Joshua Hicklin
Staff Writer
As of Thursday, Sept. 26, the Oakland Athletics played their very last game in the Coliseum. This game was a sold-out home game, the first sold-out game since the 2019 playoffs. The Athletics are leaving the Coliseum in Oakland after this season and will be playing in Sacramento, California until their new stadium in Las Vegas is built, which will be ready no earlier than 2028.
The Athletics have been playing in Oakland at the Coliseum since 1968, where they lost their first game to the Baltimore Orioles 4-1. But their last game, unlike their first, ended in a 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers.
After 57 up and down seasons, the Athletics look for a change of scenery to help their image as a below-average baseball team. They have chosen Las Vegas as their new home, but one issue stands in their way: their stadium will not be ready until the 2028 season at the earliest, if not until the 2029 season. This now means that they need a place to play their 2025-2027 seasons while their new state-of-the-art stadium is built for them, which is why they will be moving to a minor league stadium in Sacramento.
The Athletics final home game in the Coliseum was met with many fans and players in tears as they had to say goodbye to one another. The Athletics have made many memories in this stadium, winning three World Series and seventeen Division Champions. They also had some great players like Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson, and Mark McGuire throughout the years.
To celebrate these wonderful moments, fans from all over the country showed up and created an astonishing sold-out game with 46,889 fans in attendance. Their season average was just over 10,000 fans this year. The Athletics now embark on a new journey in the desert, where they are hoping to have success through their young-based team.