'A big part of me is gone'; Veteran Oakland sportswriter Dave Newhouse on the A's exit
OAKLAND --- Fans of the Oakland Athletics were devastated to learn that the team had taken the next step in moving to Las Vegas by signing a binding agreement to buy land in Nevada.
The loss of the last of three major league teams in town hit longtime fans especially hard, having already watched the Warriors and the Raiders leave for other cities.
"Baseball is my sport and the A's are my team," said Joseph Audelo, a season ticket holder for the A's for more than 20 years and the co-founder of the group Save Oakland Sports. "For Oakland I think it's going to be devastating, somewhat for the East Bay in general but defintiely for Oakland it's going to be a huge impact."
The organization hoped to keep not only baseball but basketball and football in Oakland but now must accept that all three will be gone.
Audelo said while he worried about the city and Alameda County doing enough to keep the A's in the beginning, he believes they did their part in the end while negotiations were continuing into 2023.
"We're on our third strike."
Brandon Jones sais he is a lifelong fan who feels like he has lost a family member now that the A's will be heading to Las Vegas. He doesn't think he will be able to root for the team in the same way, comparing it to the relationship you have with an ex-wife. He does still root for the Warriors though since they remained in the Bay Area.
"All I can say it is sad, it's upsetting, it's an abomination against the baseball gods," he told KPIX. "Took my niece to her first A's game when she was three years old, we sat in the box seats with my mother and her, I've been going to A's games my whole life."
Dave Newhouse is a former sports columnist who covered Oakland teams for 60 years. He has authored many books on sports including a new release about teams leaving the city called "Goodbye, Oakland."
"A big part of me is gone, you know, I'm an old man now I'm not the young guy that came here in 1964, I never thought that at this stage of my life I would see Oakland unraveling as a sports town," he said. "It leaves kind of dagger in your heart."
Newhouse said the direction professional sports has taken in recent decades forces cities to give teams a new stadium every 20 years or else they will leave town.
He finds this decision especially disappointing given all the planning that went into the sports complex, where the Coliseum has easy freeway access and a BART station nearby as well as an airport.
"I think Oakland is a town unlike any other in terms of its passion for its teams, but that passion comes from the fans, it doesn't come from ownership," Newhouse said. "Everybody I think knew it was going to happen, that doesn't make the impact of it any less dreadful."
For someone who spent his entire career covering the same teams and became a fan along the way, to see this happen now will be a tough loss for him to ever get past.
"It hurts, it really does hurt," he told KPIX. "It's a feeling I don't think I'll ever get over."
Fans are mixed on whether they'll keep supporting the A's in Vegas or start supporting the San Francisco Giants.
Audelo wonders if there is still any last-minute effort that can save the team with lawmakers getting involved. He worries it's another sign that California cannot keep the businesses and attractions that have made it so special for him and others.
"Sports should be more about the sport not all about the money," he said. "I'd trade the value of all of it for the team to stay."
