Is a sports franchise a public good or a capitalistic pursuit?
Next week, tens of thousands of A’s fans will pass under barbed-wire fencing and walk up the concrete concourses that lead to the Coliseum—for a final time. After a multidecade failed effort to build a new stadium in Oakland, team owner John Fisher, a Gap heir, is planning to move the A’s 80 miles to Sacramento for a few years and then permanently out of California (to Las Vegas, sigh).
In the decade-plus that I’ve known the Bay, I’ve been to dozens of A’s games at the Coliseum, and I went a few weeks ago when I was back in town. I sat behind home plate for just about the price of a few ballpark beers. The next day, I walked past the Warriors’ new arena in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood. (The OpenAI and Uber offices are nearby.) It’s a clean, convenient part of town, if a little soulless.
Meanwhile, the A’s have come to epitomize an age-old, painful question: Is a sports franchise a public good or a capitalistic pursuit? Wally Haas, the A’s former owner, said recently it should be a public good: The A’s should be run as an “important community asset,” not like “just owning another business.” Fisher has become an East Bay villain for making it more about money.
sfchronicle.com/sports/at..
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