Will The A’s Ever Have A Sell Out Crowd Again?

A couple of Fridays ago, I went to the opening series A’s and Giants game.  I was not surprised to see that it was literally a  36,067  fan full house due to the fact that it was a Bay Bridge series.   It did get me thinking though.  First, that it would be amazing to have the all of these fans come to all of the games and second, that it is a shame that Oakland still cannot get their act together for the proposal of a new stadium.

Of course after the A’s swept the Giants, reality set in again and it was back to the quarter or half filled stands as the team went on to play the Marlins, the Diamondbacks and the Mariners. Sound like a broken record?

In fact,  according to A’s marketing executive from 1980-1995, Andy Dolich,  seeing thousands of empty seats at the A’s and Yankees game made him very sad.  Dolich went on to say, “”There was a time — and it’s getting harder for people to remember — when the Coliseum was the place to be. It was the Giants who were an afterthought. It was the Giants who were playing in a dump and waiting for high-profile opponents to come into town. It’s completely flipped.”

It’s evident that the main reason for this problem of low attendance is the stadium issue.  The old cement mausoleum could be dealt with if commissioner Bud Selig would make a decision along with his blue ribbon committee as to when,  where and how a new stadium could be built, preferably if Lew Wolff had it his way, which he obviously does not, would like that place to be in San Jose.  All it takes is for Bud Selig to snap his fingers, like he did earlier today regarding the Los Angeles Dodgers Bankruptcy and things would get done.  I can’t tell you why he has been sitting on this decision.  Perhaps it’s not priority for him.

This mess with the Coliseum can be easily taken care of with this.  Why can’t the A’s stay where they are at, while management comes up with plan to renovate the coliseum.  Stanford did it by placing a new stadium inside the old one.  The CAL Bears are doing it this year, while the team plays at AT&T park for the 2011 football season.

The A’s don’t want to move to San Jose.  Fans in San Jose are Giants fans and I heard that first hand when I went to that very game a couple of Fridays ago.  A Giants fan sitting in back of me was addressing the fact that if the A’s would move to San Jose he would probably go to the games, however, he also stated that he would never be an A’s fan.  My thought was, “why bother if you are not going to be a fan.”

So, we play the waiting game as usual.  I guess there is always Root Beer Float and Fourth of July Fireworks day where the coliseum is expected to bring in twenty to thirty thousand fans.  Better than  nothing I guess.