Two A's fan groups -- Last Dive Bar and the Oakland 68s -- "organized their own" Fan Fest at Jack London Square on Saturday. Several thousand fans turned out -- "between 3,000 and 4,000 by one estimate" -- to show their "exuberance for the A’s and their frustration" with owner John Fisher’s plan to move the team to Las Vegas. A handful of former players also "made appearances.” There were “Sell” shirts and "signs articulating disdain for Fisher and A’s President Dave Kaval." Other Oakland sports teams -- including the USL Championship Oakland Roots, USL W League Oakland Soul and Pioneer League Oakland Ballers -- had "booths trying to connect with ticket-buying spectators.” The event had the "vibe of an outdoor festival” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 2/25). The A’s Fan Fest was "billed as a celebration of sports teams, not an anti-A’s fest, but it turned out to be a little bit of both” (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 2/24).
Meanwhile, the San Jose MERCURY NEWS looked at A's spring training under the header, "Conflicted Oakland A’s fans make trek to Spring Training to watch their team" (2/24). The A’s played their Cactus League opener on Saturday, which served as a "refreshing distraction from all the self-inflicting noise and mayhem created with Fisher’s Las Vegas pursuit.” Kaval “walked across the field before the game without being heckled,” a “telling example of how the distance from the Coliseum to Hohokam Stadium can mask the cycle of off-field chaos even though it’s a mere hour and half flight” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 2/24).
