On the afternoon of September 26th, the Oakland Athletics played the Texas Rangers in their final game ever in the city they’ve called home for 57 seasons. Following the lead of the Warriors and Raiders, they are the third major sports franchise to leave the city in just five years.

This exodus is the culmination of decades of decisions, negotiations and missteps. And now, Oakland is no longer a big-time sports town. 

So how exactly did we get here? How does this all look and feel on the ground in the East Bay? And when a city loses all its teams, what’s left behind?

With the help of lifelong Bay Area resident Tim Keown, we’ve been exploring these questions for months. And today, we kick off our multipart series Death of a Sports Town with a look at the ironically rich history of sports in “The Town,” and we unearth the 30-year-old decision that doomed sports in the gritty-city-by-the-bay.  

The multipart series: ‘Death of a Sports Town’ is being re-published in the feed for the next 4 days. If you don’t want to wait, you can check out all of the episodes of this series from when they originally aired at the links below.

Apple Podcasts: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, & Part 5

Spotify: All episodes

Check out the playlist, featuring our favorite stories of 2024. 

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