Oakland A fans woke up to an email from the team in our inboxes on Friday morning. It was a poll that asked what we thought of moving to a new ballpark in Las Vegas.
I can’t speak for all of the fans, but I suppose the general reaction would be … no thanks?
Third-party market research can seem cold and insensitive at times, and this survey could be inducted into the Hall of Fame in that regard. Would I have positive or negative feelings if my team was 500 miles away? Goodness, if I had to choose I would say negative. Would I play games at a new Las Vegas ballpark? I don’t think so. Why not? Golly, probably because it’s 500 miles away and I wouldn’t roll that far.
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How did we get here? Quick refresher.
With their Howard Terminal project going through a painfully slow process, the A’s threatened to move to Las Vegas earlier this year if a deal isn’t closed in Oakland soon. Maybe it’s just a negotiating ploy to gain influence over the local government, or maybe they have a real interest in moving, but either way they’ve been following the conversation with early action through visits to the desert.
Maybe it works. When the team first threatened in May, they wanted a vote in Oakland City Council in July and eventually got it. Then when they needed Alameda County approval in October, some new quotes were released about Vegas and a few weeks later they got their vote from the county. While we can’t assume direct causation, it’s not hard to believe that the hardball tactics might have helped achieve these elusive milestones.
However, the Gambit comes at a cost. The chess pieces in this company chess game are we the fans, who constantly have to listen to the talk about saying goodbye to our team. Even if you think this is all just a ruse to spur government action, and that your real intent is to stay here, it still sucks to see our hearts whirl around so carelessly. If they make a direct threat to move, they have to make it to us too, not long after they stubbornly promised to be Rooted In Oakland.
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That brings us to Friday morning. The email is:
A’s fan,
As you may know, the Oakland A’s are not just preparing a new waterfront ballpark in Oakland, they’re in the preliminary stages evaluating the potential of moving the team to Las Vegas. As part of the planning process, the A’s hired a third party company to conduct a market study to determine demand for a new Las Vegas ballpark.
Your participation in this survey is a very important part of this process. The survey will measure your thoughts and opinions about the team, your interest in playing games, and key stadium design elements for a Las Vegas stadium.
Please click the button below to go to this 10 minute survey.
Your continued interest and support from the A’s are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your participation.
The survey asked for some demographic information and then asked for opinions about moving to Vegas. A similar poll was sent out to Vegas residents earlier this week, and that makes sense – before you consider starting a sports franchise anywhere, check to see if residents want to become customers.
But to ask these questions to current fans, who would lose their team? It felt really bizarre, somewhere between a waste of time and a slap in the face.
“Overall, how do you feel about a possible relocation of Athletics to Las Vegas and the construction of a new, state-of-the-art ballpark?”
- Very positive
- Somewhat positive
- Neutral
- Somewhat negative
- Very negative
I chose “very negative”. When asked for an explanation, I was stopped for a few minutes. How would you explain to a robot that you don’t like to be sad? Because i’m sad to be sad? I wrote the following:
Why would I have a negative feeling if my favorite sports team moves to another state? I’ve spent nearly four decades fighting for them, and a team’s geographic location is an integral part of their identity. It would be an incredible betrayal for the A’s to abandon us, and being betrayed and abandoned makes me feel negative.
It got even stranger when I asked if Vegas Stadium should be on or off the Strip, and if I would prefer it to be an open-air stadium with a retractable roof or a domed stadium. There was no “I don’t give a fuck” option.
Would I (or my company) be interested in purchasing tickets to a new Vegas park? Why not? Because of course I live in the Bay Area. Would the additional visits from AL West rivals affect my chances of participating in Vegas games? I don’t think you understand the problem at hand. Which mode of transport would I most likely use to get there? I chose “Other” because the options didn’t include a wormhole that would take me to a dimension where all of this makes sense.
Towards the end it shifted the aisle from the stadium to the team itself.
“What is your take on the Athletics franchise as it exists today?”
- Very positive
- Somewhat positive
- Neutral
- Somewhat negative
- Very negative
I chose “Something Positive” which felt generous. It asked why. My answer:
I love the players and the front office and the team on the field. But the owner makes it impossible to respect the organization. John Fisher has become such a venomous presence that it overshadows everything great about the A’s. Whether it’s firing employees during a pandemic, refusing to speak publicly on an issue, saving on players’ payrolls, or not having a stadium built for 15 years, his relentless incompetence is so routine become that they now threaten the existence of the team. The indifference he shows to his paying customers is the defining aspect of A’s team brand, despite the consistently amazing efforts of his front office and players.
It’s understandable for companies to do market research, but it’s hard to imagine what the value here was. Was it necessary to do a survey to determine that fans don’t want their team to leave and that customers in a local market won’t travel to a new venue if it’s 800 miles away? Are there any ambiguities in previous precedents in other cities where this happened or in the “stay” signs proudly posted throughout the Colosseum?
The whole exercise was an insult to a fan base whose patience has already run out. It was the latest belly blow from the organization that brought us the team president in May Dave Kaval Tweeted about a Golden Knights ice hockey game in Las Vegas during a game of an A. If only they’d sent a poll to gauge interest in a 2022 ticket price hike at the Colosseum before making that decision.
