For nearly 40 years, the Oakland Athletics and now Las Vegas Raiders were tenants of the same venue — the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
However, both spent quite a bit of time and effort in recent decades trying to leave the aging and out-of-date stadium. For the Raiders, that culminated in a move to Las Vegas and a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility, Allegiant Stadium, in 2019.
Now, it seems those franchises could reside in the same city, once again. The Athletics announced earlier this week that they purchased land on the Las Vegas Strip to build a new stadium of their own, which is expected to be completed by 2027.
It’s worth noting that the current lease at the Coliseum expires in 2024, so it’s unclear what the team plans to do in the meantime.
Still, with the move to Sin City seeming inevitable, one would think Las Vegas sports fans would be thrilled to land a Major League Baseball team, which would become the city’s third professional franchise.
One Vegas resident, however, was not: Raiders owner Mark Davis.
Davis is not happy that the Athletics are leaving Oakland without a deal after, as he put it, making it “impossible” for the Raiders to build a stadium on the Coliseum site. He didn’t mince words when criticizing the team’s approach in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“I won’t forget what they did to us in Oakland,” he said. “They squatted on a lease for 10 years and made it impossible for us to build on that stadium. They were looking for a stadium. We were looking for a stadium. They didn’t want to build a stadium, and then went ahead and signed a 10-year lease with the city of Oakland and said, ‘We’re the base team.’
“They marketed the team as ‘Rooted in Oakland.’ That’s been their mantra through the whole thing. The slogans they’ve been using have been a slap to the face of the Raiders, and they were trying to win over that type of mentality in the Bay Area. Well all they did was (expletive) the Bay Area. For them to leave Oakland without anything is pretty screwed up because that site that the stadium was on was a good site. We ended up in Las Vegas, which is absolutely fantastic and couldn’t be better, but the A’s never gave us a real good chance to stay up in Oakland.”
While Davis may have some valid points about the A’s making it difficult for the Raiders to remain in the Bay Area, the apparent hypocrisy of a man who moved his team from Oakland to Las Vegas criticizing another franchise for doing the same was not lost on baseball fans.
Objectively speaking, the Raiders ruined the Oakland Coliseum for baseball in the mid 1990s. Call it even and enjoy your separate venues in Las Vegas.
— Vincent Briedis (@VincentBriedis) April 21, 2023
https://t.co/ZgROFrQJ0T pic.twitter.com/qsl16eiS2i
— Derek (@dirkswitz101) April 21, 2023
Very rich coming from the other owner who took a beloved team from Oakland and moved them to Vegas. https://t.co/OUeuxBhE1L
— Howie Manzo (@Howiej23) April 21, 2023
Pot meet kettle https://t.co/Y3dnYQAeD8
— red beard 🏴☠️™️ (@pirate021683) April 21, 2023
This feels rich coming from where it's coming from, but also makes complete sense when you consider that the biggest rivals for any sports team in any city are all the other sports teams in that city https://t.co/88gvXkxkHp
— Empty Seats Galore (@EmptySeatsPics) April 21, 2023
This is pretty rich considering Al Davis got Oakland to ruin that baseball stadium so they would come back from LA. Then they ended up tattling the whole section. https://t.co/TNXKM9hDPj
— The System (@tealtalk) April 21, 2023
And his dad singlehandly ruined the Coliseum. How ironic….. https://t.co/4HL0Jg2NQo
— Faux George McCaskey *Parody* (@FauxMcCaskey) April 21, 2023
Mark Davis basically saying that the A’s ownership cost the city of Oakland its baseball team AND football team. https://t.co/s2JQISPiNM
— Coliseum Sewage (@ColiseumSewage) April 21, 2023
Raiders seem very excited about having A’s back as neighbors again 😂 https://t.co/CrLVsxBCId
— OaklandStadiumWatch (@OakStadiumWatch) April 21, 2023
"Only I get to go to Vegas."https://t.co/pjGxf0Mte7
— Dilan Esper (@dilanesper) April 21, 2023
Says the man who is most guilty of this.
— Landon Whitney (@LandonRWhitney) April 21, 2023
"Hey! Don't steal my thing!" – Mark Davis, probably https://t.co/QHFzm20Bhy
— Gord Randall (@GARandall) April 21, 2023
"Well all they did was f—- the Bay Area.” Boy, what a time to be alive. https://t.co/eax626rbKc
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) April 21, 2023
— Emmanuel (@ebarrera74) April 21, 2023
C’mon… pic.twitter.com/hWoW0xNnDP
— ARood (@AndrewRoodveldt) April 21, 2023
