‘We want our team’: A’s fans emotional about proposed Las Vegas move

OAKLAND, Calif.

This is how most of them view it:

That they have been a displaced part of the narrative, a middle chapter of a long novel, a sidebar to binding agreements for land purchases and public-private partnerships and proposed plans for a beautiful new Major League Baseball ballpark elsewhere.

Fans of the Oakland A’s.

They are sad and angry and feeling left out. Their team is a sharp single to center away from calling Las Vegas home, from packing its bats and balls and gloves and all that green and yellow gear for a move to Southern Nevada.

The Athletics on Friday night played their first home game since it was announced the franchise had signed a binding purchase agreement for land west of the Las Vegas Strip, where a $1.5 billion partially retractable-roof ballpark would be raised.

Oakland fell to the Reds 11-7 before an announced gathering of 6,423 in the 56,000-seat monstrosity that is the Oakland Coliseum.

It didn’t hit the team’s average attendance of more than 11,000 this season — still worst in the majors, just like last year — but did produce some passionate responses about the proposed Las Vegas move.

And most were aimed directly at A’s owner John Fisher.

‘Belongs in Oakland’

There was a small protest of A’s fans before first pitch outside the stadium, complete with signs that implored Fisher to sell the team.

There was also the guy — who (jokingly?) said behind dark sunglasses his name was John Fisher — wearing a “LAS VEGAS SUCKS” T-shirt.

“We want our team,” said 46-year-old Mike Davis-Adams — not the other John Fisher. “Our team belongs in Oakland. This team is Oakland. I understand Las Vegas always had like a 60-40 chance, but we thought we were in the game until the slap in the face with a land purchase. We lost the Raiders to Las Vegas. We lost the Warriors (to San Francisco). Now we could lose the A’s.

“And we’re the die-hards, even when you don’t know most of the players on the team because they wouldn’t pay for all our good ones to stay.”

Most interviewed said the city of Oakland had negotiated in good faith with the team on a proposed $12 billion Howard Terminal project, which centered around a $1 billion ballpark. That they didn’t blame Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao for ending talks with the A’s once the land deal in Las Vegas was made public.

“We’re Oakland and don’t have a ton of money,” said the other John Fisher. “We have bigger problems than building a stadium for a billionaire. I might come to Las Vegas for games if they move, but only to cause havoc and throw toilet paper on the field.”

Speaking of messy surroundings, there is another side to all this.

The stadium itself, which has housed the A’s for 55 years.

An eyesore

The home of Reggie Jackson and Rickey Henderson and Dennis Eckersley and Dave Stewart and Rollie Fingers and Catfish Hunter, of a franchise with nine world championships, of a dynasty in the early 1970s, is a giant eyesore in the most dramatic of ways.

Of possums coming through the ceiling of a press box and feral cats multiplying over the pandemic. Of bleachers miles from the action, of empty team stores to closed concession stands to upper decks covered with tarps to plumbing issues. To days this season when 11 of 13 minor league teams outdrew the A’s for attendance.

“One example was a restroom that I used, all the fixtures were held together by wire,” said Michael Heinze, an A’s fan since the 1970s. “They need a new stadium when you’re holding things together with wire.”

It’s not a concept lost on even the most bitter of fans, that it has been some time since the Coliseum was anywhere close to Major League standards.

Said Will Hogrefe at George and Walts, a sports bar and frequent hangout of A’s fans: “I’ve done some jobs at the Coliseum. It’s not good. It’s gone to hell. The stadium sucks.”

“It’s disappointing,” said Todd Houston, who brought his 8-year-old son, Brady, to Friday’s game. “I’ve been a fan for 30 years. Sad to see them go. We love baseball. We’ll still keep coming to games as long as they’re here. (Brady) took it harder than I did.”

How does the little boy with the baseball glove feel?

“Sad.”

Houston wasn’t alone. Most fans said they would continue attending games even through next year, when the team’s lease expires with the Coliseum. That they wouldn’t abandon the A’s as a lame-duck outfit before a possible early move to Las Vegas Ballpark.

“We understand this isn’t a great baseball facility,” Davis-Adams said. “But this place still has history like Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. It’s all of our history. We’ll show up for them as long as they’re here.”

Understanding fans’ anger

It was in 1998 when A’s president Dave Kaval made one of those trips, the one where you visit all 30 Major League ballparks. He did so in 38 days.

At the time, he ranked the Oakland Coliseum No. 15.

“Since then, there have been like 20 new ballparks built,” Kaval said. “We certainly acknowledge how the fans are feeling and the frustration. But we have a strict (January 2024) deadline from Major League Baseball (to get a stadium deal done) and have to make decisions that puts the franchise on solid footing. That’s why we’ve turned our attention to Las Vegas.

“We’ve had an incredible run in Oakland, incredible memories and Hall of Fame players that the fans helped energize to win championships. But the facility is 10 years past its useful life. It’s a bittersweet moment. We absolutely hope we retain all of our fans and gain new ones with a new facility.”

Yeah. That’s going to be a tough one.

Stu Clary has an analogy: Imagine if Fisher owned a restaurant that served the finest of caviar and meats. But he then suddenly doubled the menu prices and began handing out hamburger helper and tuna sandwiches.

Nobody would go to the restaurant.

“No one would blame the public,” Clary said. “In some ways, why should we support anything when he raised ticket prices (in 2022) and took away an All-Star team?”

Clary, however, can’t help himself. He loves the A’s too much.

He’s the one behind a “reverse boycott” plan to fill the Coliseum on June 13 when the Tampa Bay Rays come to town. The game is on a Tuesday, traditionally the least attended weeknight. It’s also in the summer when there is no school and not played against teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Giants, who normally draw larger-than-sparse gatherings.

“It will go against the narrative we can’t or refuse to support the team,” Clary said. “That’s not the case.”

He has been a season ticket holder since 1987 but isn’t sure he would attend games in Las Vegas. His sons grew up running around the Coliseum. The family made lifelong friends from attending games there.

“It’s a (expletive) hole, but it’s our (expletive) hole,” he said. “I love the place. Lots of great memories from it. It sure would be nice, though, to have a new ballpark up here. It would be transformative.”

Jennifer Riback and Robin Chinn will be in attendance June 13. They sat in box seats Friday — with a television showing the Warriors-Kings NBA playoff game —adamant they wouldn’t attend games in Las Vegas should the move become official.

“Hell no,” Riback said. “I’m devastated. No thought for the fans or community. For the fan base that kept this team alive. We were used as a pawn, and once the mayor said she was through with it, they were gone. So good luck to you, Las Vegas.”

Riback teaches sixth grade. One of the walls in her classroom is adorned with A’s memorabilia.

“It’s all coming down at the end of the year,” she said. “All of it.”

Chinn attended her first game 49 years ago.

“I sat up top on the third deck and watched Reggie Jackson,” she said. “I’m heartbroken this happened.”

A timely wind

And in the bottom of the sixth, with the Reds leading the A’s 5-1 in a game between two of baseball’s worst teams, a group of fans began walking around the stadium yelling, “Sell the Team! Sell the team!” They wore green T-shirts with the word “Sell” on the front and the statement “We Are Here!” on the back.

And high above home plate, sitting in the third deck alone wearing a yellow A’s jersey, was Benjamin Schmidt. He’s from the Denmark town of Billund, here on a road trip through California and attending his first baseball game.

“I don’t completely understand the innings,” said Schmidt, unaware the teams he was watching also struggle with such a concept. “It’s an experience. Fun to watch. I read where (the A’s) might be moving. It’s kind of sad. I saw a sign out front that said, ‘Rooted in Oakland.’”

And in that moment, a brisk wind rustled through the old, creaky, massively outdated venue.

Blowing its way, it appeared, in the direction of Las Vegas.

It just feels like the end here.

Just not sure the other John Fisher realizes it.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.