Efforts by the Oakland A’s to move to Las Vegas paid off Wednesday when the Nevada Assembly passed a bill providing funding for the move following approval by the Senate a day earlier. The bill now moves to the governor for his consideration.
The final hurdle is approval of the move by the other Major League Baseball team owners.
Oakland could lose its final major professional sports team following the departure of the Raiders to Las Vegas and the Golden State Warriors to San Francisco.
Senate Bill 1 passed the Nevada Assembly on Wednesday by a vote of 25-15 with two excused. The Nevada Senate passed the bill on Tuesday by a vote of 13-8. The governor’s staff was unavailable Thursday to say if the governor was going to sign the bill.
If the $1.5 billion project reaches completion, the A’s will have a new 30,000-seat stadium on the Las Vegas Strip at the site of the Tropicana resort following seemingly failed efforts to build a larger stadium at the waterfront Howard Terminal in Oakland.
However, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said it’s a long road between approval by legislators and the start of construction.
“In fact, California passed three pieces of state legislation to support the A’s new ballpark at Howard Terminal and look where we are now,” Thao said.
She said, “Whatever happens in Nevada, our focus is on doing what’s best for Oakland, and our commitment to fiscal responsibility and expanding economic opportunity for all our residents will not waver.”
Oakland officials don’t want to put the city’s General Fund at risk in a deal to build a new stadium for the A’s. In Nevada, the A’s may get hundreds of millions of dollars in public finding.
“We thank the members of the Nevada State Legislature and their staff for their hard work, due diligence, and attention to detail as we work to bring the Athletics to Las Vegas,” A’s officials said. “We are especially grateful for the legislators’ time and dedication to shepherding this bill through the process, including the special session.”
Another step in the process is getting approval from the owners of the other MLB teams. The owners met this week and did not vote on the matter. MLB officials did not respond to say when the owners might vote on the potential move.
Oakland officials, including Thao, ended negotiations with the A’s following an April 19 team announcement that it signed a binding agreement to buy a 49-acre site west of the Las Vegas Strip.
She said recently that the A’s have not been bargaining in good faith.
“The city has gone above and beyond in our attempts to arrive at mutually beneficial terms to keep the A’s in Oakland,” she said. “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.”
U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who is running for U.S. Senate in 2024, has argued that waiving the MLB relocation fee for the A’s is an incentive for the team to move and goes against the spirit of the league’s exemption from anti-trust laws.
Lee and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Walnut Creek, on Tuesday introduced the Moneyball Act, which would require baseball team owners to compensate state and local governments for the loss of revenue, jobs and commerce due to a team move.
If the owners fail to provide compensation, then MLB would be subject to anti-trust laws, Lee said.
I’m so shocked that no one wants to be in Oakland anymore. Lol. Not really though.
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Oakland doesn’t deserve any professional sports team. Oakland is a poorly run hole.
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Libby Schaaf and now-Mayor Thao are clueless. Thao said Oakland “went above and beyond” to get the A’s to stay by conducting the environmental review and coordinating with other agencies on the Howard Terminal project. Those are items that are ALREADY required for Oakland to do… there is nothing “above and beyond” about that.
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The City of Oakland basically looked at the Athletics as a cash cow from which to extort commercial and residential development around the conceptual ballpark. HA! I would have also told Oakland to take a long walk off a short pier.
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Sayonara Oakland. Hello Las Vegas!!
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The last line of this article is just like a cat squeezing its head through the door; taxing people for leaving California is next folks. All DeSauliner can do is lock the gate once the racehorse is already chewing on grass in Vegas.
Oakland screwed up yet another professional sports team’s desire to remain in Oakland. It’s sad, as a lifelong baseball fan, to watch these inept politicians run every revenue generating, community-spieit-inspiring team out of state.
As for baseball in Nevada, I hope they’re planning on creating an indoor stadium; that heat will drive away fans and players.
Congratulations Las Vegas. You scored another one and made Oakland officials look inept, again (not hard to do, but still).
Not the only team that moved out of Oakland. Must be a reason
I’ve been to three World Series at the Colosseum starting in 1975. Was a diehard fan since I was in elementary school and I am 58 now. First, the Raiders, leave, then the Warriors ago, and now the Athletics. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out Athletics. Although I can’t blame them for wanting to leave that miserable stadium.
Make that ’72/’73/’74 and I’ll buy it.
A’s went to the WS in ’88, ’89, and ’90. Why the doubt?
I was there every one of those 70’s games. Sat 8 rows behind Charley Finley and his wife. Great Games!
City of Oakland’s poor leadership is esentially malpractice … what absolute idiots.
Taxpayers money going towards an entrainment industry that consists of adults playing a children’s game. Good thing there’s nothing else needed – like road and infrastructure repairs, education, support for military veterans….
p.s. Lee and DeSourair are the epitome of feckless parasitic democrat government.
Fisher and Naval are shills that don’t give a crap about anything but money they tanked the franchise intentionally. The city of Oakland is completely incompetent, Gabby Shill Schaff doesn’t realize or care during her tenure of destruction of an entire city! professional teams mean a luxury of revenue that most cities can’t enjoy! Which means a tax base that includes support to all city infrastructures most importantly in Oakland’s case police including the beating drum of woke incompetence that destroyed those protections. Defunding police in the the war zone that is Oakland! Means nobody wants to go to Oakland period because your not safe under any endeavor you choose to do by enjoyment or necessity at least the tax base of professional sports teams you had the luxury of funding those protections ! No longer Oakland will become the Zombie Apocalypse of whokeness they dreamed of and desreve you voted for em!!!!
Too bad Oakland didn’t get crime and violence under control but in soft on crime CA it’s not only sports teams leaving the state. After politicians failed both fans and citizens of Oakland now in a desperate last attempt members of congress are used to threaten.
Typical DEM tactics.
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C-o-l-i-s-e-u-m
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The Collosseum is in Rome.
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You can’t stop for gas on Hegenberger or 98th without being accosted and having your luggage stolen, why would I go to an A’s game next door and worry about my catalytic converter still being attached to my car when the game’s over or risk sitting in stopped traffic to leave and someone putting a gun in my face?
We used to go to A’s games frequently, we used to buy gas on Hegenberger, we used to grab lunch at Wendy’s on 98th. Now we keep our heads down and get in an out of that craphole as quickly as possible.
The A’s took a few years too long to pack up.
Don’t blame them at all just like the Bears bailing on their stadium. Oakland is a complete 💩hole much like Chicago & NY
… who is surprised? raise your hand! anybody? anybody at all? ……. hmmmm … I wonder what a secret poll of the players preference would be… Oak or LV…. not hard to guess
Spent a lot of money on that franchise over the years and at the end of the day they can care less, it’s all about the money, not the fans, I will now become a Dodger fan, or an Angel Fan, can’t become a Giant fan or my Wife will kill me
A Los Angeles fan? In that case you best get comfortable with “pride night” because you are going to receive a mega-dose of it. Not that there’s anything wrong with that……..
If I were a fan I would be really annoyed that my tax dollars paid for a stadium that I can’t go to because the owners of the teams charge too much for a seat. Also, last I read, Oakland still owed for renovations to the Coliseum, while the Raiders just walked away. Perhaps Oakland would be a nicer place to visit if it hadn’t wasted so much money on a sports stadium.
KPA
Trust me as a person that lives in NV I can tell you the majority of the taxpayers are not happy with wasting money on a stadium that will me the smallest in MLB. It will be useless for anything else. Considering NB is 47th in education, 50th in health care access for all, 50th in mental health care access, highest in food insecurity for seniors and children etc the money would be better spent on the citizens and not a billionaire boys club
I heard the Oakland Zoo is moving to Vegas next.
That’s because the zoo is surrounded by a zoo.
Good bye another one leaves the slums.No loss.
Well the majority of the taxpayers in NV aren’t happy with Lomabdomba and his cronies spending this money. Lets see NV is 47th in education, 50th in health care access, 50th in mental health treatment access and yet they waste money on a stadium that will be the smalles in MLB and won’t be used for much else. At least Alegiant will bring in a Superbowl every few years, a college bowl game or 2 every year and host large concerts and festivals.
One thing is for sure, several of the village idiots that voted for the stadium will lose their seats next election cycle and Lombadumba is on that list
There are many, many reasons or factors for the situation the A’s find themselves in. Between 1989 and 1992 the A’s averaged over 30,000 per game. From ’88-’93 and ’01-’05 they drew over 2,000,000 on the season and in 2014 drew over 2,000,000 again. Put a good product on the field that can compete and fans will support it, even if they play in a rundown football stadium with the largest foul territory in MLB. Stop selling our good, young talent after every season and strive to get better and we will support them.