MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred Clarifies A’s Stadium Comments: ‘I Feel Sorry for the Fans’

As the A’s appear destined to leave Oakland for Las Vegas after failing to reach a new stadium deal, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred was widely criticized for comments made about the team’s fan base following the reverse boycott conducted at a game last week.

The reverse boycott by A’s fans led to 28,000 strong showing up to Tuesday, Jun 13. game against the Rays. Manfred, who was asked about the boycott, responded with snarkiness.

“It was great,” Manfred said last week. “It’s great to see what is this year almost an average Major League Baseball crowd in the facility for one night. That’s a great thing.”

Manfred didn’t stop there.

“I feel sorry for the fans in Oakland. I do not like this outcome. I understand why they feel the way they do. I think that the real question is, what is it that Oakland was prepared to do? There is no Oakland offer. They never got to the point where they had a plan to build a stadium at any site.”

While Manfred was correct about the attendance figure, he faced plenty of criticism, which led to him backpedaling on his comments in London on Friday, where he is getting set to take in the Cubs-Cardinals series on the international stage this weekend.

“My comment about Oakland was that I feel sorry for the fans, that it was my initial and preference that we find a solution in Oakland,” Manfred said. “The comment that I made about the fans on a particular night was taken out of context of those two larger remarks. I feel sorry for the fans. We hate to move. We did everything we could possibly do to keep the club in Oakland. And unfortunately one night doesn’t change a decade worth of inaction.”

The A’s are expected to move to Las Vegas with a new stadium deal in tow, as fans in Oakland grapple with the third professional sports franchise leaving the city in the last decade.