OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Oakland Athletics have signed a binding land purchase agreement for a new retractable roof in Las Vegas after failing to build a new home in the Bay Area.
Team president Dave Kaval said Wednesday night that the team finalized a deal last week to purchase the 49-acre site where the A’s plan to build the 30,000- to 35,000-seat stadium near the Las Vegas Strip.
The A’s will work with Nevada and Clark County on a public-private partnership to finance the stadium. Kaval said the A’s hope to break ground next year and hope to move into their new home by 2027.
“It’s obviously a very important milestone for us,” Kaval said. “We spent almost two years working in Las Vegas trying to determine a suitable location for a long-term home. Identifying a site and getting a purchase contract is a big step.”
via the Associated Press
It had been looking for years for a new home to replace the old and dilapidated Oakland Coliseum, where the team had played since arriving from Kansas City for the 1968 season. They tried to build stadiums in Fremont and San Jose before them and moved the Watch. on the Oakland waterfront.
Las Vegas would be the fourth home for a franchise that began as the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 to 1954.
“We’re turning our full attention to Las Vegas,” Kaval said. “We have already been on parallel roads. But we’re really focused on Vegas as our path to finding a future home for the A’s.”
Commissioner Rob Manfred said in December that the A’s would not have to pay a transfer fee if the team moved to Las Vegas.
“We have exceeded any reasonable amount of time to resolve the situation in Oakland,” Manfred said at the time.
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said in a statement that she was disappointed that the A’s did not negotiate with the city as a “true partner.”
“The city went above and beyond in our attempts to come up with mutually beneficial terms to keep the A’s in Oakland,” he said. “Over the last three months, we have made significant progress towards closing the deal. However, it’s clear to me that the A’s have no intention of staying in Oakland and simply used this process to try to get a better deal out of Vegas. I’m not interested in continuing to play that game – our fans and residents deserve better.
“I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished as a city, including securing a fully licensed site and more than $375 million in new infrastructure investments that will benefit Oakland and its port for generations to come. In a time of budget deficit, I refuse to compromise the safety and well-being of our residents. Given these realities, we are suspending negotiations and moving forward with alternatives for the redevelopment of Howard Terminal.”
The A’s would be just the second MLB team to switch cities in more than half a century. Since the Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers in 1972, the only team to move was the Montreal Expos, who became the Washington Nationals in 2005.
The A’s lease at the Coliseum expires after the 2024 season. The A’s have struggled to attract fans to the Coliseum in recent years as owner John Fisher has cut payroll and many of the team’s most popular stars have been traded.
Oakland had the lowest opening day payroll in baseball at $58 million, less than the combined salaries of Mets pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, who tied for 43rd in the majors, $3 million USD.
The team is 3-16 this season and is outscored by 86 runs, its worst mark in 19 games since 1899. The average attendance for 12 home games this season is 11,027 for the lowest mark in the majors and below half of the championship. average of about 27,800. The A’s haven’t drawn 2 million fans at home since 2014, the only year they’ve reached the milestone since 2005.
If the A’s leave Oakland, the city with a rich sports heritage would be devoid of major professional sports teams, with the NFL’s Raiders moving to Las Vegas in 2020 and the NBA’s Warriors moving across the bay to San Francisco in 2019.
“We know it’s a difficult message for our people in Oakland,” Kaval said. “Obviously we’re grateful for all the hard work on the waterfront. But we haven’t been able to achieve success or make enough progress.”
Las Vegas has quickly become a sports mecca after years of being considered an outcast due to its ties to the gambling industry. With gambling legalized across much of the country, the city could now have a baseball team to join the NHL’s Golden Knights, which started as an expansion team in 2017, and the Raiders.
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