We’re still a ways away from the Athletics, or A’s as many call them, moving to Las Vegas. Once they do, they will follow the path of the Las Vegas Raiders, who moved from the city of Oakland in 2020. The Athletics are a historic MLB franchise, but they simply haven’t been seen as one by baseball fans for a while now. The club is hoping to change that perception with a move to Vegas.
The decision to relocate the team has, unsurprisingly, not been received well. Dropping “Oakland” from their name and referring to themselves as simply the Athletics until their move to Vegas hasn’t helped them from becoming a laughingstock in the eyes of many fans. While 2028 is the scheduled first full season at their new ballpark in Las Vegas, the A’s are hoping to start rewriting their history in 2026, when they will play six scheduled games at Las Vegas Ballpark, the home of the Las Vegas Aviators of the PCL.
The Athletics can’t put Vegas in their team name
One would assume that the Athletics would hope to have their future city’s name come before “Athletics” when they take the field in Las Vegas for those games. They aren’t quite so lucky, though, as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has hit the MLB club with a stunning blow: they can’t call themselves the Las Vegas Athletics or the Vegas Athletics.
The reasoning behind the decision is that the proposed name is “primarily geographically descriptive”. The Raiders didn’t have the same issue, which begs the question why the Athletics decided to relocate before even having the name in place.
Perhaps the organization can appeal the decision, but they may have to get creative with their name if there’s no going back on the final word of the office. They might just have to drop their full team name and be referred to as the “Las Vegas A’s” or “Vegas A’s”. But not even that might be enough to get the name confirmed.
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