Fans Fest Sponsor Withdraws Days Before A's Fan's Gathering

Drake's Brewery decided to pull their sponsorship from A's fan's celebration

With the Oakland A's not planning a FanFest for the second consecutive year, A's fans have taken it upon themselves to throw a bit of a party celebrating Oakland sports teams themselves. Part of putting the whole gathering together was signing up sponsors for the event. On Thursday, Last Dive Bar announced on social media that Drake's Brewery in San Leandro has suddenly withdrawn from the event without a reason why, instead just citing "unforeseen circumstances."

This had many fans on social media theorizing that the A's, who serve Drake's at the Coliseum, were involved in some way. The reason that would make sense is that the team could pull Drake's out of the Coliseum if they so choose, which would hurt the business of Drake's. 

There's also the little wrinkle that one of the goals of Fans Fest is to gather financial donations to be given to Schools Over Stadiums, the teacher's PAC challenging the A's public funding in Las Vegas. It would make sense that the club would want to throw some of their weight around.

However, according to both Casey Pratt of ABC 7 and John Shea of the San Francisco, the A's have denied any involvement in having the brewery drop out at the last minute. 

To support that argument, the A's High-A affiliate, the Stockton Ports, are still a sponsor for the event on Saturday. 

With Drake's dropping out, a number of other beer distributors have stepped up to fill the void, with Last Dive Bar announcing on social media that Field Work Brewing, Almanac Beer, Original Pattern, Canyon Club Brewery, Line 51 Brewing, and Altamont Beer Works have all joined as sponsors. 

Funnily enough, it was Altamont that printed "Viva Las Vegas" on their A's themed Green Ale last year just weeks after the A's planned move to Las Vegas was announced. They claimed that it was satire and called themselves A's fans in an apology post on social media a couple of days later. 

Drake's has yet to shed light into why they pulled out of Fans Fest with so little notice.