There has been a spotlight on sports in the Bay Area for the past 6 to 7 years. A local baseball team, The Oakland As, have been a staple in Oakland California since 1968. The Golden State Warriors, a Bay Area basketball team, have been in Oakland since the 1970s, and the Oakland Raiders, a Bay Area football team, have been in Oakland since 1995.

Recently, news broke out that Raiders are going to be leaving Oakland in 2020 while the Golden State Warriors will have a new arena ahead of the 2019 season.

The sports community has changed the culture and the environment in Oakland dramatically. The youth are no longer looking to TV stars for role models, instead they are looking up to local athletes in their community who are doing something positive. Players such as Derrick Carr of the Oakland Raiders, and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors are good examples of those role models that Bay Area kids are looking up to.

Oakland is known for taking pride in their sports teams, especially the Raiders. On home game days, families and friends get together and support their home team. Soon, this sports tradition that developed over the years in Oakland will come to an end, which doesn’t sit well with the fans.

The Golden State Warriors are going to relocate to San Francisco and the Oakland Raiders are moving to Las Vegas, Nevada.

The fans feel as if it wasn’t fair for them to leave town because for years, the sports teams in Oakland were the laughing stock of everything. There were seasons in which Oakland professional sports team would underperform their opponents throughout the entire season.

During this time tickets were cheaper, violence throughout the city was at an all time high, and the environment and communities were very damaged, but they still came out and supported their hometown team and Oakland was starting to be known for their electrifying crowds no matter if they were losing they still supported these teams through it all.

Oakland teams were starting to change for the better in 2015. The teams started winning, which brought a lot of media attention to the area and on the players. The sports business is known to generate a lot of money and with the teams winning in the city.

From 2015 to 2018 the Golden State Warriors were champions of the world, after all the years of losing, the fans were finally getting what they deserved.

Now, the Warriors are telling their fanbase that they have built a new, billion dollar home in San Francisco and are leaving at the end of the 2018-2019 season, leaving youth feeling emotionally devastated and fans feeling disappointed after their loyal support, even during the rough seasons. The fans in Oakland feel as if the support and dedication they’ve put into their sports teams is a waste, and also heartbreaking. There are people that are die-hard fans, people that volunteer to do community projects that help with the local sports teams to keep the youth on track in school and in life. With both teams leaving the city, the youth will be impacted the most because they will be left without the teams they admired.

The adults in the city see it to be an insult to the teams’ fans. During their difficult seasons, the teams had no choice, but to stay in Oakland, but since their resurrection, they feel they have outgrown the city of Oakland. 

Oakland citizens question whether or not they wanted to form part of the Oakland community or was it just part of the plan to move to different cities.

The Oakland Raiders and the Golden State Warriors are leaving Oakland, but  they’re  leaving the city with good memories. Such as the charities they’ve been a part of, and getting involved with keeping the youth focused on the environment making Oakland a better place to grow up for the next generation to come. Most of the loyal sports fans also feel as if it was  bad timing for them to leave the city, especially after the teams are being considered the best teams in the world, and having strong chances  to win championships every year.