A's Fan Claims Final Game at Coliseum is Nearing Capacity
As we touched upon just a couple of days ago, it's looking as though the Oakland A's final home game at the Oakland Coliseum is going to include a lot of fans in attendance. On Tuesday, A's fan Steven Leighton posted his updated figures, which claim that 38,489 out of 42,518 tickets have been sold.
Since a few have asked, yes, I’m still tracking tickets sold for the Sep 26th game vs Texas (what may be A’s last game in Oakland).
— Justice For Oakland Fans (@jvb43) June 25, 2024
So far, 38,489 out of 42,518 possible tickets have been sold.
Mt. Davis being opened up is a possibility, but A’s may be too lazy to staff it. pic.twitter.com/CEA9mr08kh
These kind of sales are what we were seeing as well from the A's official ticketing website, which is what promoted the original post. Steven put some numbers behind it.
A's fans on social media may be familiar with "Justice for Oakland Fans" since they have popped up with attendance projections for previous big events, such as the reverse boycotts. The process for doing this is pretty simple: He counts each and every dot (seat) in each and every section, then logs the information into a spreadsheet.
Last year's Unite the Bay game against the San Francisco Giants on August 5 had him within a few hundred of the announced attendance. We're not looking for the numbers to be exact, but to give us a general idea of what to expect is appreciated.
The original reverse boycott had an announced attendance of 27,759, but there have been a number of people that have questioned that official figure due to the nature of the game and the A's and Major League Baseball wanting to suppress those numbers if possible. Attendance is typically announced in the sixth or seventh inning at A's game, but on this one night it happened in the third or fourth. It was memorably early. Steven claims it was closer to 32,000.
If there is no funny business going on with the ticketing process, and the numbers we're seeing are accurate, the next question to be asked is: Would the A's open up Mount Davis if the demand is there? That would bring the capacity at the Coliseum up to about 55,000 for this game. We have reached out to the team about whether opening up this seating is a possibility the team would consider, and have not received a response at this time.
The final home game for the A's will be on September 26 against the Texas Rangers.
JASON BURKE
Jason is the host of the Locked on A's podcast, and the managing editor of Inside the A's. He's a new father and can't wait to take his son to his first baseball game at the Coliseum.