The Oakland Athletics will be moving to Las Vegas. In this photo taken in Oakland, you can see the lack of fans in the stadium, despite that it was taken during the opening series of the season. During L.A.’s visit to Oakland at the beginning of the season, including players like Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, one would think there would be some more fans in the stands, but not there. The Oakland A’s also had the lowest average attendance in the MLB last year by a long shot, with less than 10,000 fans per game. This past Monday in Oakland, they had a turnout of just over 3,000 fans. In a stadium that has a capacity of over 46,000, obviously, this is not the result they would like.

The A’s made the decision very recently to buy land in Vegas and they plan on building a ballpark. Will this help the attendance? Yes. Will this improve the team? No. The team is currently 5-18, marking a tie for a league-worst win-loss record. This, combined with some other factors, is the reason why the fan turnout has been so poor. There is no way the A’s can sustain a team like this and expect fans to keep coming back. However, there is absolutely no doubt that the Athletics have arguably the best fans come playoff time. Unfortunately, there has not been much of that lately. 

The A’s need to get better; this is obvious, but let’s talk about the fans. Should they have completely abandoned their team? You can argue it either way, who would pay money to go see an almost guaranteed loss? Lots of A’s fans are upset about them relocating, so why wouldn’t they show some support by showing up? We will see what happens when they get to Vegas, a ballpark should be done by around 2027.