A’s fans bring ‘sell the team’ chants, protest to MLB All-Star Game

Oakland Athletics fans continued their ongoing protests at the 2023 MLB All-Star Game, where they again broke out into “sell the team” chants.

“Sell the team” chants echoed throughout the Oakland Coliseum during the 2023 season. They echoed at Lumen Field during the MLB Draft. And they echoed at T-Mobile Park during one of baseball’s marquee events of the year.

The 2023 midsummer classic coincides with a particularly painful part in the Oakland Athletics’ history, one that shall not be so easily forgotten.

In the spring, A’s owner John Fisher announced he was building a new stadium in Las Vegas to replace the historic Coliseum, his vision of a sprawling commercial entertainment venue that runs against the simple desires and passions of the real fans. The O.G. ones.

Game after game, A’s fans gathered in their beloved ballpark with shirts and signs sharing a mutual hatred of Fisher and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to protest the stadium relocation, and Tuesday night was no different.

At the top of the fifth inning in the MLB All-Star Game (a homage to the A’s 55 years in Oakland), A’s fans started to chant that solemn and biting slogan, “Sell the team.”

They also chanted during Mariners’ Brent Rooker’s at-bat in the sixth.

A’s fans continue to protest stadium relocation at MLB All-Star Game

A month earlier, A’s fans went viral for packing the Coliseum in a tactic known as a “reverse boycott.” Despite the honest and concerted efforts of a worn-down fanbase, the relocation is set to go through as Nevada already has the green light to start on the $380 million project, estimated to be done in 2027.

Fisher’s despicable intentions are the stuff of super-leagues and money-grubbing businessmen, and in some ways, it’s quite fitting A’s fans continued their protests in Seattle.

Back in 2008, against Seattle citizens’ wishes, the NBA’s SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City and later became the Thunder. The details differ, naturally, but the sentiment is the same: what is in the best interests of the owner is often not in the best interests of the fans.

Lift that sign up, wearisome A’s fans, and carry on.