MLB
Oakland A’s See Lowest Attendance In 42 Years
“If you build it, they will come.”
During this week’s home-opening series for the Oakland A’s, the attendance numbers look like that of a local high school football game rather than a Major League Baseball team.
During Tuesday night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles, the announced attendance at Oakland Coliseum was 3,708–the team’s lowest since 1980.
One day later on Wednesday, the announced attendance dipped even further to 2,703 during an early 3:00 pm PST start that was moved up due to incoming inclement weather.
Where do we begin?
Sure, the A’s might be in the middle of assessing a possible relocation to Las Vegas. Yes, Oakland shipped off a bevy of young talent during the offseason, namely All-Star homegrown talents Matt Olson and Matt Chapman.
Okay, but at least ownership is doing what it can to field a competitive roster, right? Oakland does have a winning record through 13 games, a surprise start with all things considered.
Is it sustainable, though? Holders of the 29th-lowest payroll in the league, the A’s don’t have much–if any–star power. They have no marketable stars with Olson and Chapman gone. Those couple-thousand fans in attendance are the definition of die-hards.
Despite everything that ownership has done to tear this team down to its bare bones, some fans refuse to be completely repelled from the Oakland Coliseum gates.
For a majority of the fanbase, it is becoming clear that the “enough is enough” mentality is kicking in.
This isn’t the first time that Oakland has shipped off young talent to save money. By trading away two young, widely respected stars in Olson and Chapman, the franchise has once again waved the white flag in conveying that they have zero interest in fielding a truly competitive team.
Oakland’s 7-6 start has been fun to watch as the team has pushed back against the notion that they will not simply roll over and be made a mockery of.
It isn’t the players on the diamond that are being punished by this boycott of attendance, though: it’s a statement to the A’s ownership that the fanbase is simply fed up.
Time will tell regarding relocation to the Nevada desert, but for now, expect the Coliseum to keep announcing low attendance numbers until fans have a reason to return.
