Again this season, the Oakland Athletics aren’t showing a great product on the field. Fans, embittered by rumors of their team’s departure to Las Vegas, decided to take matters into their own hands by organizing a “reverse boycott.”
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In 2022, spirits at the Oakland Coliseum were on the rocks as the organization hit rock bottom in April with an audience of 3,748. That support was the smallest since the 1980s for the A’s.
So it seems normal that rumors of a move have surfaced. Your stadium, whose lease expires in 2024, was opened in 1966 and is already showing signs of decay. Even Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred raised the possibility of a move to Vice City.
However, a group of loyal supporters called “Rooted in Oakland” want to protest. The group floated the idea of a “reverse boycott” for all fans to show their love for the A’s. The idea is to fill the Oakland Coliseum on a weekday, in this case Tuesday June 13th.
“We are creating this reverse boycott to end the narrative that the A’s have to leave Oakland and move to Las Vegas because Oakland has no more fans,” the group said in a statement to The New York Times. That’s just plain wrong considering the A’s have the lowest payroll in MLB, the organization raised ticket prices after a losing season, and the ownership group dumped current fans to focus on Las Vegas.”
Last year, the Athletics hosted an average of 9,849 people per home game. However, their stadium can accommodate 63,000 fastball fans.
Before Tuesday night’s games, Oakland had the worst record in major league baseball with three wins and 14 losses.