Scott Van Pelt has always been one of the most relatable sports anchors working today and shares a solid connection with fans. On Thursday night’s late night SportsCenter, Van Pelt served as voice of the fan once again as he took a minute to blast the Oakland Athletics upcoming move to Las Vegas, which was finally ratified by Major League Baseball this week.
The A’s move to Vegas has been in the works for some time as the team’s support in Oakland has been run into the ground over the years by owner John Fisher. It’s a sad end to a historic tenure that saw many years of success after they moved from Kansas City in 1968. While in Oakland, the Athletics won four World Series and even popularized the concept of Moneyball, an analytical underdog approach that was eventually adopted by pretty much the entire sports world across the globe.
Now, Oakland has lost both the Raiders and soon the A’s to Las Vegas and Van Pelt spoke about how gut-wrenching the A’s lame duck season will be next year while saying that fans shouldn’t put a dime in the pocket of ownership.
Scott Van Pelt shares his lament for Oakland A's fans after the move to Las Vegas became official.
"I can't even imagine how horrendous next year will be for the team and its fans…. ownership has done all it can do to make this positively awful." pic.twitter.com/VT5nUOgLEo
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 17, 2023
“I love Vegas, but man do I hate this for Oakland,” Van Pelt said. “I can’t even imagine how horrendous next year will be for the team and its fans…. ownership has done all it can do to make this positively awful.”
Van Pelt called out A’s ownership for raising ticket prices for the fans’ reverse boycott game, doing little to care for the dilapidated Oakland Coliseum, which has been so neglected that it reads like a building that’s a public health hazard and needs to be condemned, and putting a non-competitive team on the diamond once again.
“Why would a single person, even if they love this team and have their whole life, why would anyone give a single dollar to this ownership after this? I wouldn’t,” Van Pelt proclaimed.
Seeing a team relocated is always an awful experience and as Van Pelt said, A’s fans in Oakland have deserved better for years. One might hope the franchise could give fans something to cheer about in their last season there, but that’s probably too much to ask for ownership that abandoned them a long time ago.