OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — At the end of this week, the Oakland Coliseum will still be standing, but without a baseball team for the first time in 57 years.
Bryan Johansen will be at the last Oakland A’s game on Thursday.
“If I start talking about it, I’ll start crying,” Johansen said. “I got my wife. I got my son. And then I have the Oakland A’s. That’s the way my life has always been.”
Johansen is a co-owner of Baseball’s Last Dive Bar, which sells A’s merch that reflects the fan experience. This includes shirts with an Oakland postmark stamp with the date of the final home game.
VIDEO: ABC7’s Larry Beil’s passionate reaction to A’s owner John Fisher sending goodbye letter to fans
A’s owner John Fisher finally addressed and apologized for the team’s departure from Oakland. ABC7’s Larry Beil gives his passionate reaction.
He’s an A’s diehard, but he is angered by the letter embattled owner John Fisher released to fans on Monday. It’s a letter that Johansen refers to as “one slap in the face after another.”
“He just issued a statement, a letter [that] he tried everything he could. He didn’t. They tried multiple times to relocate outside of Oakland,” Johansen said.
Fisher wrote, in part: “I can tell you this from the heart: we tried. Staying in Oakland was our goal, it was our mission, and we failed to achieve it. And for that I am genuinely sorry.”
But Johansen isn’t buying it.
“They didn’t try to make it work in Oakland,” Johansen claims. “They never offered $850 million in private equity in Oakland. They never offered just a stadium-only with no development around it, like they did in Vegas, in Oakland. They never offered up debt financing. They didn’t do any of that stuff.”
VIDEO: Oakland Coliseum concession workers face uncertain future ahead of A’s final game
As the A’s get ready to say goodbye to Oakland, ABC7 News spoke with Coliseum employees – some of whom have worked at the site for their entire life.
In a statement to ABC7 News, Casey Pratt, a spokesperson for Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, says, “The issue is, [Fisher] wasn’t willing to invest. He never meaningfully invested in his roster or his stadium plans while his franchise valuation shot up a billion dollars. That’s why he fell short of his stated goals both on and off the field.”
Jorge Leon Leon is President of the Oakland 68’s, who are volunteers that support Oakland sports teams.
“He doesn’t have to say anything. He already said that he’s moving, right? That’s all,” Leon said. “You are forever tainted in the Bay Area as the worst owner in sports.”
He calls Fisher’s letter insulting and unnecessary. He says there is no need to say goodbye to fans when, as Leon believes, the goal is simply to chase money.
“He should just not say anything, just kind of leave. Be quiet. We all know the truth, which is to keep his revenue-sharing check coming in,” Leon said.
The A’s are expecting a sellout crowd for the last game.
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