Solving the Oakland A’s Conundrum – Part I

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is first in a three part series on how to resolve the Oakland A’s saga.)

Unless you’ve been under a rock the last few months, if you’re a sports fan you’re at least somewhat familiar with the saga that is the Oakland Athletics baseball franchise. 

It reads somewhat like the plot of a movie–a specific movie, now that I think about it–that I’m sure you’ve seen before: Team owner does not appear to care about putting a winner on the field, trades away any players of note and demotes rising stars who could help the team win, and oh by the way, is actively trying to leave a fanbase that loves its team. 

And those are just the highpoints. 

I left out how the team plays in a 50-year-old concrete doughnut, the last of the multipurpose stadiums left standing in the United States, that is in dire need of implosion. Or how the owner has managed to get MLB to agree to moving the team to Las Vegas despite not having a stadium agreed upon. Or how the fanbase has launched a campaign solely fixated on trying to get the owner to sell the team. Or how the team moved to a minor league stadium to leave Oakland behind. 

Yeah, it’s a mess.

And moving to Las Vegas isn’t going to solve any problems. Especially when there’s no guarantee of a stadium being built–and get this: John Fisher, owner of the A’s, is talking about spending 10% less games in the stadium. 

No, moving to Vegas won’t solve a thing. But I do happen to have three solutions:

Solution No. 1 – Move the A’s to Nashville

Yes, Nashville. 

Stop rolling your eyes. 

Nashville has already proven that it’s a major league city, as evidenced by the continued support for the Titans and especially the Predators. Nashville is also in the midst of a population boom, with a growth rate of 86 people per day from 2023 to 2024. And it is a baseball town, with numerous minor league teams—namely the Vols and the Sounds—calling the Music City home throughout the last 100 years.

Critics will say Nashville isn’t capable of hosting an MLB team. Completely disagree. There are more than 2 Million people living in the Nashville metropolitan area, with further projected growth, according to a report by The Tennessean. The audience is there. 

If integrating into the nightlife as a means of growing a fanbase is a reason for moving to Vegas, I’ll save you the trouble and direct you to NashVegas. If a town built on bars, live music, and the entertainment industry is what the A’s ownership is looking for, look no further. The upside to Nashville is it provides a similar experience to Vegas, but on a somewhat smaller, and more family-friendly, scale. This, as I’ll elaborate on in Part 2, allows the A’s to hold a great share of the market in terms of attraction offerings. 

Critics might point out that construction of a stadium is needed and no different than what is needed in Las Vegas. I would argue that there is a perfect place for a ballpark in Nashville. In fact, a ballpark is already there.

First Horizon Stadium is the home of the Sounds, and is on the site of Sulphur Dell, the original ballpark in Nashville. It had, of all things, a steep terrace in right field. Eat your heart out, Minute Maid Park.

Utilizing the footprint made in a historic location has the potential to pay dividends for the A’s. There’s already an entertainment district in the area, and while it’s not The Battery, it could be one day. Satellite image search MLB parks and you’ll notice that while they all are larger than a minor league park, the footprint of one takes roughly the same amount of space: one city block.

The South desperately needs another team. If you live in SEC Country, it’s the Braves…and that’s it. You could make a case for the Rays, as they’re technically along the Gulf Coast and have ties to Alabama with the Biscuits. The Rangers are also an option, but they’re mostly Texas’ team. And if you’re super old-school, you can choose the Cardinals because they were the only team close to the South for years.  

And I know portions of Tennessee and Kentucky are Reds fans because of proximity. But Nashville is different; it’s on the I-65 corridor and can pull fans from Huntsville (the largest city in Alabama) all the way to Bowling Green, Kentucky—and that’s not counting every fan in Middle Tennessee.

I can hear you. “Nashville? That’s Braves Country! No way you can have two teams in the South that close, it will affect territories and disrupt the fan base!”

No one complains about the Orioles and Nationals being less than 40 miles apart. Because they serve two different cities, are in two different leagues, and have very different histories. This proposal of the A’s to Nashville is essentially the same concept as the Expos moving to DC. Except the A’s name stays.

I can hear you. “Nashville? That’s Braves Country! No way you can have two teams in the South that close, it will affect territories and disrupt the fan base!”

No one complains about the Orioles and Nationals being less than 40 miles apart. Because they serve two different cities, are in two different leagues, and have very different histories. This proposal of the A’s to Nashville is essentially the same concept as the Expos moving to DC.

There’s an opportunity to grow the game and give people in both the rural and urban areas of the South more exposure to the game by bringing the A’s to Nashville, territories be darned. It just makes sense to try out a new market with a team in need of a new start.

I’ll sign up to be a fan on day one. And our good friend and college football correspondent Jordo is on record in last year’s MLB preview as saying he would too.

If they have to move, make the move make sense. Music City sense.

Check back later this week for Part II: Staying in Oakland.