Rob Manfred Says #1 Disappointment Is A’s Leaving Oakland, Weeks After Mocking A’s Fans

Rob Manfred’s not been shy in his assessment of the Oakland A’s and their prospects of staying in the Bay Area.

News broke recently that A’s ownership intended to move the team to Las Vegas, with the team agreeing to build a new stadium on the site of the Tropicana Hotel.

Years of low attendance figures, little investment in the team and even less investment in the stadium combined to make the Oakland baseball situation unacceptable.

A's fans, naturally, reacted with frustration and disappointment.

And Manfred threw gasoline on the fire with how he reacted.

When the fans staged a "reverse boycott," buying up over 28,000 tickets for an A's game, Manfred scoffed.

READ: ROB MANFRED ADDRESSES OAKLAND A’S REVERSE BOYCOTT AND MOVE TO LAS VEGAS

He sarcastically described the crowd as "almost" the average of a Major League game in 2023.

When criticized for being flippantly dismissive, he doubled down.

Yet on Tuesday ahead of the All-Star Game, Manfred seemingly changed his tune.

Instead of blaming A's fans for their lack of support, he now went after Oakland politics for the inability to get a deal done.

"My single biggest disappointment is that because of the kind of political process in Oakland, we didn't find a solution to keep the A's in Oakland. That's No. 1 on the disappointment list," Manfred said.

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - MAY 26: Two baseball fans watch the Oakland Athletics play the Texas Rangers in front of a small crowd at RingCentral Coliseum on May 26, 2022 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Oakland A's Impending Move The City's Fault?

Local officials and politicians have claimed that they did in fact make several offers to keep the team in Oakland.

But the city and region weren't willing to commit massive sums of public funding to A's ownership. Las Vegas and the state of Nevada were.

Manfred might be disappointed in the ultimate outcome, but realistically, the ultimate blame falls on John Fisher.

Oakland's political process is notoriously bad, but where there's a will, there's a way. And Fisher had little-to-no will to keep the team in the Bay Area.

A's fans could also have shown up in bigger numbers, but it's hard to fault them for not wanting to support a team that ownership showed little interest in.

Manfred frequently makes himself the target of derision and unhappiness from baseball fans; maybe this about face came as a result of wanting to keep fans just a little bit happier.