A’s president Dave Kaval seems a bit bitter about the turnout

It’s no secret that Oakland A’s struggle to show up. They have struggled in this department for years. 2022 is a whole different monster for the A’s, however. After two streaks on the road to open the season, the A’s came home with a modest crowd of 17,503. That number dropped drastically for Game 2 of the series, when attendance dropped nearly 80% for 3,748. Game 3 was no better, as attendance dipped again to just 2,703. The A’s again saw a slight increase in attendance four days later for the final game of their series against division rival Texas, although that match (11,083 fans in attendance) still could not match attendance for the A’s home opener.

National media took notice. Everywhere you look, rumors are swirling about how attendance could have gotten so bad. Are A fans finally done with the perpetual state of rebuilding the team has been going through since the late 2000s? Are the fans turned away by all the wild cats run around the RingCentral Coliseum? Maybe the fans just aren’t interested in a team that has no interest in staying in Oakland? Why would fans want to go to games after all their best players have been traded AND ticket prices and parking just got on? There are a multitude of reasons why A fans don’t go to games, and most of the blame for this lack of attendance can be placed on the team’s front office and its reluctance to listen to fans. Maybe if the A’s cut ticket prices, spent some decent money on free agents, and actually tried to reach the playoffs after finishing five games out of a playoff spot there’s a year, the fans would support their team.

This is what the front office should do. Do you know what they absolutely must not do? Try to convince their fans that every team has similar attendance issues, but that’s exactly what team president Dave Kaval tried to do last night.

This tweet was the first of many tweets criticizing the Giants’ lack of attendance last night in Game 1 of the Bay Bridge series. Kaval would eventually retweet A’s fans and their photos showing empty seats in Oracle Park. He would criticize the San Francisco media for pushing the narrative that the A’s are struggling with attendance without mentioning how well the Giants have done. All of these would be great points…if any of them were true. In reality, the Giants didn’t really have an assist problem last night. According to Baseball Reference, last night’s game against the Giants drew 32,898 spectators. That’s about 78.5 percent of peak occupancy (41,915).

That 32,898 fans in attendance last night is more than any four-game streak the A’s have had all season. Also, the Giants haven’t had a single home game this year with less than 20,000 spectators. Their season low was April 11, Game 1 of a series against the Padres. There were 23,279 fans there. That’s more than the A’s had their entire opener against Baltimore.

The Giants are 11th in MLB in average attendance at home This year. In 2021, they were twelfth and averaged nearly 12,000 fewer fans per home game. Obviously, this year’s numbers will drop midway through the season, but it’s still a good start for the Giants. At 20 game mark last season, the Giants drew 19,000 total fans for their series with the Miami Marlins. Of course, the Giants had no expectations of being good last year, which probably played a role in the lack of attendance, but based on last year’s numbers, the Giants are actually a lot better now than they were a year ago. The same cannot be said for athletics.

There is always a chance that the numbers are falsified and the Giants may not attract as many fans. The images Kaval was retweeting would certainly push this narrative, but they were also taken out of context. Take a look, for example, at this photo that Kaval retweeted:

The stands are sparse, but that’s certainly not what you’d see in an A game this year. Also, this photo was taken between the first and second innings of last night’s game. As someone who grew up in the Bay Area and attended many Giants and A games growing up, I can tell you that for night games on weekdays, fans usually don’t start showing up until a little later. Also, as he was caught between innings, there was no action pending. It’s the perfect time for fans to get up from their seats and wander around the stadium looking for friends or queuing for concessions. There were most likely dozens of people present occupying those seats moments before this photo was taken.

Whichever way you slice it, the A’s are the team with the biggest attendance problem in MLB right now. They average 7,942 fans per game at home, just over half the next closest team, the Pittsburgh Pirates (13,118). The blame should be pinned on the front office, and while they’d like to believe that every other MLB team is suffering in terms of attendance, that’s just not true. Congratulations Kaval, you made your bed when you traded Matt Olson, Matt Chapman and Sean Manaea. Now lie down in it. Stop trying to push false narratives about your competitors who are at least trying to put together a competitive team in 2022.