Scenes from Athletics’ awkward home opener in Sacramento: ‘Sell the team’ chants and a lopsided final score

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — What began with bustling crowds amid a historic day in California’s Capitol City quickly turned to into a more awkward scene with “Sell the team” and “Let’s go Oakland” chants.

An announced sellout crowd of 12,192 fans filed into Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento on Monday night to watch the Athletics play the Cubs in the first official MLB game in the city’s history. It will be the first of many as the Athletics announced their plans to play in the home of the Sacramento River Cats through the 2027 season after fleeing Oakland with their eyes on Las Vegas.

And while the A’s players and personnel have landed in Sac-Town, the culture that filled the Oakland air for decades was not present during Monday’s home-opening 18-3 loss.

Let’s start from the top.

I wanted to get the full Sacramento experience, so I decided to park downtown by the State Capitol building, make the half-mile walk downtown through historic Old Sacramento and across the Tower Bridge to the ballpark.

The two cities, Oakland and Sacramento, are connected now for baseball fans. Fair or not, fans will inevitably be forced to compare the experiences in each respective town.

In this case, it was about 4 p.m. on a Monday with scattered showers and wind. Understandably, downtown Sacramento was not exactly hopping with excitement. Bars and restaurants were quiet. Most Sacramentans were just getting off of work. The walk itself was scenic, but there were very few Athletics jerseys, signs, stories, or promotions to be seen. 

In comparison, the areas around the Coliseum in Oakland were not nearly as walkable. But the city of Oakland, unarguably, had A’s love and fandom tattooed throughout the city.

The tailgating experience in Oakland versus Sacramento was also a major standout. It didn’t matter what time or day of the week it was, Oakland fans were always having tailgate parties in the Coliseum parking lots with barbecue and hip-hop filling the air.

As for the opener in Sacramento, I could count on one hand how many total tailgate groups there were when I walked up.

When I got inside the stadium, I found that nearly every inch of the San Francisco Giants branding (the River Cats have been the Giants Triple-A affiliate since 2015) had been covered with A’s branding. From the new video board in right-centerfield to the banners and souvenir cups, the stadium certainly looks more A’s than it does River Cats.

Excitement sparked when the gates opened to the ballpark. The crowd was a sea of green and gold. The line to get into the new team store was so long that it wrapped around twice over. The concession stand queues might have been longer. Fans with lawn seats beyond the right field fence rushed to get the best spot they could. Vendors were shouting, music filled the ballpark, and fireworks filled the sky during lineup introductions.

The A’s debut in Sacramento was the hottest ticket in town — and it wasn’t cheap either. The median ticket price for A’s home games this season are $181 each, according to Gametime. A’s manager Mark Kotsay said in his pregame press conference: “This could become a home-field advantage for us, for sure. That’s our goal. We’ve embraced being here in every way.”

Monday was a day where the A’s also honored Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson after his death in December by having every player wear No. 24 on their jersey.

It looked like an A’s home crowd. It sounded like an MLB game. The field was flooded with talent. It had all the makings to be a legitimate big-league ballpark experience. Then the game itself began.

The Cubs scored four runs in the top of the first, including back-to-back home runs from Michael Busch and Dansby Swanson. But it seemed as though it wasn’t the score that was zapping the crowd’s energy levels.

Even after A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson hit the home team’s first home run in the third inning and later trimmed the deficit to 5-3 in the fourth inning, the crowd just never felt comfortable from pitch one.

A’s public address announcer, Amelia Schimmel, never says “Sacramento” over the mic. It is simply “The A’s,” which is exactly how the club wants to be referred to. This leaves the team without any city affiliation. Even the stadium scoreboard says “Chicago” and “Athletics.”

Which begs the question, is it even Sacramento’s team? 

Some groups of fans tried “Sac-ra-men-to” chants but those quickly died off. “Let’s-Go-Oakland” chants were started but didn’t sustain. “Let’s go Sacto” was tried but failed. In a way, it almost felt like “Sacramento” and “Oakland” chants were competing with one another despite about 75% of the crowd rooting for the same team.

In the entirety of the game, there was not a single chant that was echoed in unison. There were no drums or kazoos. The absence of the Oakland Coliseum right field bleacher crew was pronounced.

Perhaps the loudest chant of the game was a “Sell The Team” chant — directed at A’s owner John Fisher — after the 6th inning.

About half the stadium emptied before the game ended as the home team’s deficit ballooned to 15 runs. It was an ugly game all the way around.

The team did not have a city affiliation. The A’s are playing in a spring training-sized ballpark that is already occupied by one of their opponents’ minor-league clubs. And they are playing in a new city, in front of a new fan base.

There’s no other way to phrase it. It felt awkward.

And look, it’s probably a bit premature to make assumptions after one game. If the A’s wind up becoming playoff contenders, it would be shocking to see this city — a city that has historically been full of sports fandom disappointment thanks to the NBA’s Kings — not get behind this club.

The Athletics’ plan is to depart for Las Vegas in 2028. Until then, they are living out of a suitcase with a looming deadline, no matter how much or how little the Sacramento faithful embrace them. That alone is enough to make these next few years a bit unsettling.