The Oakland Athletics are terrible in 2023 and the team has virtually no fan support. All of those things could quickly be changing.
The Athletics have entered into a binding purchase agreement for land west of the Las Vegas Strip, according to a report from Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
They agreed to 49 acres of land at Dean Martin Drive and Tropicana Avenue. The deal is for land only, and includes a clause allowing the A’s to purchase an additional eight acres of land at a later date.
“For a while, 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,” team president Dave 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.”
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao also released a statement saying she is disappointed that the A’s have decided not to negotiate with the city.
“In the last three months, we’ve made significant strides to close the deal,” Thao said. “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. “
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Kaval said the team hopes to break ground on the 35,000-seat stadium by 2024 and begin playing there in 2027.
The city of Oakland already knows a lot about losing teams. The Raiders’ move to Las Vegas in 2020 marked the team’s second relocation, having previously moved from Oakland to Los Angeles in 1982 before returning to Oakland in 1995.
The move to Las Vegas was a long time in the making, with team owner Mark Davis working for years to secure funding for a new stadium in the city. The team now plays its home games at Allegiant Stadium.
There had been discussions about the possibility of the A’s relocating to Las Vegas for years due to struggles in securing a new stadium in Oakland. Not to mention, even when the team is good, fans do not come out and support it. Regular season games are usually empty enough that you can hear conversations from fans from anywhere in the ballpark.
If the A’s were to relocate to Las Vegas, it would mark the second major professional sports team to move to the city in recent years, following the Las Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League (NHL).
The move would also bring a new level of excitement to the city’s burgeoning sports scene and could provide a boost to the local economy.
