Raucous Crowd at Reverse Boycott Night Shows Oakland A's Fans Are Not The Problem, Ownership Is

Wednesday’s newsletter is usually only for paid subscribers, but in the spirit of the reverse boycott, I’ve made this post available to everyone.

Oakland A’s owner John Fisher and team president Dave Kaval spent Tuesday in New York City at a meeting of MLB owners. Fisher’s public relations people spent Tuesday in Carson City trying to persuade the Nevada Legislature to fork over $380 million to help Fisher build a new ballpark in Las Vegas.

A’s players, coaches and fans spent Tuesday night showing that the A’s planned relocation to Las Vegas is not only unnecessary, but also unwise.

A large and boisterous crowd of nearly 28,000 fans rocked the Oakland Coliseum for hours as part of a “reverse boycott” to show Fisher, other MLB owners, and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred that the greater Oakland community supports the A’s and wants baseball to remain in Oakland.

Some fans in the right field bleachers waved large green and gold flags while others pounded on drums festooned with A’s logos—a long-standing tradition that had faded away as the crowds dwindled. Many fans around the ballpark carried signs with pointed and some NSFW messages for Fisher.

The crowd was young and diverse. There were fans of every race and ethnicity, reflecting the beautiful mosaic of Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area. Exactly the kind of baseball fans MLB must attract to games if the sport is going to survive—and thrive—over the next several decades.

Fans greeted each other with hugs and high fives. A’s fans even embraced the few San Francisco Giants fans who came out to support keeping the A’s in Oakland and keeping the cross-bay rivalry alive.

The reverse boycott was organized by the Last Dive Bar and the Oakland 68s—two groups of A’s fans who are on a mission to keep the team in Oakland—and an economics Ph.D. who uses the Twitter handle AsHotDog.

These folks were organized.

Together with Oaklandish, they raised money to print and distribute for free thousands of bright green t-shirts with the word SELL to fans arriving at the Coliseum for the game. The message? If John Fisher doesn’t want to invest in the team and build a new ballpark in Oakland, he should sell the team to someone who will.

The fan groups also printed and handed out posters with instructions for how to carry out the reverse boycott once the game began. They also plastered this message all over social media.

Fans dutifully and loudly followed the lead of the Last Dive Bar and the Oakland 68s in the top and bottom of every inning. I captured the SELL THE TEAM chant at the top of the 5th inning after the silent first at-bat.

The A’s game operations staff did everything they could to downplay the reverse boycott. The scoreboard blasted loud A’s cast videos between innings to drown out the chanting and only showed fans on the big screen who weren’t wearing the SELL t-shirts. But these fans were not deterred. They simply drowned out whatever was playing on the scoreboard.

A’s fans weren’t there just to send a message to Fisher and Manfred but to root on this year’s team. The A’s players responded with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over the Rays. Before tonight, the A’s had the worst record in the majors. After beating the Rays—the team with the best record in the majors—the A’s edged ahead of the Kansas City Royals with 19 wins on the season. Oakland is also riding a 7-game winning streak.

I don’t know if the boycott was planned specifically for a night the A’s were playing the Rays, but the irony wasn’t lost on me. Both teams desperately need new ballparks. Both teams have typically have two of the lowest payrolls in the league. But their ownership couldn’t be more different.

Back in April, I wrote about how the A’s didn’t need to abandon Oakland to get to the next level:

Hours before the reverse boycott kicked off, the Nevada State Senate voted 13-8 to approve the bill that contains the $380 million in public funds for the A’s proposed Las Vegas ballpark. As reported by the Nevada Independent, several Democratic Senators switched from opposing to supporting the legislation after amendments were added to include language similar to two bills that Nevada Governor Jay Lombardo had previously vetoed. One of those bills requires large companies in the state to provide family and medical leave.

The ballpark bill now moves to the Assembly.

Despite the energy at the Coliseum tonight, it appears the A’s time in Oakland is running out.