It was an interesting opening day of the baseball season for the Oakland Athletics. The team had an announced attendance of 13,522 last Thursday for the game against Cleveland. However, looking at the photos of the Oakland Coliseum during the game, it appeared the actual attendance was a lot less than what was announced.

The reason for the lack of attendance was attributed to the fact that A’s fans organized a boycott of the season opener and thousands of fans gathered in parking lot B to show solidarity in their protest of the team’s plan to move to Las Vegas.

Even with the announced attendance, Oakland reported the smallest crowd of any opener across Major League Baseball and roughly half of Oakland’s total for its 2023 opener.

Instead of going inside for the game, the fans in the parking lot threw a block party, as the game projected on a large screen. Last Dive Bar founder Bryan Johansen, one of the event organizers, set up his merchandise tent and handed out free shirts, pins and other items as fans lined up.

Donna Fong, a grand champion pitmaster and owner of Butcher’s Daughter BBQ, brought 40 pounds of chicken and 50 pounds of ribs she gave away for free.

“I’m an A’s fan and wanted to give back to the A’s fans in their last season, so why not give free BBQ?” Fong told Bay Area News Group. “It makes me want to cry (that the A’s are leaving). I can see the stadium from my house. This was my retirement plan; I was going to come here and watch all the games.”

Some fans in the parking lot waved “Sell” flags, urging team owner John Fisher to part sell the franchise to someone who would be interested in keeping the team in Oakland.

“I have not missed an Opening Day in 25 years,” Anson Casanares, vice president of A’s fan group the Oakland 68s, told NBC Bay Area. “[But] why would I spend my money inside? Why spend my passion inside if they are trying to leave here?”

Another fan, Hallie Maier, felt the same way.

“I don’t want to give John Fisher any money,” said Maier, who rode the BART from just to hang out in the parking lot with other fans.

The A’s lease is up at the end of 2024, however, it was reported on Sunday that the City of Oakland is planning to make an offer to extend the lease. According to a document obtained by ESPN, the offer will be for five years with an opt-out after the third year, and require the A’s to pay a $97 million “extension fee,” which will be owed by the team even if the opt-out is exercised, and will pay off the $170 million structural deficit at the Coliseum. The A’s also will be asked to cover the costs of switching the playing field to accommodate the Oakland Roots SC, a soccer team in the USL, which will begin play at the Coliseum in 2025, and to sell its 50 percent ownership share in the stadium complex.

The A’s unveiled renderings of a planned ballpark to be constructed in Las Vegas and it is expected to be completed in time for the 2028 season. That means, if the team does accept the offer from the city to stay in Oakland for the time being, the fans may just simply stay away. It would be quite awkward to expect that fan base to support a lame duck team that you know will be deserting you in four years.

There have also been issues with the site selection for the new ballpark along the Las Vegas strip, and there has been pushback regarding the design of the proposed ballpark. So, the move to Las Vegas is not without its own hurdles.

For now, I feel the pain of the A’s fans. I suffered through the 2004 baseball season knowing my beloved Montreal Expos were planning to move to Washington, D.C. The first few years I refused to root for the Nationals, but later decided it was still the franchise that I had loved since the mid-1970s. Also, there were still players on the team in Washington that were some of my favorite players while they were in Montreal.

Will the true fans of the A’s who live in the Bay Area continue to cheer for that team when it moves to Las Vegas? I double it. There are still hard feelings among folks in Montreal who will never cheer for the Nationals, and I totally understand why.

I’m sure, whether the fans continue to cheer for the A’s in Oakland or Las Vegas, nobody in the A’s fandom is cheering for John Fisher.

TULSA BEACON RADIO

Tune in to “Tulsa Beacon Weekend” radio show every week, featuring interviews with local and national level guests, talking about everything from politics to family issues. My guest this week will be political pundit and former Tulsa city councilor, Chris Medlock. The show airs on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. CST on 970am KCFO.