When the Sacramento River Cats took the field against the Las Vegas Aviators on April 27 at Sutter Health Park, a sea of green enveloped the open space beyond the right field wall.
It wasn’t because of the landscaping.
Draped in Kelly green “SELL” shirts and Oakland gear, a couple hundred A’s fans gathered on the banks of the Sacramento River to send a message: The fan uprisings that have shadowed the team for more than a year now aren’t stopping after their move north for a three-plus-year marriage between the franchise and California’s capital city,
“You can’t just think moving an hour away will stop us from protesting the move,” Jorge Leon, founder of the Oakland 68s, an A’s fan group, said in the days leading up to the game featuring the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, who will soon share their home with the A’s.
“We’re going to find a way to have our voices heard, whether it’s Oakland, Las Vegas or Sacramento.”
The A’s will leave Oakland after the 2024 season for Sacramento after owner John Fisher brokered an agreement with Kings and River Cats owner Vivek Ranadive to call the 14,000-seat Sutter Health Park home until at least 2027 as their Las Vegas stadium is built.
Over the past year, with fan anger in full swing, Fisher has rarely made public appearances in the Bay Area or at the Oakland Coliseum. Fans have turned his name and likeness into a symbol of protest, making signs and flags with harsh words and his face on them. “Fisher Out,” one sign read at the tailgate in the parking lot of Sutter Health Park hours before first pitch in late April.
It’s only a matter of time until the ballpark demonstrations are taken to another level, according to Bryan Johansen, co-founder of Last Dive Bar, an Oakland apparel company that’s helped organize the half-dozen fan protests over the past year.
As the relocation comes to a head, Johansen said it may be time to expand the protest movement outside of the A’s organization, potentially targeting Ranadive’s Kings or Fisher’s San Jose Earthquakes or Gap, his family-owned clothing company. And like Fisher, Ranadive should expect to see and hear from A’s fans any time he makes a public appearance, Johansen added.
Fisher has drawn the brunt of the fan anger after countless stadium failures and little investment in the team on the field, let alone the crumbling Coliseum.
After providing a lifeline to Fisher, it’s Ranadive, who has been touted as the Kings franchise savior in his adopted hometown of Sacramento, now inspiring ire.
“Vivek [Ranadive] is a hypocrite,” A’s fan Gabriel Hernandez said. “He claims to be about community, and saving the [Sacramento] Kings, but we’re going through the same thing here. He’s stepping in to be the savior for John Fisher instead of the savior for the fans here in Oakland.”
Ranadive did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.
It’s that tight-knit Oakland community that Dave Peters, otherwise known as “Bleacher Dave” for his appearances beyond the walls at the Coliseum, will miss most.
“This is a family,” Peters said shortly after making his two-plus hour Amtrak trip from Oakland to Sacramento to show his frustration. “I’ve known some people in this A’s community for decades. And it’s getting ripped away from us.”
A decade ago, the Sacramento Kings ended a relocation scare of their own after years of rumors about moves to Seattle, Anaheim, Virginia Beach and elsewhere.
With the help of a passionate fan base, Ranadive swooped in to buy the team from the disgraced Maloof family in 2013, keeping the franchise in Sacramento with a new downtown arena and buying himself a lifetime of goodwill in a city with a single professional sports team.
Ranadive’s move for the A’s may be as much a favor for Fisher as it is a ploy for a future Major League Baseball team in Sacramento, something he all but stated at the press conference announcing the A’s relocation.
“If we can prove that there’s a market here [and] we can make the team successful, I think we’re in full position to get the new franchise,” Ranadive said.
After failing to come to terms with the City of Oakland on a lease for the Coliseum, where the A’s would play in 2025 was up in the air, with rumors of Sacramento, Salt Lake City and the Aviators’ Triple-A park in Las Vegas as rumored sites.
But it wasn’t until Ranadive came through with his rent-free deal that Fisher found a home for his vagabond A’s.
Ranadive and Sacramento will now get their three-year tryout as a two-sport city, but it’s coming with a cost. If Ranadive aimed to win over those infuriated with what’s come of their favorite baseball team in the process, it appears he’s falling short.
“He was supposed to be the patron saint, keeping the Kings ‘rooted in Sacramento,’” Johansen said. “Now here he is uprooting another team from its community, one that’s been there for more than 50 years. Why does one community mean more than another?”
Johansen, who was in attendance for the “reverse boycott” at the Coliseum last June, the tailgate boycott on Opening Day this season, and several other fan demonstrations over the past year, said it’s just the beginning of what’s sure to be a fraught relationship between frustrated A’s fans and Sacramento.
In between “Sell the Team” chants from the crowd just beyond the right field wall, Johansen said the April 27 protest was one of many outpourings that will travel to the Central Valley for however long the A’s call Sacramento home.
“We’re introducing ourselves to Vivek,” Johansen said. “We aren’t going away easy.”
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