A’s and Rockies: A Tale of Two (Mostly) Terrible Teams with Totally Different Attendance
Lessons from the decline and fall of the Oakland A's
By Saul Garlick
Experiences seem inherently “soft”, but their impact goes straight to the bottom line. To get to the true value of creating positive fan experiences, I thought it might be fun to compare the relative outcomes of two pretty terrible MLB teams over the past decade: the Rockies (the perennially bad team I grew up on as a kid in Denver), and the Oakland A’s.
In the business of baseball, wins do matter, but they’re not everything. A decade’s worth of data comparing the Colorado Rockies and the Oakland Athletics shows a surprising truth: fan experience drives attendance more than the win-loss column.
Let’s take a look at the numbers.
On balance, the A’s have been a better team than the Rockies over the past decade. From 2015 to 2024, the Oakland A’s had five winning seasons, including back-to-back 97-win seasons in 2018 and 2019 and a playoff appearance in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. In contrast, the Rockies had only two winning seasons over the same span—2017 and 2018.
Athletics Winning Seasons (2015–2024): 5
Rockies Winning Seasons (2015–2024): 2
Yet, despite this relative success, the A’s consistently rank near the bottom of MLB attendance. In 2019, a season in which both teams made the playoffs, the Rockies drew nearly 3 million fans (36,594/game). The A’s? Just 1.66 million (20,521/game), nearly half as many, despite a better record.
Coors Field Packs the Stands
Colorado’s fans show up, win or lose. Even in 2023 and 2024, with the Rockies losing over 100 games each year, average attendance hovered around 32,000 per game. That’s triple what the A’s pulled in during those same years.
Oakland, meanwhile, hit historic lows. In 2022, the A’s averaged just 8,165 fans per game—an embarrassing number for a team with recent playoff pedigree.
Now I truly believe that A’s fans are just as dedicated as Rockies fans. In fact, it may be true that the A’s have a larger fan base given their storied history. Which brings up the obvious question: Why the disparity.
The difference isn’t about loyalty. It’s about place.
Rockies home stadium, Coors Field in Denver, is often described as one of the crown jewels of baseball stadiums: People have said that it is "One of the best, if not THE best in the league,” others have claimed it is the “Perfect ballpark… no objective flaws.” And it’s family friendly. The ballpark blends downtown access, scenic mountain views, and family-friendly amenities. It’s more than a baseball game—it’s a Colorado summer ritual.
On the other hand, The Oakland Coliseum, is infamous. Fans complain that it is the “Worst stadium in the country,” with “Crumbling infrastructure… seats way back… troughs for bathrooms” and that “Mount Davis (the addition utilized to host the Raiders) made it feel like a football stadium.” Sure, some diehards call it “the last dive bar in baseball,” but charm can only go so far when the plumbing is failing and the ownership is fighting the city.
Baseball is about more than winning. It’s about belonging. The Rockies understand that. By investing in the experience with a beautiful ballpark and community vibe and atmosphere, they’ve kept the turnstiles spinning through bad seasons.
The A’s, despite building competitive teams, have lost the battle where it matters most: the fan’s heart. And now, with the team poised to leave Oakland altogether, that gap has never been clearer.
To fill stadiums, fan experience matters at least as much as what goes on on the field.