moves there were simply a case of the weaker franchise in the city looking for greener pastures. The other cites got expansion franchises within a few years after losing their teams.

So, if history holds, Oakland fans just need to sit tight, and they will get a replacement team, probably with a better owner and a better stadium.

How long will it take? Well, here’s how long it has taken in the past:

New York — 4 years (1958-1961)

Washington — 0 years (awarded a team as soon as the Senators moved to Minnesota in 1961)

Kansas City — 1 year (1968)

Milwaukee — 3 years (1966-1968)

Seattle — 7 years (1970-1976)

Washington — 34 years (1972-2005)

That’s an average of eight years. It’s skewed, of course, by the time it took Washington to replace the Senators for a second time, which may be informative because it is the most recent on this list. There doesn’t appear to be much sentiment for expansion into Oakland at the moment, but once the more tenuous stadium issues get resolved, that could change. Would Oakland be near the top of that list? It depends on how ready they are when the time comes.

So, be patient, Oakland fans, and be persistent. Why? Because history shows that losing your team doesn’t have to be forever.