Thousands of Oakland Athletics fans gathered in front of the team’s famous Coliseum to protest its impending move to Las Vegas on MLB’s opening day.
Before, during and after their brutal 8-0 loss to the Cleveland Guardians, fan groups Oakland 68s and Last Dive Bar held a boycott in the stadium parking lot for fans to make their discontent known before the relocation of the Athletics.
The boycott included giveaways, t-shirts, several green flags reading “Sell,” and collectible pins commemorating the event, along with food, music, games, and frequent “Sell the Team” chants.
There was also a 20-foot screen showing a live broadcast of the game, which ended in a resounding road victory for Cleveland.
In light of owner John Fisher’s $1.5 billion decision to move to Las Vegas, which was unanimously approved by MLB owners late last year, A’s fans began holding reverse boycotts at the Coliseum towards the end of the 2023 season.
Oakland Athletics fans gathered outside the team’s Coliseum to protest their impending move to Las Vegas on MLB Opening Day.
The Oakland 68s and Last Dive Bar fan groups held a boycott in the stadium parking lot so that the A’s faithful would make their displeasure known.
The boycott took place when Oakland suffered a brutal 8-0 loss against the Cleveland Guardians.
A’s owner John Fisher plans to reinvent the organization in 2028 with a $1.5 billion move to Las Vegas.
Chants of ‘sell the team’ at the end of the fifth inning have become a tradition among protesters, but on Thursday they came from outside the stadium.
The game itself drew a crowd of just 13,522, marking the lowest attendance for an Oakland Athletics game since 1979, excluding the Covid-affected years of 2020 and 2021.
The exact number of fans who gathered outside to protest is unclear, although the area where the tailgate took place appeared as crowded as it was during last summer’s reverse boycott, according to The Athletic.
Oakland faithful are distraught at the looming prospect of their beloved baseball team, which has belonged to California’s West Coast port for the past 55 years, moving 560 miles away to Las Vegas.
It is there that Fisher plans to reinvent the organization in 2028 with a new 30,000-seat ballpark at the current site of the Tropicana Las Vegas Casino on the Strip, having reportedly been denied in his attempts to build a new stadium in Oakland.
The A’s owner still requires significant private financing to build the stadium despite MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred waiving any relocation fees, and the governor’s $380 million public financing bill. Nevada’s Joe Lombardo is well under the expected 10-figure cost to prop him up in Sin City.
However, concerned fans are still devastated after potentially attending their last Opening Day at the Coliseum on Thursday night.
“They’re taking away the equipment we’ve had for as long as I can remember,” one fan told California-based news station KCRA-TV.
Thursday night’s boycott included giveaways, T-shirts and several green “Sell” flags.
Some fans appeared to reach the top of the stadium to urge Fisher to sell the team.
Thursday’s game drew a crowd of just 13,522, the lowest for an Oakland game since 1979.
Most supporters attended the parking lot boycott and instead held the tailgates.
“I can’t even raise my kids with that.”
“I pass by the Coliseum every day and it is very sad to see it empty,” said another. “It’s heartbreaking to see that all of this is going to disappear, ripped out like a toothache.
Meanwhile, one fan spoke out about his decision not to enter the stadium for the season opener.
“Because I don’t want to give my money to Fisher or the organization.”
Another added: ‘We don’t want to give Fisher our money. He’s going to take our team and he doesn’t deserve a single dollar more.
‘Go A’s…go to Oakland!’
At the start of Thursday’s boycott, the Oakland United Coalition held a press conference alongside the Oakland 68, imploring the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to cancel the sale of half of the Coliseum complex to Coliseum Way Partners, an LLC controlled by Fisher and his family.
The group has been frustrated by the lack of development on the Coliseum field, as well as the A’s recent decision to prevent the Oakland Ballers, a minor league phoenix team rising from the ashes of its predecessors, from playing there. .
A’s fans are devastated and angry at the thought of their beloved team moving 560 miles away.
Fan groups were also outraged that the A’s prevented their phoenix club, the Oakland Ballers, from playing at the Coliseum.
“The A’s owners have been preventing East Oakland from being able to flourish and prosper,” said Vanessa Riles, Oakland campaign coordinator, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy.
“They make it sound like, ‘Oh, no one wants to be in the Coliseum.’ But we know that’s not the truth.
‘We are here because we want to be here. We want to develop this property. And the A’s have been preventing that from happening. The owners have opposed that happening. And we are here to say no, that is not right.”
A Nevada teachers group seeking to block $380 million in state public funding for the A’s proposed stadium in Las Vegas was also present at the boycott and accepted donations.
An anonymous A’s fan reportedly offered to match up to $100,000 in donations made, and the ‘Schools Over Stadiums’ group took home around $35,000 mid-game.