OAKLAND — A’s fans flocked to the Coliseum on Tuesday night to show the world that they still want their team, and it was John Fisher, the team’s owner, who had turned his back with the intention to move their club to Las Vegas.

The “reverse boycott” drew a season-high 27,759 fans endlessly chanting “Sell the Team!” and an assortment of often vulgar anti-Fisher missives. But was it just noise, or did it resonate outside of the Bay Area?

“I think for the average fan that may not pay attention day-to-day, it’s easy to think A’s fans aren’t showing up and the fanbase does not exist,” ESPN national baseball writer Joon Lee said in a phone interview Wednesday. He added that the boycott is “such an in-your-face example of how the fanbase shows up when things are good. We’ve seen this in the past, too, when the A’s are good.”

CBS Radio host Jim Rome went to bat for A’s fans on his nationally syndicated show on Wednesday, noting that the reverse boycott was executed perfectly.

“This is what could be going on in Oakland, this is what you’re ripping from Oakland,” Rome said. “And they’re not happy about it… ‘We love this team. We want to support this team. We want the team, but you haven’t given us a damn reason to come out to the yard until now. … Don’t hang this move on us. We’re not the problem, you’re the problem.’”

Inside the A’s clubhouse after the festivities, the team put its celebration of a seventh straight win on pause so that Trevor May could speak about the most magnificent night the A’s have had in years.

“It felt like a playoff game,” said the veteran reliever, who recorded the final out in the A’s 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. “I’ve played in playoff games in both New York stadiums and that’s what it’s like right there.”

There was a sense of vindication for the players, who have been saying all along that they support their fans, they feel supported by their fans, and the fans aren’t to blame for an MLB-low average attendance of less than 9,000 this season.

The fans show up to the 57-year-old stadium when it matters.

After this week’s events, there’s a clear consensus: The fans aren’t to blame.

“This idea that the team can’t draw has been a self-fulfilling prophecy of the Oakland A’s, and a self-fulfilling prophecy lately of MLB as well,” Ken Rosenthal, the FOX sideline reporter and lead MLB writer for The Athletic, said on the Foul Territory podcast. “This idea that those fans are not quality fans and they’re just turning their backs on the team — I would suggest the team has turned their backs on the fans.”

Behind billionaire owner Fisher, the A’s entered the season with an MLB-low payroll of $56 million and have shown little incentive to put a winning product on the field. Even as the A’s took a seven-game winning streak into Wednesday, their record of 71-152 over the last two seasons combined is the worst among all 30 teams.

“Their long history of trading away every single recognizable player has almost made the fans numb at this point,” former A’s outfielder Eric Byrnes said on the No Filter Podcast.

Without much hope of a successful season, and with a crumbling ballpark that offers few amenities to go with long lines for outdated concession stands, the A’s have grown used to playing in front of sparse crowds.

But the perception that the fans aren’t supporting the team is one that folks across the country are no longer buying.

“There’s clearly an infrastructure and organization among the fan base that’s not possible if the team doesn’t care enough to show up,” Lee said.

Others weren’t as impressed by the showing.

“Of all the teams to do a reverse boycott and to really protest to get mad about them leaving, why the A’s and not the Raiders or the Warriors?,” asked Fox Sports Radio’s Doug Gottlieb. “Because you’re the last ones to go? And by the way, you should have been the first ones to go.”

Oakland mayor Sheng Thao has continuously expressed concern that the A’s used the city as negotiating leverage to orchestrate a better deal in Las Vegas, where Nevada taxpayers will front as much as $380 million to fund a new stadium on the strip. Thao has said many times that the A’s were very close to a deal to build a new stadium in Oakland before the team pulled out to focus its efforts in Vegas.

Sitting in right field at the reverse boycott on Tuesday, Thao told ESPN, “From this point on, I’m rooting for the Oakland A’s fans. If anybody ever doubted the passion of these fans, just look at the sea of green out here. We’re going to continue to work to keep the Oakland A’s in Oakland. Las Vegas deserves a team — an expansion team. But the A’s must stay in Oakland.”

Fisher declined to comment when approached by reporters at MLB’s quarterly owners’ meetings on Wednesday in New York City, saying he had something to do. According to Newsday’s Laura Albanese, he returned a few minutes later with a drink in hand.

Related Articles

• Oakland Athletics |
  Oakland A’s, Nevada Assembly still negotiating over Las Vegas ballpark
• Oakland Athletics |
  How the Oakland A’s became the hottest team in baseball
• Oakland Athletics |
  Asking Oakland A’s fans: What would you say to John Fisher if you had the chance?
• Oakland Athletics |
  Watching the Oakland A’s ‘reverse boycott’ with its originator, Stu Clary
• Oakland Athletics |
  Photos: Nearly 28,000 Oakland Athletics fans show support for the team during the “Reverse Boycott” at the Coliseum

Through an MLB spokesperson, commissioner Rob Manfred declined to comment for this story, but Manfred is expected to address the situation publicly Thursday.

The A’s announced that they were donating more than $800,000 in ticket revenue from Tuesday’s game to local charities, but some saw that as a public relations stunt.

“It did feel like the Athletics franchise were dropping a middle finger towards their fanbase and saying, ‘We just got $380 million from the senate in Las Vegas, we’re headed there, and we’re not taking your money,’” ESPN’s Buster Olney said on the Baseball Tonight podcast. “That’s the way I read it.

“There are a handful of owners where it’s all about money. It feels like with John Fisher, this has been made absolutely clear with the way this played out.”