Athletics Drop Oakland from Name, Announce Brand Guidelines for Sacramento Move

Joseph Zucker@@JosephZuckerFeatured Columnist IVNovember 4, 2024

Steph Chambers/Getty Images

The Athletics are a team without a city for the time being, at least in how they’re referenced.

The MLB franchise announced Monday it has removed Oakland from its name and will simply be the “Athletics.” It appears the A’s are forgoing any mention of their temporary home of Sacramento, California. They’re also amending their primary logo to be an all-green version of the A’s design.

John Shea @JohnSheaHeyThe A’s officially are no longer the Oakland A’s. They say they are simply the Athletics. But in fact they are now the Sacramento A’s. They just seem too embarrassed to call themselves that. They should be Sacramento proud. Very odd. pic.twitter.com/83uXmbigYQ

Jason Burke @ByJasonBThis is the Athletics new primary logo, per the team. The Club’s primary wordmark will remain unchanged from the green Athletics script. pic.twitter.com/u8PWwC6Toh

This is yet another oddity of the Athletics’ eventual relocation to Las Vegas.

Ownership announced its intention of moving to Sin City without firm plans for a new stadium in place. And since that venue isn’t scheduled to open until 2028, the A’s were stuck trying to find a stopgap because remaining in Oakland wasn’t tenable after they burned so much goodwill.

Mick Akers @mickakersUpdated A’s Las Vegas ballpark renderings. #vegas #athletics #mlb pic.twitter.com/zCdO6PXqUK

As a result, the Athletics will be stationed in Sutter Health Park, home to the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. Renovations are already underway to ensure the stadium is up to MLB standards.

There’s no question that officially referring to this franchise as the “Sacramento Athletics” would be a little weird when everybody knows this is a short-term marriage. The A’s would also have to spend a lot of money on branding and merchandise that has a clear expiration date.

But that’s the bind the A’s created for themselves.

Omitting Sacramento from any official designation for the team feels unnecessarily petty, especially since the Athletics needed Sacramento much more than the city needed the Athletics. Municipalities weren’t tripping over themselves to court principal owner John Fisher.

And this is what Sacramento is getting for stepping up to the plate.

Casey Pratt @CaseyAPrattA fact I kindly pointed out to Vivek the day they announced the deal. After everything the Kings/Sacramento did to bail out the A’s… They won’t even acknowledge the city. https://t.co/bM3QOUcbWD

Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterraJohn Fisher may as well have issued a press release saying, “hi, we’ll squat in your city for a few years and we’ll take your people’s money, but we’ll not honor it at all in any formal way nor acknowledge its major league status, even if it’s temporary.”

When Hurricane Katrina dislodged the then-New Orleans Hornets from their home in the Big Easy and moved them to Oklahoma City, the Hornets tried to make the best of it and didn’t shy away from embracing Oklahoma’s capital city.

The A’s are taking the opposite approach and preferring to have no geographic affiliation whatsoever. This doesn’t exactly set a great tone for how the next few years will go until the Vegas stadium is built.