July 9, 2020; Oakland, California, United States; Oakland Athletics president Dave Kaval watches during a Spring Training workout at RingCentral Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
MLBNewspapersTwitterBy Sean Keeley on

If the Oakland A’s organization is looking to generate sympathy and compassion for itself as it attempts to convince taxpayers to chip in for a new ballpark, team president Dave Kaval’s current strategy does not appear to be working.

While Kaval’s tenure atop the team started well enough and led to some positive initiatives early on, many local fans have turned on him and the franchise as it has made its way on the long, painful, inevitable process that appears to end with the team becoming the third professional sports franchise to leave Oakland in the last few years.

As their protracted efforts to convince lawmakers and taxpayers to help fund a waterfront ballpark project have carried on over the years, coupled with rising ticket prices, opening flirtations with Las Vegas (with some help from MLB), perceived mistreatment of legendary players, and the franchise’s inability to field a competitive roster for a discernable amount of time, fans have stopped showing up at RingCentral Coliseum (though plenty of cats remain).

The A’s are looking at a season with record-low attendance numbers as they average less than 8,000 fans per game, the lowest in Major League Baseball by a mile.

Given the negative coverage that Oakland has been receiving in recent days over the situation, it’s understandable that Kaval would be privately miffed about the situation. However, when the A’s and San Francisco Giants started the Bay Bridge Series on Tuesday at Oracle Park, Kaval launched into a very public Twitter tirade, calling out the low attendance for a Giants home game. He notably tagged the SF Chronicle’s John Shea, Ann Killion, and Scott Ostler in one tweet, presumably given their coverage of Oakland’s attendance woes.

Defintely a very normal and good use of his time.

It’s also worth noting that the Giants are currently averaging a little north of 32,000 fans per home game. Kaval also doesn’t bring up the fact that one reason attendance might have been low for the series was the fact that the A’s were the opponent in question.

It’s possible that the reason Kaval was so worked up and needed to “tweet through it” is that he recently took part in a Twitter spat with Damon Bruce, co-host of Damon & Ratto on 95.7 The Game, that initially began because of Kaval’s comments about how local media favor San Francisco over Oakland.

That’s when Bruce chimed in to throw some cold water on Kaval’s assessment.

Kaval responded and that kicked off a back-and-forth over the perceived imbalance in local media coverage, specifically when it comes to attendance issues between the A’s and Giants.

Naturally, we eventually reached the point where Bruce extended an invitation onto his show so he and Kaval could have it out in real-time.

Kaval upped the ante, saying that he wanted the debate to be held at the Coliseum and aired live on Twitter.

Then it became something of a charity-off after Bruce said he would donate his appearance fee.

While it was a bit unclear if this Twitter handshake deal was official, Kaval ended the conversation by saying it’s happening on Friday, though the time remained TBD.

Meanwhile, Bruce’s final tweet on the matter seems to say that the ball is in Kaval’s court to make it happen.

What’s mostly unclear is what Kaval hopes to gain with the debate. It’s hard to imagine he’ll win any hearts and minds in a heated discussion when anyone can just point to numbers and facts. But then again, his Tuesday tweet tirade seems to imply that he’s not worried about either of those things.

[KNBR, Barrett, Audacy]

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

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