Las Vegas native Bryce Harper criticizes Oakland A’s relocation to Sin City

With the Oakland Athletics playing some of the best baseball they’ve played in a while and with thousands of their fans pressuring team owner John Fisher to sell the team, some Major League players have added their voices to the wave of criticism surrounding the potential move from California to Las Vegas.

On Wednesday afternoon, as the A’s battled the Tampa Bay Rays in an intense matchup, even as Fisher overcame a major hurdle to relocating his team when the Nevada Legislature approved public funding for construction of a $1.5 billion stadium with a retractable roof.

Although the A’s are on a seven-game winning streak, beating Major League Baseball’s best team twice, it doesn’t seem to matter one bit to the office. Fisher simply seems intent on clearing a path to his development plans.

But not all is perfect. In addition to the “reverse boycott” organized by fans who flocked to Tuesday’s Rays game, some high-profile players have voiced their disapproval for the change of venue for this historic A’s team, with nine World Series titles to their name.

Bryce Harper and Bryson Stott, both Las Vegas natives, stated that their hometown needs an expansion team, but that should not be the A’s.

“I’m sorry for the fans in Oakland,” Harper told USA Today Sports. “It’s just not right. They have so much history in Oakland. You’re taking a team out of a city. I’m pretty sad because of all the history and all the greatness they’ve seen there. I see the A’s as Oakland. I don’t see them as Vegas.”

Harper first shot to fame as part of the Las Vegas High School team which drew national attention. Still a resident of nearby Henderson, Harper compared the Athletics with two of Las Vegas’ other major professional sports teams: the recently relocated Raiders and the reigning Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights, who were a 2017 expansion franchise.

“Look at the Knights: they won the Stanley Cup, but they were an expansion franchise. They were born in Las Vegas, as people would say. They’re the first team to come to Las Vegas. I don’t think you can really match that.”

“It’s just going to be tough for those guys. It was tough for the Raiders last year. People thought the Raiders would be successful. Maybe they are, but you have to build a fan base. Those five- and six-year-olds will grow up as Raiders or A’s fans, so by the time they’re 16 or 17, they’ll have fans.”

Stott, 25, was a high school star in Enterprise, Nevada, and played collegiate ball with the University of Las Vegas. The sophomore infielder for the the Phillies agrees with Harper.

“We would rather see an expansion team than a relocated team,” said Stott. “That’s why fans are so crazy about the Knights. It’s Vegas’s first team. It’s ours. It was kind of easy for people to gravitate towards that. Vegas wasn’t a big hockey town. It is now. But baseball, you have people in town liking the Dodgers, and the Angels, and the Padres and the Diamondbacks. It will take a few generations before they have a real fandom in baseball. I’m sure they’ll sell tickets for visiting fans, which is probably all they care about.”

The Phillies will visit Oakland this weekend for a three-game series.