As A’s Fans Protest, Nevada Closes In on Stadium Bill
The A’s, with a roster gutted of any recognizable players over the last few seasons, were expected to be terrible this season and spent more than two months on pace to shatter the 1962 Mets’ modern era record for losses in a season. Their play has recently picked up, with the team taking a fairly shocking six-game win streak into Tuesday night’s game against the Rays, which they continued with a 2-1 win over the best team in baseball.
In a rare sight, the Coliseum, which had averaged a major league-low 8,555 fans a game entering the game, was packed on Tuesday with a season-best crowd of 27,759, many of whom were wearing green T-shirts that said “Sell” across the chest as part of a planned protest. The fans, who believe they have been unfairly blamed for the team’s attendance issues, came back for one night to prove that they are still there and would return to the games if the team’s owner, John Fisher, were to sell the team and the A’s were able to get back to playing competitive baseball.
“I’ve been to only one game this year. I saw this game and I knew I had to come because I knew it was going to be very monumental and would send a message to the owner that this is what the fan base wants,” Scott Finney, a Sacramento resident, told The Associated Press. “They want the ownership to sell the team so they can remain in Oakland.”
But should Nevada approve public funds toward a new stadium, the hopes of building a new park in Oakland, at Howard Terminal or elsewhere, would likely vanish, even as the city of Oakland has worked to keep the door open.
Source: The New York Times
