The Oakland Athletics have long been known for their sparse crowds, but in the 2023 season, they have already hit a level that was outdone by nearly a dozen minor league clubs.
Oakland Athletics owner John Fischer threw up the white flag on trying to be a competitive team long ago. While the franchise has had several good seasons over the last decade, that is more a product of the front office getting a little lucky in player development despite the limited resources they have.
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The lack of a concerted effort to really win and spend a little money has beaten Athletics fans into submission over the last two decades. The fact that their current home arena, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, is by far the worst in the sport doesn’t help fan interest level either. That’s why you can’t blame supporters for being uninterested in visiting the stadium beyond opening day.
Oakland Athletics record (2023): 2-4
That showed in a major way on Tuesday when the attendance for the Oakland Athletics versus Cleveland Guardians game was a putrid 3,407 for the stadium that has a capacity of 46,847. It’s a horrid number for a professional sports team, yet it gets much worse than that.
No matter how bad professional game attendance is, it’s still usually far better than minor league games which take place in small towns and feature a bunch of unknown prospects. However, that wasn’t the case on Tuesday as not one, not two, not three, but 11 Triple-A games that day sold more tickets than the Athletics clash with the Guardians.
Sporting News posted the details, which you can find below.
You will notice that four of the Triple-A games noted actually pulled in twice as many fans as the Oakland Athletics did for their game earlier this week. The stat takes the team’s continued poor showing in ticket sales to a sad but also pretty funny new low.
It has been speculated for several years now the organization’s owner is looking to find a way to get the team to Las Vegas in the near future as Sin City continues to build a reputation as a new hub for professional sports teams. With the NFL’s Raiders and NHL’s Golden Knights calling Vegas home.