Free baseball: Athletics draw huge crowd in free game against White Sox: OAKLAND — If you give it away, they will come — at least a fair number of them.
The Oakland Athletics’ experiment with free admission was mostly a success Tuesday night�as they beat the Chicago White Sox, 10-2, in front of a sizable crowd that fell short of a full house.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of their first game in Oakland – and as a way to attract disaffected fans – the A's did not charge for admission or parking and were�rewarded with their biggest crowd of the season at 46,028, some 2,000 shy of capacity for baseball at the Oakland Coliseum.
The lower and second bowls of the stadium were packed and the top deck and outfield seating were mostly full. However, the top of the structure known as Mt. Davis, which was built for football and increases capacity to more than 56,000, was not needed and sat empty.
The club had received some 70,000 RSVPs and, with standing room, could have welcomed close to 65,000 fans.
The Oakland Athletics’ experiment with free admission was mostly a success Tuesday night�as they beat the Chicago White Sox, 10-2, in front of a sizable crowd that fell short of a full house.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of their first game in Oakland – and as a way to attract disaffected fans – the A's did not charge for admission or parking and were�rewarded with their biggest crowd of the season at 46,028, some 2,000 shy of capacity for baseball at the Oakland Coliseum.
The lower and second bowls of the stadium were packed and the top deck and outfield seating were mostly full. However, the top of the structure known as Mt. Davis, which was built for football and increases capacity to more than 56,000, was not needed and sat empty.
The club had received some 70,000 RSVPs and, with standing room, could have welcomed close to 65,000 fans.