Oakland losing last major pro team as A’s plan move to Vegas for new stadium

Apr 20, 2023

Jack Aylmer Reporter/Producer

By Jack Aylmer (Reporter/Producer)

For just the second time in over 50 years, a Major League Baseball franchise is set to change cities. The Oakland Athletics have announced that the team has signed a binding agreement to purchase a 49-acre plot of land near the Las Vegas Strip.

“It’s obviously a very big milestone for us,” A’s Team President Dave Kaval said. “We spent almost two years working in Las Vegas to try to determine a location that works for a long-term home. To identify a site and have a purchase agreement is a big step.”

According to Kaval, the A’s intend to construct a $1.5 billion, 35,000-seat MLB stadium with a partially retractable roof on the site, along with other developments such as restaurants and an amphitheater. The team hopes to break ground on the project next year and have it ready by the 2027 season.

“The city has gone above and beyond in our attempts to arrive at mutually beneficial terms to keep the A’s in Oakland,” Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said in a statement. “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.”

The move to Las Vegas will mark a major change for the A’s, who have called Oakland home since 1968. However, the team’s ownership has been trying to get a new stadium built in the area for years, and when it became clear that was not going to come together, they set their sights on Sin City.

“We’re entering a new era now, and the era is a focus on Las Vegas and on getting the necessary approvals and taking this 25-year saga and bringing it to a successful completion for all the stakeholders,” Kaval said. “We know it’s hard for fans to hear that. We’ve been here over 50 years. We know it’s a bittersweet day. It’s a tough thing to hear that the team could be relocating. But by the same token, the current situation is untenable.”

To fund the stadium, the A’s will reportedly work with Nevada and Clark County on a public-private partnership, a method of financing that the state has used successfully in the past. In 2017, Las Vegas used this tactic to lure over the NFL’s then-Oakland Raiders, who at one point shared a stadium with the A’s during their time in the Bay Area. The now Las Vegas Raiders were able to cover nearly 40% of the construction costs for their nearly $2 billion Allegiant Stadium, one to the top three most expensive stadiums in the world, through public funds.

While Las Vegas has had success using taxpayer money to land major sports franchises, new stadiums financed through public funds have been a point of contention elsewhere in the country. For example, Yankee Stadium, the most expensive baseball stadium ever built, in 2009 received more than half of its funding from public money and tax breaks. That deal led to accusations of financial mismanagement against then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

While New York was able to bankroll the Yankee’s new home and keep their hometown team happy, many franchises have threatened to leave their cities if they refuse to foot the bill for big stadium projects. Since the late 1990’s, this has happened with teams like the Seattle Supersonics, the Houston Oilers, the Hartford Whalers, and the New Jersey Nets. Now, it’s the A’s turn.