With A’s in town, a call for ‘sell the team’ chants at Dodger Stadium

We have not covered much of the ongoing debacle coming out of Oakland as of late for a couple of reasons. First, the numbers do not lie — this topic does not grab the vast majority of you and that statement is fair. This site is a Dodgers’ website after all. Moreover, this fan base lives in the spending and winning proverbial penthouse. Oakland — less so.

However, some days it does feel like I can write “The Dodgers are trading Noah Syndergaard for Rich Hill and some Primanti’s sandwiches.” Obviously, that trade did not happen as Ahmed Rosario is here and Syndergaard is gone. If I want Primanti’s, I will have to book a flight to Pittsburgh or cheat.

Thoughts on the Dodgers' moves can wait for another day after the deadline has passed. In the interim, we have something important to discuss: the Oakland Athletics have come to town.

As we have covered extensively, the City of Oakland is getting a raw deal as John Fisher and company are on the precipice of relocating from a city the team has called home since 1968. On June 13, the Las Vegas legislature passed a bill to provide $380 million in public funding for a proposed $1.5 billion, 30,000 stadium on the Vegas Strip.

Never mind the logistical hurdles to building a stadium on such a small plot of land. Never mind the borderline insanity of building an open-air stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, a region that can get as hot as 117F/47.2C (if not higher). Never mind, the downsize of the television market from going to the tenth largest region in the country to the fortieth.

The above renderings, in part, are what owner John Fisher and team president Dave Kaval used to sell Nevada legislators on the proposal to relocate the Athletics using public money. However, on July 29, the A’s told designers to “never mind” as the logistical challenges of putting a retractable roof on a nine-acre site are proving a larger hurdle than publicly acknowledged.

The fans’ rage

On the same night, prior to the final vote, the Oakland faithful took the Coliseum and let their feelings be heard. If a single phrase has come to define the 2023 season for the Athletics, it is the following: Sell the Team.

From the All-Star Game to around the league, the majority of baseball fans have taken to the fan’s cause, with merchandise and smaller fan protests in support of the Athletics fans popping up around the league, even to cross-bay rival San Francisco. On July 26, Giants and Athletics fans banded together to chant “Sell the Team” during the game.

What this story has to do with you

As of this essay, the Oakland move is not final yet as the owners need to vote on the relocation, with 75 percent of the owners required to okay the move. The Athletics would also need to pay a relocation fee of up to $1 billion, which commissioner Manfred has publicly said would be waived if the Athletics move to Las Vegas.

Do I honestly think that the fan protest is going to amount to the team staying in Oakland? Honestly, no. The proverbial ship has left the harbor and is well on its way to hitting the figurative iceberg. But sometimes all you can do is make some noise, because to be silent in the absence of ignorance is to be complicit.

And by clicking on this article, you no longer have the option to claim to be ignorant on this issue. It was not so long ago that the Dodgers were cursed with truly terrible, incompetent, feckless ownership that drove this team into the ground. Publicly pressuring the Dodgers to vote no on the relocation likely will not prevent the Athletics from moving to Oakland.

But such an act would be the right, moral thing to do. And sometimes that act is enough.

If you are going to the games in Los Angeles, I would ask that you be silent at the top of the fifth inning for the first batter, then scream “Sell the Team” for the rest of the frame for as long as you would like. It is not our fight, but we should be good hosts before we make our likely final visit to Oakland next year.