The Oakland Athletics have begun the process of moving to Las Vegas and previous plans to remain in Northern California have now fallen through.
Team president Dave Kaval confirmed in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the Athletics have signed a binding purchase agreement for a piece of land near the Las Vegas strip to build a new baseball stadium with the intention of relocating to the city.
Kaval said in the interview that while the agreement currently only covers the land — a 49-acre plot at Dean Martin Drive and Tropicana Avenue currently owned by Red Rock Resorts — the club intends to build a $1.5 billion, 35,000-seat stadium with a partially-retractable roof.
“For awhile we were on parallel paths (with Oakland), but we have turned our attention to Las Vegas to get a deal here for the A’s and find a long-term home,” Kaval told the Review-Journal. “Oakland has been a great home for us for over 50 years, but we really need this 20-year saga completed and we feel there’s a path here in Southern Nevada to do that.”
In a statement shared with the Review-Journal, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred endorsed the move.
“We support the A’s turning their focus on Las Vegas and look forward to them bringing finality to this process by the end of the year,” Manfred said.
The Athletics had been negotiating with the City of Oakland to build a new waterfront stadium on a site known as Howard Terminal since 2018, but have had many other stadium plans fall through over the past two decades. However, after the report in the Review-Journal was published Wednesday, Oakland mayor Sheng Thao said the city would end those negotiations and pursue other projects for the waterfront site.
“I am deeply disappointed that the A’s have chosen not to negotiate with the City of Oakland as a true partner, in a way that respects the long relationship between the fans, the City and the team,” Thao said in a statement provided to The San Francisco Chronicle. “In the last three months we’ve made significant strides to close the deal. Yet, it is clear to me that the A’s have no intention of staying in Oakland and have simply been using this process to try to extract a better deal out of Las Vegas. I am not interested in continuing to play that game — the fans and our residents deserve better.”
According to The Nevada Independent, the Athletics will cover the costs of building the stadium but the state government is preparing a bill that would “create a funding mechanism” for the team to receive tax credits and other tax benefits valued at close to $500 million. The Independent adds that Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo supports the bill and that it could pass during the current legislative assembly.
“Welcoming the A’s to Las Vegas would be great news for Southern Nevada as well as our entire state,” Lombardo said in a statement provided to the Review-Journal. “The prospect of bringing new jobs, more economic development and a historic MLB franchise to Las Vegas is exciting on many levels. As we continue to navigate this opportunity, I’m in regular communication with the A’s, Major League Baseball, legislative leadership and local and state stakeholders.”
The proposed location for the new baseball stadium is one mile north of Allegiant Stadium — home of the Raiders — and one mile west of T-Mobile Arena, home of the Vegas Golden Knights.
“It’s really in the sports district,” Kaval, the Athletics president, said in his interview with the Review-Journal. “So you have all the stadiums kind of clustered in one spot. I think that creates a powerful zone, a kind of energy to it that will benefit the community and also help us be successful running a baseball team.”
The Athletics have the lowest payroll in the majors — a projected total of just $59 million, according to Fangraphs — and are also at the bottom of the standings early in the season with a 3-16 record. The Athletics have a negative run differential of mins-86 so far this season, which is the worst mark through 19 games since 1899.
Attendance has mirrored the results on the field, with a league-low mark of 11,027 through 12 home games this season. The major-league average is about 27,800 fans.
MLB had previously set a deadline of January 2024 for the Athletics to have a new stadium deal in place. The team’s current lease at the Oakland Coliseum expires after the 2024 season. Kaval told the Review-Journal that the club intends to open the new stadium in Las Vegas in time for the 2027 season.
“It’s really exciting to have a site,” Kaval said. “We’ve spent almost two years doing our due diligence, working with community leaders, elected officials and everyone in town to really determine a location that could be a win for the A’s as well as the community and public officials.”
The move will be the first relocation by an MLB team since the Montreal Expos moved to Washington, D.C. in 2005. Las Vegas will be the fourth city to host the Athletics, which began as the Philadelphia Athletics in 1901, before moving to Kansas City in 1955 and Oakland in 1968.
The Athletics will be the third — and final — major sports franchise to leave Oakland in recent years. The NBA’s Golden State Warriors built a new stadium and moved across the bay to San Francisco in 2019, while the NFL’s Oakland Raiders moved to Las Vegas in 2020.
Las Vegas has become a hotbed for pro sports ever since the success of the Vegas Golden Knights, which joined the NHL as an expansion team in 2017.
With files from The Associated Press.
