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The Street
The Street
Tony Owusu

The Oakland A's Out Petty Fanbase That Paid Money for Reverse Boycott

It seems live we've officially reached the petty portion of the breakup. 

MLB's Oakland Athletics franchise has been openly flirting with Las Vegas, reaching an agreement with Bally's Corp. (BALY) to build a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat stadium on a portion of the 34-acre site of the Tropicana Las Vegas hotel-casino site on the Strip.

DON'T MISS: Why MLB Team on Las Vegas Strip Is Not Yet Final

This flirting has understandably caused a lot of friction between the team and its seemingly soon-to-be ex, the fans in the city of Oakland.  

That tension came to a head this week after fans organized a reverse boycott. The idea is that fans have already been purposely staying away from the team in order to convince the owners to sell.

A reverse boycott brings fans back into the stadium to show the world that the fandom is still strong in the town. By that measure, the reverse boycott seemed to be a smashing success. 

The team even won the game -- they're seventh victory in a row -- to boot. 

But once the love is gone from a relationship, there is little you can do to revive the spark. 

A's owner Jim Fisher seemingly wants nothing to do with the reverse boycott. 

Instead of taking the boycott as a sign that there is still a lot of love for the team in the city, owner John Fisher and the team have decided to donate the proceeds from the game to charity. 

'We don't want your money' is the clear message being sent by the team to the fanbase. 

To be fair to ownership though, the team's issue isn't with the fanbase, it's with politicians who don't want to give up public tax dollars in order to help a billionaire build a new stadium in Alameda County. 

But at this point it doesn't seem like it matters. 

This week the Nevada State Senate passed a bill to provide $380 million in public funds to help build the A's a new stadium in Vegas -- possibly on The Strip. 

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