The Raiders, likewise, want to see the Coliseum destroyed, but unlike Wolff, Raiders owner Mark Davis has said he wants to remain in Oakland. Still, the team’s lease with the Coliseum expires at the end of this year, and though Davis wants a new stadium nearby, he also looks 400 miles south and sees Los Angeles, a city with nearly 10 times as many people and zero NFL teams. “I’m like a pinch hitter in the bottom of the ninth,” Quan tells the crowd. Previous mayors, she says, could have helped the Raiders make a deal for a new stadium, but they didn’t. Now, time has almost run out.
And then there are the Warriors. The only team that doesn’t even claim Oakland in its name — “Most people around the country don’t even know where ‘Golden State’ is,” says Dobbins — is also eager for a new home. Owner Joe Lacob looks across the San Francisco Bay and sees a world-class city with plenty of basketball tradition but no basketball team, and he envisions a waterfront arena and high-priced free agents and courtside season tickets for the tech industry’s newly rich. That move is a done deal, according to popular wisdom. But not according to Quan. “The Warriors will be here as long as I’m mayor,” she says. “And I expect to win a second term.”
At this, they all clap. Moments later Quan’s husband asks how many in the room are Oakland voters. And in a moment that says at least something about the fight to keep Oakland’s sports, only four people raise their hands.
Here’s what you’ve got to understand,” Maurice Greer says, but before he continues he turns and looks away. We’re in the left-field bleachers at the Coliseum. The A’s are losing to the Angels 8-1, and throughout the stadium, fans, of which there were never very many, have started to go home.
Except in the outfield. In both left and right fields, there are signs and drumbeats and screams, reminders that, yes, in fact, this is a September home game for a first-place team. Any pitch could spark a comeback, Greer says, so he’s not going to miss one just so he can talk to me. He jumps up into the aisle, where he stands and screams while C.J. Wilson settles into his stretch.
Wilson throws a strike. Greer returns. “What you’ve got to understand is that the Oakland A’s are tied to the social movements of the city,” he says. “The Black Panthers, the Free Speech Movement, the A’s, the Raiders, all of that — it’s all bound up together.” Wilson winds up again and Greer steps away. “Hold up,” he says.
After another strike, he returns. “You take the team away, you’re taking away something that represents that piece of the history.”