Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob has had a busy week. After the Lacob-owned, San Francisco Bay Area-based WNBA expansion franchise was made official last week, Lacob has announced his interest in purchasing the Oakland Athletics — if current A's owner John Fisher was looking to sell.
Lacob's statement — which came during the WNBA team's expansion press conference and was first reported by The Mercury News — reiterated that he and his ownership group has had interest in buying the A's for a while.
"We've over the years been obviously very interested [in purchasing the A's]," Lacob said. "You all know that I've said it, and if for whatever reason [Fisher] decided it wasn't going to work, sure, we might be interested."
When saying that "if ... it wasn't going to work," Lacob was referring to Fisher's intention to take the A's out of Oakland and relocate them in Las Vegas.
Lacob also made clear that Fisher doesn't appear interested in selling the franchise.
"You have to have someone who wants to sell something to be interested in buying it," Lacob said, "and [Fisher] is very interested in being successful. He's dogged about it, and he's going to Vegas as far as I understand it."
Fisher's desire to move the A's from Oakland to Las Vegas has been met with much backlash by the A's fan base. Of course, Oakland lost its NFL franchise, the Raiders, to Vegas in 2020. In addition, the Warriors — who played their home games directly next to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (where the A's currently play) for 48 years — fled the shared Oakland lot for San Francisco in 2019. So if the A's also leave, Oakland will have lost all three of its professional sports franchises in the span of five years.
It's no wonder why A's fans are upset.
The A's, who finished with MLB's worst record (50-112) this season, have a lease at the Coliseum through 2024 and are hoping to build a stadium in Las Vegas that would open in 2028. If their Las Vegas relocation proposal — which MLB owners are voting on next month — is accepted, then the A's must find somewhere to play their home games between 2024 and 2028.
While the Oakland A's faithful is surely hoping that Lacob's interest to buy their beloved franchise (and keep them in the Bay Area) bears fruit, it still seems like a long shot at the moment. For now, all fans can do is hope that MLB owners turn down Fisher's Las Vegas relocation proposal and that Fisher — who "has been firm that he's not selling in the face of fan discontent" — will then decide to sell the team to Lacob.
Here's to hoping.
