Oakland CA Former City of Champions

[MooseDog]

I grew up and spent almost half my early life in Oakland, California. Always in the shadow of that city across the bay, it has a long history of professional sports. When the pro teams expanded West in the 1960s the city was lucky enough to gain a team in each of the four major (at that time) professional sports leagues.

I was VERY fortunate to grow up in the 1960s and 1970s. During that time the A's won 3 World Series, the Raiders two Super Bowls and the Warriors one NBA championship. The Seals, well they were lovable losers.

The chances are really good that the Oakland Athletics will eventually move within 3-5 years, it's looking like Las Vegas is the target destination. If that comes to pass I'm going to have to lament the fact that all four of the major sports team from my childhood will become "defunct" teams (yeah, I used "defunct", that's how old I am!)

Oakland/California Seals 1967-1976
Oakland Raiders 1960-1981; 1995-2019
Golden State Warriors 1971-2019
Oakland A's/Athletics 1968-202?

Does any one know if this has happened to any other city where they have lost all of their major sports franchises?

[BobbyStrawberry]

The Golden State Warriors are not defunct, but I see your point. Brooklyn, NY, its own city until 1898, was without a major sports franchise from 1957 to 2012.

[Mark17]

Minnesota lost the Lakers (basketball) and North Stars (hockey) but both sports have been restored.

St. Louis lost the Browns (baseball) and Cardinals (football) but they always had NL baseball and got the Los Angeles Rams (football) as a replacement.

I don't think any venue has come close to losing all 4 major sports, especially without them being replaced.

[packs]

No disrespect to Oakland but I don't think they tried very hard to keep anyone around.

[egri]

Boston lost the Braves, technically doesn't have the Patriots anymore (and almost lost them to Connecticut in the 1990s) and there have been some years where the Celtics almost fell out of the league, but they've still got three of the four and I can't think of anywhere that has lost all four.

[MooseDog]

Originally Posted by packs

No disrespect to Oakland but I don't think they tried very hard to keep anyone around.

Very true, this.

However after getting taken to the cleaners by the Davis family and the Raiders you can forgive the Oakland politicos for not wanting to throw any more public money at pro sports teams. The current A's owner is a horrible human, no interest in the city, just the prestige and money that comes from being a billionaire and in the "club", completely opposite from the previous ownership.