BACKGROUND

The Oakland A’s Fan Coalition (OAFC) was founded in 1998 as a response to persistent rumors that the team’s owners, Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann, were moving the A’s out of Oakland. Our concerns increased in 1999, when a local ownership led by Andy Dolich was poised to make a long-term commitment, only to have their bid tabled by Commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball. Two years later, this grassroots group of fans remains committed to keeping the Athletics franchise in its current home city. The facts reflect that, contrary to popular opinion, the A's have been well supported at the attendance gate during their 34 years in Oakland. We believe it is an empirical fact that Oakland is an excellent sports city with a rich history in athletic excellence and ample fan support. Our dual missions to keep competitive A's baseball in Oakland and to help dispel the inaccurate myths about the city go hand-in-hand.

For these reasons we strongly disagree with the A's owners' past and present threats to move the team. We have NOT urged a boycott of games. In fact, we urge Oakland fans to attend A's games at the Network Associates Coliseum to demonstrate support for this exciting young team and to refute misperceptions that the East Bay is not a viable sports market. Also, we encourage A's owners Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann to work with the Oakland city government, the East Bay business community and A’s fans to build a new ballpark in or near downtown Oakland. A new baseball-only ballpark in Oakland may be just what is needed to allow both parties to complete their resurgences TOGETHER.

A’s fans from all over the Bay Area were startled this March to read owner Steve Schott state, “We have no future in Oakland.” Fans were further dismayed this August when it was widely reported (and later denied by all parties) that the Athletics had been sold and were very possibly moving to Las Vegas. The OAFC decided then to start a petition drive as an organized fan response to these reports. With the petition, our fan group sought to test the veracity of the negative myths about the Oakland market: 1) That Oakland’s citizens don’t passionately support the A’s enough, and 2) that A’s fans, in general, are apathetic about which city their team calls home.

Please find enclosed an analysis of the petition’s results, along with statistical comparisons of Bay Area regions represented by the signatures. Since its inception, the OAFC has believed the above negative perceptions of the East Bay sports market to be completely inaccurate. The resulting data from the petition drive, enclosed below, does much to help refute these oft-stated comments and provides a feel for the pulse of the Oakland Athletics’ fan base.

TERMS OF THE PETITION

The Oakland A’s Fan Coalition’s petition drive ran August 7-October 7, 2001, stopping for 11 days from September 11-21 in wake of the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington D.C.

The petition is directed toward the mayor of Oakland, Jerry Brown. It states: “Mayor Jerry Brown: Oakland A’s fans from all Bay Area communities overwhelmingly support keeping the A’s in Oakland. We respectfully urge you to work actively and swiftly to prevent the Oakland A’s from relocating. We know and trust your commitment to the city of Oakland.” Thus, anyone signing the petition is voicing approval for keeping the Athletics in Oakland.

Please note, the petition was not limited to registered voters of any city, nor was it a scientific poll. Rather, this petition drive accepted signatures at A’s home games and other Bay Area locations from petitioners of all ages, from signers of baseball fans and non-fans alike.

The majority of the signatures were gathered at the Network Associate Coliseum at A’s home games between August 7-October 3. Some other venues where petitioners were solicited include: 1) Art & Soul Festival in downtown Oakland, 2) Farmer’s Market at Jack London Square, 3) Raiders Rally for America at Jack London Square, and 4) various East Bay sports bars, namely, Ricky’s Sports Lounge in San Leandro, the Oakland Airport Hilton Sports Edition Bar, and the Pacific Brewing Company in downtown Oakland.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

The final tally of signatures gathered is: 15,659. That total of petitioners came from citizens of 327 different California cities, 44 American states (including California) and 17 foreign countries. Petitioners from California cities ranged from Eureka to San Diego, and states as far away as Alaska, Maine, and Florida were represented with their citizens’ signatures. Australia, Japan, Lithuania and the Dominican Republic were but a few of the foreign countries whose citizens were featured in the petition’s results

The region most represented by the number of petition signatures was, perhaps not surprisingly, the East Bay. Oakland was the city most represented city in the petition’s results, garnering around 20 percent of the total signatures by itself. In addition, the next most represented communities were Oakland’s neighboring cities: San Leandro, Hayward, San Francisco, Alameda, Berkeley,

and Castro Valley, in that order. Besides San Francisco, the most represented non-East Bay city was San Jose, which had the 8^th most signatures in support of the A’s staying in Oakland.

Furthermore, residents from other Northern California communities, including the North Bay (Marin, Sonoma, and Solano Counties), the South Bay (San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties) and the Central Valley (including Sacramento), provided a significant amount of support for keeping the A’s in Oakland. All told, these particular regions composed around 20 percent of the signatures.

In total, East Bay residents composed just over 70 percent of the petition’s signers. This result, coupled with the 2001 season attendance figure of 2.1 million fans in a year where the A’s played poorly for the initial three months, speaks volumes about the kind of impressively passionate support that Oakland and the East Bay is currently providing to its professional baseball team. In years past, not many sports markets have responded favorably to the uncertainty stemming from persistent moving/relocation rumors. With the A’s, Oakland has. Their 2.1 million attendance figure for 2001 placed them 7^th in the American League out of 14 teams, despite having the second lowest payroll in all of baseball and despite playing in an overly-maligned facility at the Network Associates Coliseum.

There are further statistics that support Oakland’s strong support of the A’s. An article in Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal (Vol. 4, Issue 24, Oct. 1-7) showed the A’s attendance in September to have increased by 95 percent from last year, the second best in baseball. The A’s season attendance increased by over 400,000 fans this year alone, also MLB’s second best statistic in that category. Furthermore, a poll result recently published in the East Bay edition of The Times (July 7, 2001) newspaper found that the most popular sporting event attended by East Bay residents was -- surprise -- an A’s game, its attendance was well ahead of games featuring the Giants, college sports, Raiders, 49ers, Sharks and the Warriors. These facts make a strong case, in part, to refute the myth that Oakland and the East Bay “are not supporting the A’s.”

Another oft-repeated myth is that the Bay Area cannot support two teams and the A’s are the less popular than the Giants. Again, the facts simply do not support this. Even with the Giants enjoying their second great year at Pacific Bell Park, the attendance score between Oakland and San Francisco for the 34 seasons they’ve shared this baseball market is now a dead heat, 17-17. That margin used to be 17-10, in favor of the Athletics. Hardly the Giants-led domination that some reports would have you believe.

SUMMARY

In the seven weeks the Oakland A’s Fan Coalition spent on this petition drive, we not only garnered over 15,000 signatures, we also got a brief but significant pulse of the team’s fan base. We found a passionate base of fans that holds overwhelming support for keeping the A's in Oakland. And though the petition does not directly address the issue of a new baseball-only ballpark in downtown Oakland, it bears mentioning that many signers anecdotally expressed strong support of such an idea.

We applaud the recent efforts of the Oakland and Alameda governments to explore building a ballpark in downtown Oakland. In light of that possibility, the OAFC would like to offer our support by forming a volunteer task force to work in conjunction with, and at the behest of, the city’s and team’s continuing efforts to secure the A’s future. Our group is willing to volunteer to lend time and manpower to assist making a new Oakland ballpark a reality. Our Web site database contains more than two thousand pledges from fans willing to increase their attendance, in the form of season tickets, as soon as A’s ownership makes a long term commitment to stay in the great city of Oakland.

		PETITION SIGNATURE DISTRIBUTION
		(In Order of CA Cities Most Represented)
Oakland	3142		Novato	57
San Leandro	741		Petaluma	57
Hayward	724		Fairfield	55
San Francisco	649		Emeryville	53
Alameda	625		Milpitas	53
Berkeley	510		Redwood City	50
Castro Valley	413		Santa Cruz	50
San Jose	399		Pinole	48
Walnut Creek	369		Rohnert Park	46
Pleasanton	330		San Mateo	46
Concord	317		Brentwood	44
Fremont	260		Mountain View	44
Livermore	239		Clayton	42
Sacramento	202		Salinas	42
San Lorenzo	202		Hercules	40
Union City	201		Palo Alto	38
Richmond	199		Yuba City	38
Danville	174		Davis	36
San Ramon	166		Manteca	36
Oakley	162		Daly City	34
Antioch	160		Lodi	34
Orinda	134		Cupertino	32
Lafayette	124		Mill Valley	32
Martinez	124		Sonoma	32
Moraga	124		Fresno	31
Pleasant Hill	118		Kensington	27
Newark	113		San Bruno	27
Piedmont	103		Merced	25
Tracy	103		Woodland	25
Vallejo	101		Foster City	23
El Cerrito	97		Hollister	23
Modesto	97		Los Altos	23
Stockton	96		San Anselmo	23
Vacaville	96		Watsonville	23
Benicia	88		Chico	21
Dublin	88		Elk Grove	21
Pittsburg	82		Orangevale	19
Albany	80		Pacifica	19
Santa Rosa	80		Sausalito	19
Napa	76		Sebastopol	19
San Rafael	73		So. San Francisco	19
San Pablo	67		Turlock	19
Sunnyvale	65		Windsor	19
Santa Clara	63		Burlingame	17
Alamo	61		Campbell	17
El Sobrante	59		Citrus Heights	17
Galt	17		Los Gatos	8
Los Angeles	17		Pebble Beach	8
Ripon	17		Penn Valley	8
American Canyon	15		Rocklin	8
Bay Point	15		Ross	8
Crockett	15		Saratoga	8
El Dorado	15		Travis AFB	8
Grass Valley	15