This past Friday, the Oakland Athletics announced that they have signed a binding agreement to purchase land for a future baseball stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Athletics are set to become the third team to leave Oakland after the Golden State Warriors relocated to San Francisco and the Raiders left for Las Vegas in 2020.
“For more than 20 years, the A’s have focused on securing a new home for the Club, and have invested unprecedented time and resources for the last six years to build a ballpark in Oakland,” said the team in a statement.
“Even with the support from fans, leaders at the city, county, and state level, and throughout the broader community, the process to build a new ballpark in Oakland has made little forward progress for some time. We have a strong and sincere effort to stay here.”
The team concluded their statement by saying “We recognize that this is very hard to hear. We are disappointed that we have been unable to achieve our shared vision of a waterfront ballpark. As we shift our focus to Vegas, we will continue to share details about the next steps.”
The Oakland A’s were attempting to get a new ballpark built in Oakland called the Howard Terminal project. The Stadium was going to be built in the Jack London Square neighborhood. The Athletics were asking millions in public funds to build the stadium.
Finally, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao had enough and broke off talks for a new stadium, and released a statement. “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.”
First off, good for her for ending these negotiations. No city should pay to build a stadium that is owned by millionaires and billionaires. Major League Baseball’s net worth is $10.3 billion. Major League Baseball has more than enough money to buy property from Oakland and build a ballpark. But no, they want the public to pay for it and reap the benefits. Major League Baseball could’ve put the money up, buy the land, and build the stadium themselves.
Just go to any nearby stadium or arena in your neighborhood. Take Philadelphia for example, if you travel down to the Walt Whitman Bridge, some areas like infrastructure, roads, and other areas need repairing badly. However, once you get to the stadiums, the area is clean, up-to-date, with paved roads, and more. The cities should not cater to the owners. Instead, they need to focus on improving their communities, new buildings, businesses, roads, and more.
For the Athletics, the move to Vegas is not a done deal. According to The Nevada Independent, the stadium and other developments are projected to cost about $1.5 billion, while the A’s are asking for $500 million in public funds. Las Vegas just used $750 million in public funds to build the Raiders stadium. How would the citizens of Nevada feel about forking over another $500 million to a team they may not be fans of or can’t afford to travel to a goal?
According to ESPN Baseball writer Jeff Passan, the timeline for the A’s to Vegas goes like this. “The Nevada Legislature session ends in July. If the A’s and the government can strike a public-private partnership, the next step will be for the A’s to file for relocation with MLB. If the commissioner’s office approves, the A’s will need a vote by owners to codify the move. If all of this gets done before January, the team can break ground on the new stadium by next year in preparation for the 2027 season.”
In addition to Passan’s report, the A’s have already struck a deal with their Triple-A team Las Vegas Aviators to use their stadium in 2025 while their stadium is under construction. For Oakland, this will be the fourth move in its history. They started in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1955 before moving to Kansas City. The A’s played in Kansas City until 1967 before moving to Oakland in 1968.
For fans of the Oakland Athletics, this is going to hurt for a while. However, time heals all wounds and new sports leagues are going to set up shop in Oakland. Look at St. Louis, they lost the Rams and years later got the Battlehawks and have shown up to watch their games.
San Diego is another hot market right now for sports as leagues are targeting them. Oakland will have new teams to replace the departing ones. With the USFL on the rise, maybe they will bring back the Invaders. Already, two teams want to move to the area and build a stadium near the site of the Coliseum. The Oakland Roots Soccer Club, which is a member of the USL Championship, and the Oakland Soul which currently plays in the USL W League.
Things are already looking up and the teams that want to be in Oakland are those that should get the attention right now. Let the Athletics move to Vegas, with lots to do there, they may have a hard time trying to find new fans with the way they run operations. Kudos to the Mayer and everyone involved for not giving in to these demands and looking out for the people.
