Who knows if it’ll work, but the Reverse Boycott promises to be a good time

This 2023 season has been the bleakest in A’s memory. The fact that the A’s are on pace to literally have the worst record in MLB history is only the second-worst storyline of the season. The worst, of course, being John Fisher and his lackey A’s President Dave “Pinocchio except as a human puppet and not a wooden one” Kaval ham-handedly trying to get the hell out of town, to a town that neither wants nor needs them. Meanwhile, a team that averaged over 20,000 fans per game in the last pre-pandemic season, has now been effectively boycotted, with about 8,500 fans per game (a wildly optimistic official number) attending this erstwhile funeral march.

The boycott (classic edition) anecdotally has worked. It seems Vegas lawmakers and the voters of Nevada have taken note on how poor ownership has been. In addition, national voices (finally) have stopped castigating the fans for poor attendance but have turned their attention to A’s ownership. For years fans were blamed for not supporting the team, despite showing up to watch the A’s in the (as much as I love it) objectively worst stadium in MLB, and despite year after year taking the beating of watching stars get discarded and championship contenders broken up. It’s nice to see us fans actually getting some love, even if the bar is low (competing for love against the likes of John Fisher, Dave Kaval, and Rob Manfred isn’t really a challenge).

As the oceans of empty seats and the crappy attempted Vegas move (and initial rejection) garnered national attention and some level of support for A’s fans, a quandary was developing? How do we show love for a team and our fellow fans, and while still spewing wretched hate for ownership? And possibly also, what do we do with all the free time we suddenly have?

Enter the “Reverse Boycott” at tomorrow’s (Tuesday, June 13th) game versus the Tampa Bay Rays. The maneuver was initially proposed by die-hard A’s fan Stu Clary, and quickly picked up on and propagated by the some of more vocal and followed members of the fanbase. Local media has wholeheartedly supported the cause (again...better late than never), and it seems to have taken off. Unofficial reports (read: insane die-hards on social media who went section by section on the A’s ticket website) estimate that over 20,000 or more fans are expected. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but the A’s attendance at Tuesday home games this year (formerly Free Parking Tuesdays, now Revenue Share Tuesdays) is 3,913. That’s right, under 4,000 people are bothering to come to A’s games on Tuesdays.

I distinctly remember one of those Tuesdays receiving a sponsored ad from the Atlanta Braves telling me to buy tickets in Oakland to watch the Braves. It’s common for the home teams to advertise the visiting attractions. It’s another thing for a road team to spend ad dollars just so their team doesn’t have a pathetic crowd on the road (they did pull in over 5,000, so maybe it worked? Congrats on getting a few bucks to Fisher I guess).

Anyway — tomorrow is going to be special. As noted on the Elephant Rumblings today — there’s a bunch of tailgates planned, people are printing and distributing “SELL” t-shirts, the bleacher crew will be back for one game to bang the drums, and there are sure to be a lot of familiar faces in the crowd. In other words, it’ll be like it was, if you remember going to A’s games pre-Kavalapocalypse.

At worst, tomorrow’s game will be a reminder of the good times you had, and you can at least credit yourself for being there at the last stand for the Oakland A’s. At best, it’ll make a real difference and continue the momentum that seems to be building against this putrid ownership.

A’s fans, we owe it to ourselves to be there tomorrow and make our voices heard.