It’s almost as if the Oakland A’s have been methodically following a step-by-step plan on how to kill a fan base.
This latest — or last? — step of raising season-ticket prices without warning, rationale or public statement, seems intended to drive away even the most faithful.
The reaction from those folks who are still season-ticket holders? You’re hearing things like “last straw,” “ridiculous” and “a slap in the face.”
“It’s such a disillusionment,” said Veeve Detmer, who has been a loyal customer since the mid-1990s and can recite her season-ticket number by heart. “I’m known as the Pollyanna when it comes to the A’s. But this feels so unrequited.
“I think a lot of loyal A’s fans are reassessing a relationship that feels unhealthy.”
These last and most loyal holdouts were shocked by the rate hike in their season-ticket email this week.
Other fans have already grown disgusted with the team’s approach, falling away at different points during the team’s systematic alienation.
Here’s the blueprint:
1. Fail to put money back into the team or re-sign homegrown stars, but instead pocket money received from revenue sharing over the years, until that pot dries up.
2. Have a billionaire owner who is completely unaccountable or present over the course of his 16-year ownership.
3. Denigrate their home stadium as a worthless, horrible place, implying that anyone who shows up there is a moron.
4. Try your best, for many, many years, to escape Oakland, to go to San Jose or Fremont.
5. When those plans fail, reverse course and claim to be “rooted in Oakland.”
6. Prematurely announce a stadium location after pursuing it for months that turns out — surprise! — to actually not be a viable location. (Hello and goodbye, Laney College.)
7. Insist that another problematic stadium site is the only option. You’re supposed to now trust the team decision-makers.
8. Exhibit a complete and total lack of imagination about the existing 155-acre site that comes complete with ideal transportation solutions.
9. Introduce a plan that is one of the biggest, most ambitious real estate projects in Oakland history and insist that it must be pushed through by a city council immediately.
10. When the city council suggests it needs to study an alternate financing plan, pout and claim to be out of options.
11. Embark on a “parallel path” stadium search in Southern Nevada, visiting constantly, being wined and dined by Nevada officials and scouting locations in 106-degree garden spots like Henderson.
And finally, this week’s development:
12. Release season-ticket prices for the coming season at almost double the current cost, alienating the most loyal remaining fans.
It’s a heck of a 12-step program.
Customers were shocked to see the prices of their tickets skyrocket. In some cases, you can get a cheaper ticket to see a Giants game at Oracle Park.
Longtime season-ticket holder Steve Stevenson, who estimates he attends 60-70 games a year, saw his ticket jump by $1,800.
“If I thought they were going to put the money back into the team, to re-sign Starling Marte, or do something cool, that would be one thing,” Stevenson said. “Instead it sure feels like we’re not doing that.”
The benefits that came with the popular A’s Access plan launched in 2019 are no longer there. A’s Access appears to have been a casualty of the pandemic, but some A’s fans feel that ownership gave up on it because it wasn’t providing fast enough returns.
Bryan Johansen, a second-generation A’s season-ticket holder who has been a fan since the mid-80s, saw his 24-game plan almost double in price. But he said he’s renewing.
“I’m a sucker,” he said. “I enjoy baseball. And I don’t mind if they raise ticket prices, but it needs to be justified with something.”
Instead, the A’s have not offered an explanation. The team has not responded to The Chronicle’s requests for comment on its new pricing plan. When asked for comment by a Chronicle reporter on Saturday morning, team president Dave Kaval deferred.
“It feels like they’re trying to gouge the few remaining fans, or deliberately drive fans away,” said Ryan Thibodaux, a longtime fan and former season-ticket holder.
If it feels nefarious, it’s because it might be. The A’s have already gotten Commissioner Rob Manfred to bully Oakland by announcing that the Coliseum’s real estate is not a viable site, that the team is at the end of its rope with Oakland and, laughingly, insist that John Fisher has done everything possible to keep the team in Oakland. If Manfred can point to the A’s shrinking season-ticket base, wouldn’t that be more proof that the A’s should move?
But some think this is less an evil plot than simple ineptitude, brought on by an understaffed business office run by a cheap owner.
“I just see incompetence,” Stevenson said. “It’s just been one long, bungled PR nightmare.”
The threats and mismanagement and missteps have sapped the joy of attending games for many.
“They’ve lost so much credibility along the way,” said Detmer. “It just feels like they’re sending the message to us — you are not important.”
And a sports team without fans is, well, nothing.
The A’s have done a lot of things wrong. Sadly, they are quite effective at alienating the people they need the most.
Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: akillion@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion
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September 26, 2021 at 01:04AM
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How to lose a fan base in 12 steps: A's ticket-price hike might be last straw - San Francisco Chronicle
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