Last Dive Bar filed for the Las Vegas Athletics federal trademark before the A’s did

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The guys at Last Dive Bar are up to it again.

Co-founders Bryan Johansen and Paul Bailey are always looking for ways to cause a ruckus to promote their brand while being a voice for A’s fans.

No stranger to MLB trademark issues, LDB looked about a month ago to see if the Las Vegas Athletics federal trademark had been filed, after being urged by an A’s fan @ColiseumSewage. To their surprise, Las Vegas Athletics was still out there for the taking, even though the A’s announced their intentions to move to Sin City in April 2023.

Naturally, LDB applied for it.

“Bro, it shows you the level of incompetence this ownership has,” Johansen told RickeyBlog via phone on Friday. “How did you not file for a federal trademark one year ago if you were so serious about Las Vegas? … If they were so serious about going there, they should have done this a long time ago. We started looking and couldn’t believe it wasn’t secured.”

LDB expects to hear back in about six months if their application is successful. Johansen said he hopes that the A’s or MLB can’t interfere with their Las Vegas Athletics trademark application, since LDB is an athletic apparel company and it has relevance.

“We’re not sure,” Johansen said. “We’ll see what happens.”

LDB didn’t plan on releasing the news publicly so soon, but accounts started tweeting about it on Friday, as trademarks were in the news cycle.

The A’s reportedly applied for the Sacramento A’s and Sacramento Athletics federal trademarks Thursday, the same day they announced that Sutter Health Park will be their home for at least the next three seasons.

The Oakland Athletics have filed two new trademarks:

1. SACRAMENTO A’S
2. SACRAMENTO ATHLETICS

The filings were just made yesterday, April 4th, in combination with an announcement that the @Athletics would be moving to Sacramento for a few years.#Athletics #Sacramento pic.twitter.com/vZzfnIFWzn

— Josh Gerben (@JoshGerben) April 5, 2024

Johansen thinks that perhaps something else is afoot, and the A’s may actually have their eye on Sacramento for the long-term.

“What’s interesting is that they filed for (the) Sacramento (trademark) the day they had the press conference yesterday,” Johansen said. “You heard the rumors about how the A’s were actually doing the work for MLB to test out Las Vegas as an expansion market, so maybe that’s what they’re actually doing. I dunno, bro.”

Last Dive Bar, of course, loves themselves a good conspiracy.

They set baseball on fire with the #WristbandGate conspiracy theory earlier this week, joking on April Fool’s Day that fan favorite and reigning American League stolen bases leader Esteury Ruiz was sent down for wearing a LDB bracelet. It eventually got picked up by national sports outlets and took on a life of its own, which made Johansen laugh.

“The fact that people even think he could be sent down for a wristband just shows you what people think of this ownership,” Johnasen said.

Even though Oakland baseball is on its deathknell, LDB is going all out this season: 

• LDB has teamed with A’s fan Matt Ortega to promote a campaign for fans to contact MLBPA President Tony Clark, in an effort to declare that the Triple-A facilities are unfit for the A’s and MLB.

• Last Dive Bar has also become an official sponsor for the Stockton Ports, the A’s Single-A affiliate. It’s funny to see the mutiny by the Ports, who are an independently-owned franchise and sticking up to their big-league affiliate.

• LDB has also teamed up with Schools Over Stadiums to start a new fundraising effort with their “Stand with Oakland” wristbands. The donor who pledged to match up to $100,000 on opening day has pledged to match all “I Stand with Oakland” wristband sales. Johansen said LDB sold about $4,000 in “I Stand with Oakland” wristbands in the first 24 hours.

The Sacramento River Cats are also in the crosshairs of LDB. In other words, strap in for another wild season of shenanigans from A’s fans, even if the ship is going down sinking in Oakland.