When social media was first making its entry into organized society, an obvious use case in the sports world was teams engaging with their fans. Every professional organization and college athletic department has done it for more than a decade, because it’s such a no-brainer.
So imagine how bad things have to be for a team to hit the mute button on its social media followers for nearly two years.
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We are, of course, talking about the Athletics, aka the team formerly known as the Oakland Athletics, aka the team to be eventually known as the Las Vegas Athletics, assuming the in-progress stadium maintains its funding, aka the team currently located in Sacramento but would rather you not call them the Sacramento Athletics.
Here is a tweet from Jan. 19, 2024 that is, for most purposes, completely innocuous. The A’s announced their international signings, a set of teenage players who might turn into something a few years from now. Standard stuff.
It also happens to be the last time the A’s posted on X while allowing anyone to reply, until Saturday.
This weekend, the team flipped a switch and turned replies back on their social media channels for a request for comment from their fans. The replies were … what you would imagine from a fan base that has been muzzled as its teams is pulled away from its home of the past six or so decades so owner John Fisher can enjoy Las Vegas.
“Lmfaoooo…ya’ll acting like you haven’t had comments off for 655 days.”
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“hey you know what would be a home run? SELLING THE TEAM.”
Etc, etc. It was a similar scene on their Instagram post.
The A’s could turn off comments, but the fans were always still there. There’s no telling if the heat would have continued had the A’s just allowed comments in the 2024 and 2025 seasons, but it also added awkwardness to some of the team’s proudest moments, such as when Nick Kurtz became the first rookie in MLB history to post a four-homer game.
Four mind-blown emojis. Zero comments.
Both the move from Oakland and the move to turn off comments has also cost the A’s in reach on social media, as Sports Illustrated notes they went from at least 605,000 X followers earlier this year to around 586,800 now. The fate of the team rests on whether its new fans in Vegas can replace a passionate fan base in Oakland.
