Oakland A’s fans swarmed into the Coliseum Tuesday night, many wearing green T-shirts emblazoned with the word “Sell” as part of a last-ditch effort to keep the team in the city.
“Sell the team!” fans chanted thousands of times during the A’s 2–1 victory against the Tampa Bay Rays that gave Oakland a season-best seven-game winning streak.
Organizers of the so-called reverse boycott, which drew the biggest crowd of the season at 27,759, are calling for A’s owner John Fisher to sell the 55-year-old baseball franchise to a buyer committed to keeping the team in Oakland, rather than moving forward with plans to build a $1.5 billion stadium on the Las Vegas Strip.
But the proposed move to the desert came one step closer to reality Tuesday afternoon when the Nevada state Senate voted in favor of an amended version of a proposed $380 million public financing package for the new stadium. The measure must now be approved by the state Assembly and the governor.
“I feel like my heart is being ripped out. It’s the worst feeling in the world, really,” Matthew Wohl, a lifelong A’s fan, said during a tailgate party before the game Tuesday night. “I’ve barely been watching baseball this year, but I know more than likely they’re leaving. Watching them leave is just killing me.”
“Baseball needs to be in Oakland,” he insisted.
If the A’s defy the odds and manage to stay “rooted in Oakland,” as its supporters are demanding, the team would face an already bruised and devastated fan base that has united in condemning Fisher and team president Dave Kaval. Both executives, they say, have poorly managed the team and are betraying a city the A’s have called home since moving from Kansas City in 1968.
“Right now, the owner owns the team, but it’s not theirs, it’s the community’s,” said Jorge Leon, president of A’s fan group the Oakland ’68s, at the Coliseum last week. “The A’s [management] have been alienating the fan base for a while. It’s nothing new. And so, now it’s the last straw — and people are tired of it.”
The Oakland ’68s are known for sitting in the right-field bleachers, spiritedly rooting for their team. Since news of the potential A’s Vegas move, the group has taken to chanting brazen sentiments such as, “Sell the team,” as they beat on drums.
Over the last few months, the group raised more than $27,000 from fans in Oakland and farther afield, and teamed up with local clothing company Oaklandish to produce the “Sell” T-shirts that go for $5 a pop.
Adrian Batres, who drove down from Sacramento for Tuesday’s event, was among the thousands donning the green T-shirts. “I’ve had a big love affair with the A’s over the Giants for quite some time. And I felt that it was kind of a personal thing, especially when I consider them my team,” said Batres, who’s been a die-hard fan for four decades. “So even suggesting the fact they’re going to move to Las Vegas is kind of a big deal to me.”
Katie Callahan-Cisco said she and her older sister had come both to support the team and as tribute to their father, Dick Callahan, the longtime A’s public address announcer, who died in 2021.
“It’s so gratifying to see all of these people supporting the team and this reverse boycott,” she said. “The fans really initiated this and then it just really spread like wildfire.”
Just before first pitch, the A’s announced they would donate all ticket revenue from the game to the Alameda County Community Food Bank and Oakland Public Education Fund — a total of $811,107.
The fight to keep the A’s in Oakland comes just three years after the city lost the Raiders — also to Las Vegas. The year before, the Golden State Warriors jumped ship to a new stadium in San Francisco.
The A’s, who play in the American League West, currently sit at the bottom of their division and, at 19–50, have lost more games this season than any other team in the league. Still, they managed to beat the Rays — who have the best record in baseball — on Monday and Tuesday.
“This is ridiculous that they’re trying to move to Las Vegas. I think that we need to keep them here in Oakland,” said Annette Burt, 60, who has been an A’s fan since she was 5 years old. “It’s been a family pastime for me forever.”
Burt said she understands the chances of the team staying here are slim, but is still holding out hope.
“I don’t think it’s a done deal,” she said. “I think there’s still enough interest, and it can be a very competitive team and it has been in the past. If we had owners backing us up, it would be very successful. And it would be successful for Oakland.”
This story includes reporting from KQED’s Phoebe Quinton and Matthew Green, and The Associated Press.