Tag / Oakland Coliseum

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Heading To Vegas… Via Sacramento

Last November, MLB owners approved the relocation of the A’s from Oakland to Las Vegas, where the team hopes to have a stadium built by the 2028 season.  A fine plan all around, except that the team’s current lease in Oakland expires after this season, leaving them in a bit of a bind for the 2025-2027 seasons.  After failing to reach a deal with Oakland for an extension, the Sacramento Kings announced today that the A’s will play the next three seasons in Sacramento.

Sutter Health Park, the current home of the Sacramento River Cats of the Pacific Coast League, will house the A’s for through the 2027 season, with an option for 2028.  The River Cats are expected to continue to use the stadium as well, which I’m sure will cause no scheduling issues whatsoever.

The move will end the team’s stay in Oakland at 57 seasons, after previously calling Philadelphia and Kansas City home.  Assuming they ever make it to Vegas, and that seems less likely now than it did in November, the A’s will become the first franchise to have played in five different municipalities while using the same name.  On a personal note, removing Oakland Coliseum from my active stadium count means I would now have eleven parks to get to in order to finish off the set.  I’ve made two trips to the stadium once known as Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, first in 1999 and again in 2008, seeing the Tigers and Orioles respectively.

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Heading To Vegas

Earlier today, MLB owners, in a unanimous vote, approved the relocation of the A’s from Oakland to Las Vegas.  Earlier this year, the team signed a binding agreement to purchase 49 acres of land off the strip in Las Vegas, where they now hope to have a stadium built by and ready by the 2028 season.

However, that puts the team in a bit of a bind for the 2025-2027 seasons.  The team’s current lease in Oakland expires after next season.  Nothing has been decided as of yet, but rumors have them splitting time between the existing Triple A stadium in Las Vegas and/or Sacramento, across the bay at Oracle Park, and the Coliseum.  The city of Oakland says they are open to the team continuing to play at the Coliseum, as long as certain conditions are met.  What those conditions are remain to be seen, but, in the past, the mayor has asked that that A’s team name and history remain in Oakland for a future expansion team.

Assuming the team name remains the same, the A’s will become the first franchise to have played in four different municipalities while using the same name, starting in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City, Oakland, and now Las Vegas.  On a personal note, removing Oakland Coliseum from my active stadium count means I would now have eleven parks to get to in order to finish off the set.  I’ve made two trips to the stadium once known as Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, first in 1999 and again in 2008, seeing the Tigers and Orioles respectively.

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30 For 30 – See One Of The Seven Wonders Of The World

The fine folks at away.com have come up with a list of 30 Things Every Traveler Must Do Before They’re 30.  Of those 30, I’ve managed to accomplish 12 of them, or roughly 40% of them, some of which was even before I turned 30.  We start with #2 on their list, see one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  They open it up to more than just the original seven wonders of the ancient world, which is good, because who has seen those?  So, for the sake of this post, we will concentrate on the wonders of the modern world and the not so exciting story of the first, and so far only, time that I saw the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA.

In the fall of 1999, I took my first trip to the Bay Area to visit my old friend Scott, who had moved there after college for an exciting opportunity with the chip-maker known as AMD.  While there, we took trips to both Candlestick Park in San Francisco and whatever name the Oakland Coliseum was using at the time.  One of those trips took us across the fabled Golden Gate Bridge.

There you go.  As I said, nothing exciting about the story.  But, a story none the less.