The A's saw "one of the smallest Opening Day crowds" in the team's 57-year history last night, as 13,522 fans showed upGetty Images
The A's saw "one of the smallest Opening Day crowds" in the team's 57-year history last night, as 13,522 fans showed up -- and some fans "bunkered in the parking lot to protest" the team's planned relocation to Las Vegas -- for the season opener in Oakland. It was officially the seventh-smallest attendance in the A's Opening Day history, "although that includes debuts limited by the COVID pandemic in 2020 (no fans) and 2021." Chants of "'Sell-The-Team' faintly followed in the fifth inning," and "the occasional 'Let’s-Go-A's' chant proved just as futile." Some of those fans "presumably ditched the outside gathering to fill pockets of seats around the Coliseum’s first and second decks" (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 3/28). The 13,522 was "simply the announced crowd and may or may not have been accurate" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 3/28).
The parking lot boycott/protest was organized by two local fan groups. The A's initially announced they would open the parking lots just two hours before the 7pm PT game, rather than four hours before, but "when waiting cars began to stack up and threaten to clog Hegenberger Road, the gates were opened 45 minutes earlier than the team’s initial timetable." At first pitch, traffic waiting to get into the parking lot "was still backed up." Attendance of the protest in the parking lot was estimated at that point "to be at 2-3,000 fans." At the boycott party, fans "lined up for free T-shirts, SELL flags and pins." There was a "cornhole tournament, music from two mariachi bands, and food stands, some of it free" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 3/28).
Bryan Johansen, one of the protest organizers, said he arrived at noon as "one of the first cars there" and was working with A's VP/Stadium Operations Dave Rinetti to "figure out how to get fans safely into the parking lot" (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 3/28).
