San Francisco State University history lecturer Mark Sigmon was shocked as an Oakland Athletics fan when the team announced its move away from the city that’s been its home since 1968.
“I felt an enormous sense of betrayal,” Sigmon said.
Oakland baseball is in a less-than-ideal position right now. The Athletics played their final game at the Oakland Coliseum on Sept. 26 against the Texas Rangers, and the team is now officially kickstarting its temporary move to Sacramento before they make Las Vegas their new home in 2028.
This has left many Athletics fans having to make a complicated decision on what their next move is in terms of watching baseball.
“I’ll still watch baseball because it’s that sport in between basketball and football,” said Andre Grio, an Athletics fan at SFSU. “I like going for the local teams so I’m just gonna switch over to the Giants.”
Grio attended the final home game for the Athletics and said the energy of the crowd and the atmosphere made it feel distinct from any other baseball game he has been to. Although Grio and many other A’s fans will be switching over to other teams or watching as a neutral, some fans will still choose to support the Athletics.
“I’m an A’s fan until I die, I got the merch, I can’t let it go,” said Angela Lockett, another Athletics fan at SFSU. “But am I gonna be actively watching the A’s? Probably not.”
Whether they continue to get the same amount of eyes on television or not, the Athletics will play their next three seasons at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. The park is home to the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, who are affiliated with the San Francisco Giants.
“I don’t see how this temporary move to Sacramento is going to work,” Sigmon said. “We just got through a heat wave and it’s an inadequate facility, and I don’t think the Player’s Association and the other owners should go along with it.”
Beyond the temporary move to Sacramento, there is still a lot of work to be done on the new ballpark in Las Vegas that is intended to be the next home for the Athletics.
“I’m not 100% convinced that the A’s will be playing in Las Vegas with John Fisher as the owner,” Sigmon said. “I think John Fisher is just playing out the string and he’s going to sell the team.”
Sigmon said the best-case scenario in his opinion is if Oakland is awarded an expansion team if Fisher moves his team to Las Vegas. Fisher’s team would get a new name, while Oakland’s new expansion team would get to keep the Athletics name and start fresh with a new roster of players and a new owner.
“I don’t think that’s a probability, but that’s what I would want to see happen,” Sigmon said.
Sigmon is not the only instructor at SFSU who follows baseball and has doubts about whether this deal will actually go through. Political science professor Whitney Taylor shares the same level of skepticism.
“The teacher’s union in Vegas put up a pretty significant fight against that stadium deal because state money would go to the stadium rather than to teachers and to kids in Nevada getting a good education,” Taylor said. “It seems more likely that they’ll end up in Vegas than anywhere else but it’s not a done deal.”
Sigmon teaches a class on the history of baseball, which allows him to share his deep knowledge of the game with SFSU students. He is retiring after Spring 2025, so that semester will be the last time he will teach it. He is going to continue to watch baseball closely, specifically following the San Francisco Giants and the Boston Red Sox, but only as a neutral fan.
“I’ll return to supporting the A’s as soon as Fisher sells,” Sigmon said. “I will join in the parade and dedicate the statue to the hero that buys the Oakland A’s.”
