by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–There might be not very many of them, around 20,000 to 30,000 on any given day, but there should be little doubt that the Oakland Athletics today have the best fans in baseball by the bay. Yes, it is true the Giants draw over 3 million since they built SBC/AT&T/PAC BELL Park and begun play there in 2000. But,there is no comparison between the Oakland Coliseum aka OCO, and AT&T Park. The beauty and the many amenities at AT&T are in another world compared to the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum. And that exactly leads to my point.

When the Athletics fans go to the Oakland Coliseum, they go to watch baseball. There is no Coke bottle in Oakland for the kids to slide, or little baseball diamonds for the kiddies to play,there are not all these different types of gourmet foods at Oakland,from Boudin Bakery to fancy vegetarian cuisine,(although the A’s have improved their food services in recent years) plus the beauty of the bay and the location of the Giants park, is one of the most beautiful things any baseball fan can experience. Yours truly called the first game at Pac Bell Park in 2000,and came over from the very maligned Candlestick Park to the park by the bay. I have a historic brick with the other announcers that first opened AT&T Park,located around the Willie Mays statue at the main entrance of the park.

Some old enough to remember Candlestick Park and the 7,680 fans that used to gathered there to watch a night game against the Pirates in the middle of July, (those were real fans to weather the wind and cold of many nights) that park was one of the worst in Major League Baseball, for many years; specially after they put seats all around the stadium. Back then,Pat Gallagher, of the Giants marketing, came out with the idea of a ‘Croix De Candlestick’, a button that was given to the fans for enduring those frigid nights.

But now it is the Oakland Coliseum the one baseball park in the Bay Area where people that go, they go to watch the game, not to be seen on television, or to take selfies,or for the social event of the day, this is not a knock on Giants fans, but nothing but the reality of the situation. When you go to an A’s game you go to see baseball, it is as simple as that. Why? well, there is not much to take your attention away from the game itself. Simple economics dictate, if I were an owner of a team, that I would rather have 45,000 causal fans than 23,000 die-hard fans, at the end you want to win at the gate, and after all is said an done, this is a business. We all understand that.

The Athletics were the first Bay Area baseball team to go over 2 million in attendance. when that was a big deal, and there was no cable television covering all home games (in 1988 with 2,287,335). This 2014 season the Athletics drew 2,003,048 an average of 24,726 per game. This average per game attendance in Oakland was the highest for the team since the 2004 season.

For the A’s, winning comes as the main reason for increased attendance, some popular promotions like $2 BART Wednesday for example is a very popular promotion during weekdays day games. and until this year they have won the last two divisional series. The A’s will be improving their scoreboards and electronic big screens for the 2015 season, but they will still be playing in that same OCO.

The San Francisco Giants drew over 3 million the very first year they played at AT&T in 2000, and they have since gone over that 3 million attendance for a total of 15 consecutive seasons. For the first decade the Giants were drawing mainly on the novelty and the beauty of their beautiful new park, I remember for the “real”Giants fans that building a new park was something they believe they were never going to see during their lifetime. Then in 2010 and again in 2012 won the World Series, and since then they have recruited more fans than any other pro-franchise in the Bay Area. Most are young and the very casual fans, affluent, who buy all the merchandise they can get their hands on.

I also see more consistency in loyalty with the Athletics fans nowadays, there are always bandwagon fans, here and in any area in the country, except maybe in St Louis, Wrigley Field Field in Chicago and a few other places that do not need to win every year to fill their parks most of the time; you know the real baseball tradition from family to family. I like to salute the Oakland Athletics fans this year, it was not the outcome they were expecting, and Kansas City might be the Cinderella team this season in all of baseball,with more names of players that most people never heard. My hats are off to all A’s fans, for a good job.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com