Five years ago, the city of Oakland was the home for three major professional sports teams. And it’s becoming increasingly certain that the number will drop to zero in the near future.
After word that the Oakland Athletics and chairman John Fisher reached a binding agreement with Las Vegas to build a new MLB stadium, the long-suffering A’s fans had largely seen enough. While there have been calls to show up and protest in the stadium, most of the fanbase has seemingly opted to boycott games at the awful Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum instead.
That’s what brought us the scene for Tuesday night’s game between the A’s and Mariners. While A’s pitcher Mason Miller threw seven hitless innings, he did so in front of a listed attendance of 2,583.
This is what John Fisher has done to baseball in Oakland pic.twitter.com/YhSNyDPZUm
— Ben Ross (@BenRossTweets) May 3, 2023
Again, it’s important to note that these sad scenes aren’t the fault of the A’s fanbase. They’ve had to deal with the stingiest ownership, a torn-down roster and by far the worst stadium in baseball. Fisher has done nothing to deserve decent attendance, and his move to abandon Oakland was a breaking point for many.
A’s fans deserve better, and MLB Twitter certainly agreed.