Opinion

Even The Oakland A’s Are Leaving California

   DailyWire.com
MONTEREY PARK, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 22: California Governor Gavin Newsom stands near the scene of a deadly mass shooting at a ballroom dance studio on January 23, 2023 in Monterey Park, California.
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)

It looks like even the Oakland Athletics are joining the mass exodus of Californians fleeing for a better life.

On Thursday, one of the MLB’s most iconic franchises announced that it has purchased land in Las Vegas, Nevada, after searching and failing to find land for a new stadium in Oakland.  Now, the A’s will be building a gigantic $1.5 billion, 35,000-seat stadium in Sin City for the ball club, according to ESPN.

“For a while, we were on parallel paths [with Oakland], but we have turned our attention to Las Vegas to get a deal here for the A’s and find a long-term home,” team president Dave Kaval told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Oakland has been a great home for us for over 50 years, but we really need this 20-year saga completed and we feel there’s a path here in Southern Nevada to do that.”

The move has the full support of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, but Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao isn’t too pleased about it. The city has now officially ended talks with the team to keep them in the city.

“I am deeply disappointed that the A’s have chosen not to negotiate with the City of Oakland as a true partner, in a way that respects the long relationship between the fans, the City and the team,” Thao said in a statement given to ESPN. “Yet, it is clear to me that the A’s have no intention of staying in Oakland and have simply been using this process to try to extract a better deal out of Las Vegas. I am not interested in continuing to play that game — the fans and our residents deserve better.”

Of course, Oakland residents would likely turn around and tell Thao that they deserve better from the city government, too, particularly from the district attorneys’ office. George Soros-backed prosecutor Pamela Price is implementing the kind of policies that have contributed in large part to the skyrocketing crime that we see around the country. For example, Price attempted to grant a plea deal that would have cut a triple murder sentence to just 15 years, instead of the 75-to-life sentence typically doled out for those types of heinous acts, Fox News reported.

Thankfully that deal was blocked by a judge, but as pointed out by City-Journal this week, Price reacted by rebuking the judge in that case on social media. City-Journal also noted that Oakland residents already organizing for a recall of Price, who only entered office just a few short months ago.

While the A’s didn’t specifically mention state policy as a contributing factor for their pending departure, one can’t help but imagine that California’s oppressive business climate and general governance insanity under Governor Gavin Newsom (D) may have contributed to the decision to go to income-tax-free Nevada.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP

The team certainly wouldn’t be alone in closing up and shop and leaving, if that had any role. A recent report indicates that 500,000 Californians left the state between April 2020 and July 2022. Since 2018, Nearly 118,000 Californians moved to Nevada according to one data.

And unfortunately for the beleaguered state, it looks like the Oakland Athletics are going, going gone as well.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Got a tip worth investigating?

Your information could be the missing piece to an important story. Submit your tip today and make a difference.

Submit Tip
The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  Even The Oakland A’s Are Leaving California