The worst-drawing team in MLB is now facing a very different attendance challenge.
The A’s, playing their last season in Oakland before relocating to Sacramento and then Las Vegas, are averaging about 9,700 tickets sold per game this season. A cumulative attendance likely to end at around 800,000 for the full 2024 home schedule is on track to be one of MLB’s lowest figures for any team in the last 45 years, except for seasons impacted by work stoppages or the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oakland’s final home game, Sept. 26 against the Rangers, presents the team with the opposite problem. The game is already a sellout, with resale ticket prices beginning at more than $100 each. Some A’s fans are now pushing the club to open “Mount Davis,” the elevated outfield seating portion of the Oakland Coliseum constructed in the 1990s for the return of the NFL’s Raiders, and colloquially named for that team’s late owner, Al Davis. Making that area—closed for MLB games since it was used for the 2019 wild-card game won by the Rays—available to fans would add more than 8,000 seats.
“For one night, we will put aside our differences and come together to soak in one last game at the Coliseum,” a group of fans wrote recently in an open letter to the team. “We want this final game to be a memorable experience for everyone involved.”
Team Response
The team has not responded directly to the letter, or agreed in any way to open the space, only saying in a statement that “we are committed to providing the best experience possible for your fans. For the final game, we will have increased levels of staffing, including the parking lot, and extra security in place.”
Additionally, the rest of the third level of the Coliseum is typically barren, given the club’s low attendance. The fan group has sought to address the operational issues of staffing the upper deck, pledging dozens of volunteers for that final game.
“We know this area hasn’t been used in years, and that it has not been maintained,” the fan letter continues. “We also understand that it will take some effort to make it usable for one last game. That’s why we are offering our help.”
More Challenges Down the Road
While the late-schedule issues continue in Oakland, the A’s are facing more trouble down the road in both their temporary home in Sacramento and long-term destination of Las Vegas. A planned ballpark along the Las Vegas Strip still is awaiting a finalized financing plan. The interim, three-year stay at Sutter Health Park, meanwhile, remains a separate source of frustration with the player and agent communities, particularly around the artificial turf field that is there and the triple-digit temperatures common there in the summer.
The turf field is seen as a necessity since the A’s will be sharing the ballpark with the Sacramento River Cats, the Giants’ top minor-league affiliate
“Right now, some of the issues with the A’s playing in Sacramento are frankly a collective bargaining nightmare,” agent Paul Cobbe told the San Francisco Chronicle. “When the Blue Jays were in Buffalo that was force majeure because of COVID. They could change a bunch of collective bargaining stuff immediately. That’s not the case here.”
