Mayor says MLB has discussed A’s relocation to Las Vegas since 2019
One day after the A’s announced they had received permission from Major League Baseball to explore possible relocation options, the mayor of Las Vegas used social media to reveal that her city has been in talks to bring the team there since 2019.
“Las Vegas has always been open to conversations with major league sport franchises seeking new locations. For over 20 years these talks have included dialogue with league commissioners, and for the Oakland A’s these have been occurring since 2019,” Goodman said in a statement on Twitter on Wednesday. “Las Vegas is excited.”
Las Vegas has always been open to conversations with major league sport franchises seeking new locations. For over 20 years these talks have included dialogue with league commissioners, and for the @Athletics these have been occurring since 2019. @CityOfLasVegas is excited.
— Carolyn G. Goodman (@mayoroflasvegas) May 12, 2021
The A’s decades-long quest for a new stadium moved into “Howard Terminal or bust” mode on Tuesday when the A’s and MLB said the team could consider moving if its $12 billion waterfront ballpark plan is not approved by Oakland officials. MLB also ruled out any possible fallback plan at the current Coliseum site.
Should the plan fail, the A’s say they will await a list of cities chosen by MLB as possible relocation sites.
Las Vegas, which lured the Raiders away from Oakland in 2020, is one among a long list of cities that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has, at one time, listed as a possibility for league expansion. That list includes Portland, Oregon; Vancouver, British Colombia; Nashville, Tennessee; San Antonio; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Montreal. The A’s Triple-A affiliate Las Vegas Aviators play at recently-opened Las Vegas Ballpark.
Wednesday morning, Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf said she intends to keep the A’s in Oakland, acknowledging that the only way forward is to proceed with the waterfront ballpark at Howard Terminal, a project that’s been in the works since 2018.
“Hell no, we won’t let them go,” Schaaf said.
Goodman’s timeline almost certainly can be traced back to at least Oct. 2019, when MLB commissioner Rob Manfred threatened city officials that if Oakland didn’t drop its lawsuit over the proposed sale of Coliseum land to the A’s, it would risk losing the team to Las Vegas or some other city.
“In a recent meeting with the mayor of Oakland, I did mention Las Vegas in the context of pointing out that the A’s might have to relocate if a new stadium can’t be built in Oakland,” Manfred told the Las Vegas Review-Journal at the time. “There is, however, no plan to move to Las Vegas.”
The A’s were in negotiations on an $85 million deal to purchase Alameda County’s half of 155 acres of Coliseum land it shared with the city, but the City Council filed a lawsuit to stop the sale. The suit was dropped shortly after MLB stepped in, and a couple of months later, the deal was completed.
It’s worth noting that although Manfred has used the threat of moving the A’s before, he’s also publically said he wants the team to remain in the Bay Area. In 2018, he said, “I believe that there is not another market in the United States that has the upside potential that Oakland has, and I think we would regret leaving Oakland.”
With the Raiders leaving for Las Vegas in 2020 and the Golden State Warriors to San Francisco earlier that year, Schaaf is under pressure not to lose the third and final professional sports team under her tenure. The A’s have played at the Oakland Coliseum since they moved from Kansas City in 1968 and have been seeking a new facility for two decades.
The A’s submitted their financial proposal for city council to vote on, but there’s been little movement since. A’s president Dave Kaval said the team is “running out of at-bats.” The Oakland Coliseum lease ends in 2024, and the earliest a new ballpark in Oakland could open would be 2027.
In their statement granting the A’s a green light to explore other markets, MLB said the Coliseum site was not viable for a new ballpark.
Las Vegas has been a bustling expansion site for multiple leagues. The NHL expanded there with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017. The WNBA’s San Antonio Stars moved to Vegas and became the Las Vegas Aces in 2018. And, of course, the Raiders moved from Oakland to Allegiant Stadium on the strip a year ago.