Attendance inside the ballpark has been a glaring issue for the A’s this year. But attendance outside the stadium was not an issue on Saturday.
There were plenty of fans there. The only problem was they were beating each other up.
Video posted on Twitter Saturday night showed a wild scene outside the Oakland-Alameda County Stadium, where dozens of fans pummeled each other. At the same time, security tried in vain to break up the brawl.
At least two separate groups were fighting, but not nearly enough security was on hand to stop the trouble. Tensions were exceptionally high in the Bay Area last week after the A’s announced that their long-rumored move to Las Vegas had become official.
This makes the second professional franchise Oakland has lost to Las Vegas in recent years. This trend began two years ago when the then-Oakland Raiders jetted off to Sin City to become the Las Vegas Raiders.
“This agreement follows months of negotiations between the state, the county, and the A’s, and I believe it gives us a tremendous opportunity to continue building on the professional sports infrastructure of southern Nevada,” Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo said of the deal to bring the A’s to Vegas. “Las Vegas is clearly a sports town, and Major League Baseball should be a part of it.”
The A’s rank dead last in attendance, drawing an average of a mere 8,886 fans to each home game.