Oakland A’s Fans Mobilize “Reverse Boycott”

Oakland A’s fans have been protesting the team’s relocation to Las Vegas, expressing their dissatisfaction at recent games at a small scale. However, a larger grassroots event is now emerging to draw more attention to the fans’ concerns. Next Tuesday, fans of the Oakland A’s baseball team are planning a unique event called a “reverse boycott” to express their discontent with the team’s ownership. The reverse boycott involves filling the seats of the stadium for the game on June 13th against the Tampa Bay Rays as a way to demonstrate their passion and support for the team.

Image from (Un)Rooted in Oakland twitter post – original organizer of the Oakland A’s “reverse boycott”

Details are on The Oakland A’s Reddit: 
“For the June 13th game vs Tampa Bay (game time 6:40 PM), we’re gonna pack the Coliseum as full as we possibly can. We’re gonna party, tailgate, and have a tremendous time celebrating the best fanbase in the game while we rally against some of the very worst owners in any sport. We’re encouraging signs, t-shirts, and chants to show that the problem in Oakland is not our passionate and awesome fanbase but rather the crappy and disengaged ownership we have to deal with. Especially given the dark turn things have taken, this is an extremely frustrated fanbase right now, and this is our chance to release some of that frustration.”

The reddit thread goes on to explain that the organized event was created by (un)Rooted in Oakland on Twitter and also has all of the FAQs surrounding the reverse boycott. Including, why they picked Tuesday’s game vs Tampa Bay, whether it’s counterintuitive to spend money on the team as part of protest and why should we come to the protest now even after knowing the A’s are leaving.

The answer to the last question about why: to “raise hell.”

This Wiki Commons image of a packed Oakland A’s game was in 2006.

Free Oakland A’s Tickets for June 13th are being fundraised

If you can’t afford a ticket, there may be an opportunity to score a free one. I saw two opportunities but I’m sure there are more. Firstly, there is an official reverse boycott t-shirt. Designed and sold by Last Dive Bar, the proceeds of the shirts will go towards tickets. As stated on their product listing page: “Proceeds from the sale of We are here shirts will go towards buying tickets to get more fan into the coliseum on June 13th!!” I also saw a mention from @Oakland68s which stated that a generous donation of 100 tickets for the June 13th game. 

Diving Deeper: Why exactly is there a reverse boycott happening?

Right now, the A’s 3-13 record is the worst in baseball but their fans are here to prove that they still have love for their home team. But that’s not the reason that people are organizing the reverse boycott.

One reason the fans are angry is that they feel ownership isn’t trying to build a winning team. A’s leadership has traded away several of the team’s best players – including, Sean Murphy, Matt Olson, Chris Bassitt, Sean Manaea, Sonny Gray and Matt Chapman. Even after they traded fan favorite players, Oakland A’s leadership increased ticket prices.

So much of it has to do with fans believing that, if they show that they care about the team, maybe the owners of the team will start to care also. Fans hope to prove that it’s not the empty seats which are the problem.

Image of fans from (Un)Rooted in Oakland on Twitter

Of course the looming move to Las Vegas also has people wanting to show support. We recently saw The Warriors move across the bay to San Francisco. We don’t also want to see our baseball team leave the area also. The team was in negotiation with The City of Oakland on a waterfront property when they announced the likely move to Nevada. It was a huge blow to baseball fans who have been supporting The Oakland A’s their whole life.

Where to get tickets to the Reverse Boycott during Tuesday’s Oakland A’s game:

There are still seats (as of Friday morning) on the MLB website. Some as low as $14.
GET TICKETS TO THE GAME