Trademark records add confusion to A's plans with team name in Sacramento

The Oakland Athletics have turned into the laughingstocks of Major League Baseball.

After a 50-112 season in 2023, the team had its move to Las Vegas approved. However, the ballpark in Vegas won't be ready until 2028.

So, the A's have chosen to make Sacramento their interim destination for the next three years after 2024.

They will not be using the City of Sacramento is a designation while they wait for the Las Vegas and will instead be known as simply the Athletics or the A's.

However, the A's made a key mistake and added some confusion to the situation, trademarking them as the Sacramento A's.

A's situation gets murkier after trademark error

This situation continues to get worse.

The A's clearly don't have a good plan in place and are simply creating a contingency, almost anticipating the failure of their move to Vegas. This latest error shows that their plan is truly flawed.

While it makes sense to trademark the name, their doing so while not using the city as a designation is certainly confusing. It raises the question of why they aren't using the designation despite playing in the city and trademarking it.

It would make more sense for them to use the designation, at least for now. For example, in 2005, the New Orleans Hornets, now known as the New Orleans Pelicans, were unable to play in their home city due to Hurricane Katrina, so they played their home games in Oklahoma City and used the city as part of their designation, despite their time there being limited.

The A's could certainly benefit from this if they had even considered it an option. Instead, more confusion has been added and it becomes clearer each day that the plan is incredibly flawed and could ultimately backfire on team owner John Fisher.