By: Abby Decker
Edited By: Kylie Augis
Imagine finding out your favorite baseball team is moving locations after being there since 1968. What would your reaction be?
The Oakland Athletics fans are going through this rare experience right now; The Nevada Senate took a major step in moving the team to Las Vegas. It voted to approve $380 million for the new ballpark. Fans took charge and held a “reverse boycott” during their home game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday, June 13. This game brought in 27,759 fans when the average attendance at one of their home games is 8,555.
Fans were targeting their emotions towards the ownership of the team, specifically John Fisher, the owner. Many signs stated that the owners should sell the franchise and others hinted at sabotage. Fans even went to the extent of producing 7,000 green shirts printed with the word “sell”. Throughout the game, there were sporadic chants of “sell the team”. The game ended with fans throwing water bottles, beer cans, or whatever they had onto the field.
Courtesy of Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle
The A’s actually won 97 games in 2019 and to postseason in 2020. After that, Fisher began to take away its young stars and made them the team with the lowest payroll. From that, ticket prices went up and the fan experience went down. These factors were used to “justify” this big change. The mayor of Oakland, Sheng Thao, is doing everything in her power to keep the A’s in Oakland. She believes Las Vegas deserves an expansion team, while the A’s stay in Oakland. Courtesy of Brandon Vallance/Getty Images
Because of this, the “Moneyball Act” bill has been introduced, which “requires any team that relocates more than 25 miles away to compensate its former city, or MLB would lose its antitrust exemption.
On a lighter note, after this game, the A’s are on their seventh-game win streak, removing them from having the worst record in the MLB.