Dave Johansen walks to his seat among other members of the Last Dive Bar and the Oakland 68s, who had gathered to protest the A’s departure from Oakland on August 6. The A’s final game at the Coliseum is scheduled for September 26.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The ChronicleIf you like solemn but poorly planned funerals, don’t miss the Oakland Athletics’ final home game on September 26th.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you might even get trampled in the rush to get the game’s free gift, a replica of the Colosseum.
This final game will be a microcosm of the A’s last quarter-century in Oakland under team owner John Fisher: costly and chaotic, ending in broken hearts and a touch of toy rage.
The article continues below this ad
Who do I predict will win that day? Fisher and his trusty sidekick, A’s president Dave Kaval. Among the nice parting gifts being handed out is one that Fisher is giving himself – the $40 million profit he will make from the sale of his half of the Coliseum.
That’s hard work for the money. Fisher bought half of the Coliseum in 2019 for $85 million. He got it cheap because he and Kaval stated in writing that they needed the Coliseum as a backup site for a new baseball stadium if their plans for Howard Terminal fell through. The district didn’t want to lose the A’s, so it was sold for a good price.
After declaring the Coliseum site unsuitable for baseball (what?), Fisher and Kaval sat on that half of the Coliseum for nearly five years, unable to find time to work with a group of Oakland guys who bought the other half and were eager to develop the site. Recently, Fisher was sold for $125 million.
Fisher will almost certainly not be there to say goodbye for this final game, but he will be there in spirit, cashing in until the end.
The article continues below this ad
The game sold out three weeks ago, but you can still get a seat through Seat Geek on the team’s website. On Wednesday, seats were available for just $161 in the Sir Edmund Hillary section, top row of the upper deck.
I’m just guessing the A’s aren’t used to packing a game with 42,000 fans, so there might be some delays getting into the parking lot, getting into the stadium, and waiting in line at the beer counter.
It could get messy. Getting one of these valuable Coliseum replicas could be a gamble. The A’s say they’ll give away 25,000 of these little treasures, meaning more than 17,000 fans will be left out.
Why didn’t the A’s think to order enough replicas for every fan? And while they were at it, order a few thousand more to give to the people who cleaned the bathrooms at Possum Palace, took the tickets, and swept up after them?
How much could these little Coliseum gems cost? A few dollars apiece? Fisher bought the team for $180 million in 2005, and it’s now worth at least $1.2 billion. And he just ripped off the locals for another $40 million.
The article continues below this ad
They say you can’t take it with you, but apparently you can if you only go as far as Sacramento.
The A’s aren’t the only team that takes advantage of their fans by not giving every ticket holder one of the promotional items. The Giants and most teams do it, too. But on the last day of the season, a day the A’s knew all along could be the team’s last game here? Come on.
I was told the A’s did They didn’t think about ordering more Coliseums, but they just didn’t do it soon enough. By the time they realized they would have at least 17,000 disappointed fans, it was too late to order more.
Perhaps the folks in the A’s advertising department were distracted by the surprise announcement a month ago that half of them would be fired once the season was over. If you count at home, the total number of jobs lost is 591, including 358 game-day seasonal employees.
Distributing this Coliseum jewel on the final day of play has become a logistical nightmare. Normally, this item would be distributed to the first 25,000 fans through the turnstiles. But there is concern that some fans, in their grief and anger over the loss of their A’s, will throw their little Coliseums onto the field.
The article continues below this ad
The A’s are considering giving the items away to fans as they leave This would mean that after the last game, fans would no longer be able to stay in the stadium to soak up the atmosphere of the last ball game in the old Coliseum and honor the players, but would feel compelled to join the stampede toward the exits.
At the A’s’ final game ever in Oakland, fans will fill the stands to celebrate their boys and reminisce, but the party will be marred by the stinginess and poor planning of Fisher and his staff.
A botched operation from start to finish. That could serve as a slogan for the history of the John Fisher era.
Reach Scott Ostler: [email protected]; X/Twitter: @scottostler
