Oakland A's Fans Planning 2024 Opening Day Boycott After Las Vegas Move Approval

Fans of the Oakland Athletics are planning a boycott on Opening Day of the 2024 MLB season to protest the franchise's relocation to Las Vegas.

Last Dive Bar was among those calling for collective action upon news that MLB owners approved the Athletics' move to Sin City.

"I tell people, like, if you think this was a crazy year, wait until next year," said Jorge Leon, the president of another fan group, the Oakland 68s, to The Athletic's Melissa Lockard. "We're gonna go even harder."

Gaining the approval of owners was one of the biggest remaining hurdles for the A's in the relocation process.

There's still the small matter of finding somewhere to play while the new stadium in Las Vegas is under construction. The public funding plan for that stadium is facing a lawsuit from a Nevada teachers union as well.

But it feels more inevitable than ever that the Athletics are leaving Oakland once and for all.

A's fans have tried in vain to stop this from happening. They've called on owner John Fisher to sell the team. They staged a "reverse boycott" in order to show Fisher and MLB that Oakland remains a baseball town. They even took their protests outside of Oakland; "sell the team" chants were audible during the 2023 MLB All-Star Game.

Now, there's little recourse but to stay away and stay away for good.

The cynical view is that a boycott is not only futile but will also register little impact when the A's already had the lowest average attendance in MLB (10,275).

However, there's a clear symbolism to A's fans en masse registering their dissatisfaction with Fisher and MLB writ large. They can blunt some of the momentum team ownership will attempt to generate before the move to Las Vegas. Nothing says excitement than the Athletics, who figure to be one of the worst teams in baseball, playing games in an even emptier Oakland Coliseum.

In addition, the fanbase can make it clear the A's aren't welcome in the Bay Area anymore beyond 2024.

With everything Fisher and Athletics officials did to poison the well in Oakland, it's only fair that fans would return the favor.