The Oakland Athletics Major League Baseball team announced late Wednesday the signing of a binding agreement to buy land for a future ballpark in Las Vegas, prompting Oakland to cease negotiations with the A’s on plans to build a new waterfront ballpark.
With the agreement to purchase 49 acres of land west of the Las Vegas Strip, the A’s plan to build a 35,000-seat stadium with a partially retractable roof after finalizing a public/private financing partnership with the state of Nevada, the team announced via MLB.com.
The A’s had previously been seeking a waterfront ballpark at Oakland’s waterfront Howard Terminal, but plans and agreements with the city and other local and regional agencies were still pending and the team said it could not wait any longer.
“We know this is a really difficult day for our fans in Oakland and the Oakland community,” A’s president Dave Kaval told MLB.com. “We put an incredible six-year effort into trying to get this waterfront vision for a stadium approved. At the end of the day, the progress has not been fast enough.”
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao in a statement said she was “deeply disappointed” about the A’s announcement.
“The city has gone above and beyond in our attempts to arrive at mutually beneficial terms to keep the A’s in Oakland. 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,” Thao said.
“I am not interested in continuing to play that game — the fans and our residents deserve better,” the mayor said. “Given these realities, we are ceasing negotiations and moving forward on alternatives for the redevelopment of Howard Terminal.”
The A’s, if the move ends up happening, will be the third pro sports team to leave Oakland in recent years after the Oakland Raiders football team moved to Las Vegas and the Golden State Warriors basketball team moved across the Bay to San Francisco.
32 comments
Way to take yourselves off the map, Oakland.
No doubt the city mayor/s has now ran off 3 professional teams that supplied jobs and income for the community. What a complete clown show…
Seriously, only a fool would build a new stadium in Oakland. There was never any real serious intent upon the management to drop that kind of an investment in a dirty, lawless, and corrupt city. They strung along the woke city council long enough just to see if taxpayers would fund the entire project, but they realize the tax revenues couldn’t fund a security shack in their parking lot. Oakland is DEAD.
Good!
Dave Kaval lied to everyone for years. Screw him.
What kind of sports franchise in their right mind would build a new park in Oakland? This was not the same city that I grew up in. I went to three World Series in that stadium. There’s no way I would even go near it now. I cannot blame them for their decision but it’s very sad.
@American Citizen
I went to one World Series game there…it was in 1990, game 4 against the Reds. The Reds won it all that night and I couldn’t have been happier. The A’s got a taste of what they did to my beloved Giants the year before.
I went to every home game of the World Series games in ’72, ’73, and ’74!! We sat 7 or 8 rows behind Charlie Finley and his wife and right behind the A’s dugout. Great Times!!
You mean Oakland still had a professional team
The only sports left in Wokeland are sideshows, and it looks like they outdraw the A’s. The low
fan draw is the reason, because Fisher’s biz model doesn’t work if you’re only drawing 3-4000
per game.
Build a non-competitive team & they won’t come.
Finally! I can throw my A’s junk into my next brush burn… where it can meet the same fate as all my Raiders stuff.
Sadly Oakland has shown it is a “can’t do” city. Now there really isn’t any “there there”. I am ashamed to say I grew up there. 50 years of “Progressive” Democrats shows that they don’t have a clue how to run a town.
Strike one Raiders, strike two Warriors, strike three the A’S and your outta here! Bad decisions only hurt the city and the population not the Teams.
No surprise. The City lost the Raiders twice, then the Warriors and now the A’s. When will they actually learn how to negotiate with these owners? They are outplayed and bamboozled every time. Oakland is about as dysfunctional as a city can be without actually ceasing to exist. Maybe they’re trying to model themselves after Detroit but even Detroit has managed to keep their teams. Sorry for all the A’s fans that enjoyed going to the games but if you have the means, The Giants ballpark is a lot of fun and in a couple of years you could rumble on over to Vegas for some baseball fun.
Not a fan but a very smart move and happy for them.
Good riddance. A’s ownership have been making it clear for years that they don’t want to be in Oakland and have deliberately alienated their fan base by refusing to invest any money in the team. If the politicians in Nevada want to use taxpayer money to build a stadium for them, fine. Would have been a lousy investment for Oakland taxpayers.
Being a former season ticket holder (1987-1993, the latter 5 years being a full season ticket holder) and (now-former) A’s fan, this whole thing with the A’s and (in my opinion) collusion with MLB about an already agreed upon move to Las Vegas makes me sick to my stomach. Also, the owner, John Fisher, has intentionally gutted this team into an unwatchable mess in order to decrease attendance (many people know that the Bay Area does not support teams that don’t win). I am now through with Major League Baseball and will not buy any clothing from the Gap, Old Navy, or Banana Republic (all owned by Fisher).
DEMs running a city, who couldn’t see this coming ? ? ?
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Congratulations Athletics!
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Smart move cuz only a fool or the fools who follow him/her would invest in Oakland…. it’s a s(!t(0le!!!!
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I’d much rather fly to Vegas to go watch the A’s play instead of going to that trash City Oakland and that crap area where the stadium is.
That toilet bowl called Oakland is in dire need of a flushing.
In the press conference this morning they touted bringing in a WNBA Team to fill the void.
Really??!!
Oakland is a dying city. We all know why.
Soccer will be the next team in the coliseum full time. goalllllllllllllllll can’t blame the A’s one bit. Oakland is not the same Oakland. it’s all part of the big plan that’s been happening with government.
I guess Oakland doesn’t have to build an overprice sporting site and overly tall community complex on an island that might sink from the weight of it all. Especially when the fans and people living and shopping in the complex add their weight to the total. All that would be needed is an earthquake or really bad weather that could flood it all.
City of Oakland & the County of Alameda did the right thing by refusing to pay for John Fisher’s new baseball stadium. Fisher is worth $4B so he can afford to use his own money to move to a new location, wherever that may be, and cities always lose money on stadium deals. Oakland politicians tried to appease the Raiders multiple times with sneaky money giveaways that Oakland taxpayers could not afford. Oakland “loaned” the Raiders money to return from Los Angeles in the 1990’s and by the time the Raiders left again, the loan with interest was $189M. It was NEVER a loan, always a giveaway, with terms that were intended to fool the public into thinking their taxpayer money wouldn’t be given away to wealthy sports owners. The loan included a term that the Raiders could turn over their training facility to Alameda and the debt would be erased. That facility was worth much less than the amount owed on the loan but the Raiders left again and the loan was erased. My family has been going to A’s games since 1968 but I will not miss the team under the crappy ownership of Fisher. Stopped supporting the team a few years back. This will be the fourth move in the franchise history so shouldn’t come as a surprise, and taxpayers are better off not giving money away to Fisher.
No surprise… could have bet on it… A’s wanted out…. Warriors, Raiders, A’s… no major sports team wants to come to Oakland
They both got what they wanted. Now they A’s can start building a good team. Last I heard, Oakland was still paying for the Raiders move back to Oakland, that really worked out.
Like they say, you get what you vote for.
I use to shop in Oakland once a month, now I can not think of any reason to go there.
Oakland. Where people without homes stay and people with homes leave.
Gee I wonder why Oakland is so horrible?
They can take’s Grampa Joe’s infrastructure money and make Howard Terminal a housing project for the ‘unhoused’.
Maybe they can use the stadium for ass slapping and twerking competitions. After that, you can visit a sideshow and maybe get hit and tossed in the air, then robbed as you’re seizing.
Seriously though, Oakland is in a bad state of affairs. Woke ideologies and corruption has turn a once thriving and vibrant city into crime ridden cesspool.
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