Oakland A’s fans show up in thousands to execute reverse boycott at the Coliseum, players express ‘full support’

OAKLAND — They knew it probably wasn’t going to change anything, but A’s fans at least wanted to try.

In one last act of desperation, A’s fans flocked to the Coliseum on Tuesday night for the much-anticipated reverse boycott of the team’s expected move to Las Vegas. The announced attendance of 27,759 was a season-high, and the A’s largest home crowd since last August, as the A’s beat the Rays, 2-1, in a game that had a playoff atmosphere thanks entirely to the A’s angry fanbase.

In choreographed rhythm, A’s fans chanted at billionaire owner John Fisher to “sell the team” for most of the 2 hours, 19 minutes, taking frequent breaks to throw their support behind the home team, the worst team in baseball 10 days ago that has since rattled off seven straight wins.

“The energy, the atmosphere, tonight was everything that this stadium can be,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said after the game.

The event was organized by fan groups hoping to send a message to Fisher that fans will fill the Coliseum when they want to.

When somebody gives them a reason to.

“I’m here to prove it to the ownership,” said Marco Ulloa, a Castro Valley native and an A’s fan of 40 years. “It’s unbelievable. It’s like déjà vu after watching my Raiders go (to Las Vegas) and even when the Warriors left (for San Francisco). And so now, all that rooted-in-Oakland business is slowly dying. It’s hard, but we have to give them a little support while we’re here.”

The smell of hot dogs, hamburgers and good-time substances floated through the parking lots around the stadium as early as 2 p.m. Handfuls of fans flocked to The Oakland 68s tailgate area where the fan group handed out 7,000 free t-shirts that implored Fisher to, “SELL” the team. A live band jammed out next to a taco truck.

All around the stadium, fans greeted each other to take pictures of one another’s signs, swap stories of their A’s fandom and find community over shared frustration.

“This is a bittersweet feeling right now,” said Ulloa. “You grow up buying $1-Tuesday tickets and then here we are today. It’s not for sure we’re out of here, but it feels like it already. It’s a super somber feeling right now.”

Earlier in the day, Nevada lawmakers voted to approve up to $380 million in taxpayer money for the A’s to build a stadium on the Las Vegas strip. The next step is a vote in the Assembly, which could be the final move before Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo would presumably sign the bill, sending it to Major League Baseball for league-wide approval.

Inside the Coliseum, A’s players have tried to ignore news coming out of Nevada.

“I think for us, we talk about the controls a lot,” Kotsay said before Tuesday’s game. “We talk about the things we have control over and what we want to focus on.”

Former A’s outfielder Stephen Piscotty expressed his support via Twitter: “If I could be there tonight, I would, as a fan, in section 220, the home of a big part of my childhood.”

At one point during the game, Billie Joe Armstrong, the lead singer of Green Day and Oakland native, was captured on the stadium video screen chanting “sell the team” along with other fans.

Oakland goes silent to start the 5th, then rapturous, in unison: “Sell The Team!” pic.twitter.com/hJBkz5gqu6

— KNBR (@KNBR) June 14, 2023

“I personally fully support the fans’ right and ability to do this,” said A’s reliever Trevor May, the highest-paid player on the team who will make $7 million this season. “It’s an entertainment industry. It’s for fans. And if the fans are unhappy about how the things they love are being treated, then they have the right to voice that opinion. If there’s a way you’re going to do it, I think this is a pretty good way to do it.”

The fans can take solace in this: all the income gained from ticket sales on Tuesday will be donated to the Alameda County Community Food Bank and the Oakland Public Education Fund, the club announced shortly before the game.

While the fans continued to express anger towards Fisher, the A’s players said they never felt anything but love from the home crowd.

“If you want to use the word anger, it wasn’t directed at the players,” Kotsay said. “We felt the energy on the fans side, supporting us passionately.”

There’s a sense that the players and fans are empathetic of the situation each find themselves in: the fans wanting their team to stay in Oakland, even if that means under new ownership, and the players trying to ignore the drama to instead focus on winning games.

May summed up the way the players feel about the whole thing: “I just work here.”

“There’s only so much you can rail against things like that, especially when you’re an employee of said company,” May said. “I’m empathetic to the frustration. I understand it. I get it. It’s not about money for (the fans). And it is about money for John. It is. There’s no dancing around it. That’s the only motivation for it at this point. I can’t see any other motivation.

“And when you have a disconnect, which is natural, of course you’re going to have that disconnect – the fans aren’t going to care about how much money your team is making as much as you are — so it’s just the way it is. That separation is pretty big here. I just hope from a baseball standpoint, everyone comes in and has a really good time at the game.”

Tony Kemp, who grew up in Tennessee, said he empathized with the fans: “It’d be like if the Titans left Nashville. I’d be sad. I understand.”

At least for one night, the A’s felt the love.

After May secured the final out in the ninth inning to cap off an exciting win, the crowd erupted as if the A’s had just clinched a playoff berth.

“They came out and made it very clear about how passionate they were about this city and this team,” said Brent Rooker, whose RBI double in the seventh inning tied the game. “We fed off their energy all night.”

The fun stopped after the final out, when fans proceeded to throw beer cans and trash onto the field.