Bay Area A’s fans to continue fight to keep team in Oakland
Oakland Athletics fans have pledged to continue their efforts to keep the team rooted in the Bay Area amid a potential relocation to Las Vegas.
An A’s fan group, the Oakland 68s, who put together the reverse boycott on June 13, said they will keep staging such events until the A’s relocation to Las Vegas is made official, according to a report from The Athletic. That includes the rest of this season and potentially the 2024 season, one that is likely the last in Oakland for the A’s.
The Oakland 68s did not respond Monday to a request for comment.
The reverse boycott drew a season high 27,759 fans to the Oakland Coliseum on the same day that Gov. Joe Lombardo signed Senate Bill 1 into law. SB1 includes up to $380 million going toward the A’s planned $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat Las Vegas Strip ballpark.
The A’s are in the middle of the relocation application process with MLB. After the league’s relocation committee reviews the A’s completed application, they will submit it to MLB executives, with a recommendation on the team’s planned move.
From there the league will call for a vote of its owners, in which the A’s need 75 percent of them to vote in favor of their relocation to Southern Nevada.
The next event A’s fans are planning is the Unite the Bay game on Tuesday in San Francisco, which is being put together by the Oakland 86s and fan-owned A’s merchandise brand Last Dive Bar. When the A’s play the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park across the bay, fans are asked to carry out simple instructions to try to get their point across.
“We are asking Giants fans to join us in standing up before the first at bat, at the top of the fifth inning and to remain silent throughout the at bat, followed by chants of ‘sell the team’” A’s fan Gabriel Hernandez said in a video posted to his Twitter account.
The same chant broke out at the reverse boycott game, which is aimed at A’s owner John Fisher. The reasoning behind theseevents are to show that fans aren’t the problem for recent lackluster attendance at A’s game, to urge Fisher to sell the team and for a new ownership group to come in and get a new stadium built in Oakland.
The group will be handing out T-shirts with the word “sell” printed on them and Unite the Bay posters.
“Those attending the games try to keep this as peaceful as possible,” Hernandez said. “A’s fans we are there to do a peaceful protest. Giants fans I hope you know that. There’s no wrong intent of going over there (to SF). We’re not trying to invade, we just want your help and we can’t do this without your help.”
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.
