Usually, while we’re focusing on major stars like Shohei Ohtani or super teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, other interesting stories are running in shadow. The biggest among those stories is undoubtedly the tale of the Oakland Athletics. It wouldn’t have been surprising to see the team just sink to the bottom this season.

Lack of investment plus an impending move to Las Vegas added with the huge fan protests could’ve been a nice excuse. But then the players did something better – they began performing well! And that has led to the present tragic situation.

The feud between the Athletics fans and John Fisher has led to the Coliseum looking like a ghost town. A place that once hosted some of the loudest and most boisterous of fans has been eerily silent this season. Though it can hold over 46,000 fans, how many are actually there? Barely under 6000 fans on average attend the games. That has led the insider Susan Slusser to make a huge call to all the A’s fans.

“It makes a huge difference whether you’ve got like 1300 people in the stand and maybe 8000. They need the support, not from the monetary standpoint but people cheering for them standpoint,” Slusser said in an appearance on the Foul Territory Show. “These guys have worked their whole life to get to where they are. They’re playing well but nobody’s there to see it.”

That led to Slusser asking the Athletics’ fans to show up in the stadium. She posed an interesting question, “If you’re an A’s and you’re boycotting going to games, boycott them on the TV too. Why are you sitting there watching it for free if you don’t care enough to support the players…The players have nothing to do with it, go support the players,” Susan Slusser finished. 

It’s true that despite facing multiple disadvantages the A’s players have managed to stay competitive. As of now, they’re just 4 games behind the AL West leader the Seattle Mariners. But can it motivate fans to fill the Coliseum for one last season?

A finale that no one wanted – How the Oakland Athletics’ move fractured a pure relationship

The relationship between a city and its baseball team is perhaps the deepest of them all. Generations pass down this love and loyalty to their children. As a result, a move is usually seen as treason, a break of trust. That’s exactly what happened here but more importantly, the Athletics management stopped investing in the team even before the move to Vegas became imminent. That was the straw that ultimately broke the camel’s back, which in this case, was the fans’ relationship with the team.

Now despite Mason Miller’s heroic (and friendly scary) pitching winning everyone’s hearts, the stadium is empty. In 2023, on average, over 9000 fans watched the Athletics game in the Coliseum, but in 2024 that number has fallen to just under 6000. More importantly, even that number is continuing to fall. Usually when one hears the word “finale” it signifies grandness, but not this time. Maybe for the Athletics fans, the “finale” is something they never wanted so aren’t showing up to witness it.