A’s fans to hold ‘reverse boycott’ at the Oakland Coliseum on Tuesday

Oakland Athletics fans have stuck it out through quite a bit during John Fisher’s ownership of the team, from a crumbling stadium to one star after another sent packing in an effort to slash payroll. But with Fisher making it clear this spring that he was set on moving the team to Las Vegas — and putting a historically bad roster on the field in the meantime — fans by the Bay decided strike back in the only way they could: by not showing up. Attendance at the Oakland Coliseum has plummeted this season; the A’s are dead last in total attendance by more than 100,000, with an average of just 8,675 fans per game (and honestly, most nights it feels like even less than that).

Tuesday night, though, they’re flipping the script. On the same day that MLB owners will convene for their annual meetings — where presumably the A’s relocation efforts will be a big topic of discussion — Oakland is planning a “reverse boycott”, hoping to pack the Coliseum one more time for the A’s game against the league-best Tampa Bay Rays.

It feels like a distant memory now, but we’re less than four years removed from the A’s playing in front of a record-breaking crowd of 54,005 in the 2019 AL Wild Card game (coincidentally, also against Tampa). Oakland lost that game, and their core was slowly but surely dismantled, one lopsided trade at a time — all while ticket prices shot up and ownership flirted with leaving. Ever since, the dominant image of the franchise has been of the barren Coliseum, so quiet that you can hear conversations between players on the TV broadcast.

Just last week, during the start of a special session of the Nevada state legislature to discuss funding for a baseball stadium in Vegas, A’s-funded Nevada lobbyists Steve Hill and Jeremy Aguero pointed to low attendance numbers in Oakland as proof there wasn’t support for the team. But Oakland wants to flip that script now, and send a message: the fans aren’t the problem, Fisher is.

“I think John Fisher and [team president] Dave Kaval have really done exactly what they wanted to by making the narrative seem like it’s the fans’ fault,” lifelong A’s fan Jeremy Goodrich told The Athletic. “Clearly, if I didn’t know anything about the A’s, I would be blaming the fans as well, because it does look like nobody’s going to the games. But at the same time, most people don’t understand the true reason why we’re not going to the games. And I think that’s a big reason why we’re doing this June 13 event.”

There’ll be live music, food and games ahead of Tuesday’s first pitch, with a group even fundraising enough money to print Kelly green shirts with “SELL” across the front, that they’ll give away to fans for free before the game. It remains to be seen just how many people will actually come out on Tuesday night, and none of the people involved seem to be under the illusion that this will sway Fisher. But they do hope to show the rest of the baseball world what they’ll be missing by leaving Oakland behind.