MLB commissioner Rob Manfred speaks at a team owners meeting in Arlington, Texas, on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, where owners unanimously approved the move of the Athletics from Oakland, Calif., to Las Vegas.
Published Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023 | 6:29 a.m.
Updated Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023 | 12:51 p.m.
An artist's rendering of the proposed A's ballpark on the Tropicana casino site on the Las Vegas Strip.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Major League Baseball owners Thursday unanimously approved the Athletics’ relocation to Las Vegas, all but finalizing the team’s move from Oakland in what’s been a yearslong quest to find a new stadium.
Speaking after the conclusion of a three-day series of meeting with the owners, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the league tried everything in its power to keep the team in the Bay Area.
But the A’s had no choice but to move because of the deteriorating conditions at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, he said.
“I know this is a terrible day for fans in Oakland,” Manfred said at a news conference at a hotel just outside Globe Life Park, home of the 2023 World Series champion Texas Rangers.
“I understand that, and that's why we've always had a policy of doing everything humanly possible to avoid a relocation, and I truly believe we did that in this case,” Manfred said. “I think it’s beyond debate that the status quo in Oakland was untenable.”
He said the league looks forward the being in Las Vegas and the “tremendous support locally for having the A’s there. And we do believe over the long haul that Las Vegas will be a great asset to Major League Baseball.”
The A’s have played at the Coliseum since 1968, when they relocated from Kansas City. The team began play in 1901 as the Philadelphia Athletics and was one of the initial clubs that formed the American League.
Thursday’s news marks the arrival of Las Vegas’ fourth professional sports franchise — behind the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, who relocated from San Antonio in 2018, and the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders, who started play here in 2020 after also relocating from Oakland.
The A’s are set to become the first MLB franchise to move since the Montreal Expos moved to the U.S. capital in 2004 and changed their name to the Washington Nationals.
A’s owner John Fisher said it was a bittersweet day and called it “an incredibly difficult day for Oakland fans. He thanked Nevada lawmakers for their support and voiced optimism for a new chapter in the franchise’s history.
“Very excited for the opportunity in Vegas,” Fisher said. “The fans there are terrific. The success of the Raiders and the Golden Knights, as well as our Triple-A team, the Aviators, has shown just how successful professional sports can be in that market.”
In a statement, Gov. Joe Lombardo said the move will bring “historic” economic development and thousands of jobs to Nevada, while also paying a return on investment for taxpayers.
“Nevada is more excited than ever to welcome the A’s home to Las Vegas,” Lombardo said. “As more and more Americans are finding out — and as MLB owners recognized today — Nevada is a great state to do business.”
Manfred said owners formed a committee headed by executives with the Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies and Kansas City Royals that compared revenue opportunities in both Oakland and Las Vegas based on television market size, expected attendance and other factors.
Opponents of the move have said it would be counterproductive to the financial viability of the A’s, who would move from a top-10 television market to the smallest of the 30 teams.
But projections from the league and the A’s found it possible for Las Vegas to make the team more valuable and provide it with resources for continued success.
“The relocation committee was unanimous in the view that Las Vegas was a strong market, probably the strongest, one of the two strongest open markets in the United States, and that it had more than enough capacity to support a major league team,” Manfred said. “Vegas is a unique market in many ways. Not only is it a great community with the people that live there, but the tourism traffic is a huge advantage for the market.”
A’s officials began exploring relocation in May 2021 after receiving Manfred’s blessing. They stayed on what team president Dave Kaval called “parallel paths” in Oakland and Las Vegas to secure a new ballpark.
The team announced in April it intended to purchase a 49-acre site at the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Dean Martin Drive for a new ballpark. But they ultimately decided on a 9-acre parcel at the site of the Tropicana resort at Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue.
The Tropicana is owned and operated by Bally’s Corp., but the land it sits on is owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc.
Mortenson-McCarthy, a joint architecture venture the A’s contracted for the stadium project, told the Clark County Stadium Authority last month that construction on the $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat ballpark would need to begin by April 2025 to be completed in time for the start of the 2028 season.
It’s not clear where the A’s will play in the meantime.
Manfred said the team could sign a year-by-year lease with the Coliseum, of which Fisher owns 50%. The team has also explored the options of playing in Sacramento, Calif., across the Bay at the San Francisco Giants' Oracle Park, or at the Las Vegas Ballpark, the 10,000-seat Summerlin ballpark that is home to the Aviators, Oakland’s Triple-A affiliate.
The relocation vote sets forward $380 million in public funding Nevada lawmakers passed in June to go toward the stadium.
The bill is structured so that the state would pay up to $180 million in transferable tax credits, of which $120 million could be made refundable. That’s paired with roughly $125 million in general obligation bonds issued by Clark County. The county would also invest a separate $25 million for infrastructure surrounding the stadium.
A political action committee led by the Nevada State Education Association called Schools Over Stadiums has been the most vocal opponent of the stadium deal.
The group has embarked on a ballot referendum petition to stop the state funding component of the deal. It said Tuesday it would challenge in court the constitutionality of the funding bill.
The group said it was also appealing a ruling made earlier this month by a Carson City District Court judge, who rejected their petition initiative on grounds the petition lacked a copy of Senate Bill 1, the enabling legislation for the state's stadium funding component, in its entirety and had too vague a summary of the bill.
The relocation vote is another blow to A’s fans in Oakland, who insist the team should remain rooted in the Bay Area.
A fan group, the Oakland 68’s, began a movement called the Summer of Sell, which included a so-called reverse boycott to fill the often-empty Coliseum. Fans have also urged Fisher to sell the team.
The movement extended to MLB ballparks across the country, with fans filling opposing stadiums in San Francisco, Chicago and other places while wearing "SELL" T-shirts.
Last week, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao sent a box to all 30 owners with Oakland-themed trinkets and a letter asking owners to reconsider moving. The Oakland City Council also passed a symbolic resolution reaffirming the A’s should stay in Oakland.
Thao issued a statement today reiterating her stance.
“We are disappointed by the outcome of this vote,” Thao said. “But we do not see this as the end of the road. We all know there is a long way to go before shovels hit the ground, and that there are a number of unresolved issues surrounding the move.”
“I have also made it clear to the Commissioner (Rob Manfred) that the A’s branding and name should stay in Oakland and we will continue to work to pursue expansion opportunities,” she said. “Baseball has a home in Oakland even if the A’s ownership relocates.”
Manfred deferred comment to Fisher, who did not take questions at the news conference, about relinquishing the A’s branding. Manfred did not talk directly about the possibility of awarding Oakland an expansion franchise.
“When and if we have an expansion process, every city that's interested in having an expansion franchise will have an opportunity to participate,” Manfred said, while also noting the operating territory for nearby San Francisco remains unchanged. Oakland, meanwhile, will become an “open territory.”
Oakland fans in recent years have lamented the team’s on-field performance and the decision to trade away key players.
The A’s had an MLB-low $57 million payroll to start 2023 and ended the year with the worst record in baseball at 50-112.
But from 2000 through the start of this past season, the A’s had the sixth-best record overall and were tied for the fifth-most playoff appearances in that span with 11.
With a new ballpark, Manfred suggested, it would put the A’s in a position to maintain parity among other teams in the league.
“I also understand that when you play in a substandard facility … fan support is not as strong as what we have in some other markets. It affects your economics and what you can afford to do,” Manfred said.
“There was an effort over more than a decade to find a stadium solution in Oakland,” he said. “It was John Fisher's preference. It was my preference.”
