The crowds announced for the Oakland Athletics’ three home games this week are reminiscent of the final moments of the Expos in Montreal.
The pathos peaked at the old Coliseum, where the California team hosted the Arizona Diamondbacks Monday through Wednesday. Angry tongues will say that in all likelihood few fans knew the A’s were playing at home, while others wanted to continue boycotting the club. It remains that the grandstands were not very noisy at the stadium, which the organization plans to give up soon in favor of Las Vegas.
This was especially true on Monday, when officially only 2,064 spectators were there; It should be noted that the total is actually the number of tickets sold. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, it’s the weakest crowd for a meeting in Oakland since September 1979, excluding the 2020 season, which was marked by the pandemic. The following day the figure rose to 3,261 and on Wednesday, when the two clubs faced off during the day, it rose to 4,159.
The failures of the Athletics, whose owners recently reached an agreement to use land in Las Vegas where a stadium is planned to be built, are well documented this year. At the box office, Oakland is in the basement of major baseball games, with an average local viewership of 8,695. On the field, coach Mark Kotsay’s team has a pathetic 10-35 record, the worst in Manfred’s league.
Empty benches and only empty benches
Looking back at the worst attendances in major league history and discounting games affected by the pandemic, the April 9, 1997 clash between the Toronto Blue Jays and the White Sox at Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field holds the crown. With a total of 746 tickets; That day, a biting cold had encouraged fans to stay home.
Three Expos games at the Olympic Stadium are represented in the historical top 10, including that of September 5, 2002, holder of the third level of the list of indifference. That day, a Thursday afternoon, 2,134 spectators were announced for a game against the Philadelphia Phillies.