Will the Oakland Athletics Really Relocated to Vegas?

In what scenario could the Oakland Athletics relocate to Las Vegas?

And at the bottom of the answer is your link to the new poll on what to do with the Fontainebleau.

On May 11, Major League Baseball gave its blessing to the Oakland Athletics to start approaching other markets about relocation.

The inciting incident, from the A’s point of view, was the Oakland City Council’s disinclination to vote on a $12 billion mixed-use development that would have included a new baseball stadium at the former Howard Terminal site. (The Athletics play at 55-year-old RingCentral Coliseum, once home to some of the best sight lines in the big leagues, but ruined when an upper deck of seats was built in the outfield in order to lure Al Davis’ NFL Raiders back to Oakland … which they subsequently quit in favor of Las Vegas. Irony abounds.)

Talk of moving the team could be a pressure tactic to get the Athletics a new stadium in Oakland. Team owner John Fisher said, "The future success of the A's depends on a new ballpark. Oakland is a great baseball town and we will continue to pursue our waterfront ballpark project. We will also follow MLB's direction to explore other markets.”

Even if the A’s get their wish for a $1 billion privately financed ballpark, it wouldn’t be ready until 2027, hence their decision to turn up the heat. MLB threw additional fuel on the fire by nixing the idea of demolishing the Coliseum and rebuilding on the same site.

The league seems to prefer relocation to expansion, at least at the moment. "The Oakland Coliseum site is not a viable option for the future vision of baseball. We have instructed the Athletics to begin to explore other markets while they continue to pursue a waterfront ballpark in Oakland. The Athletics need a new ballpark to remain competitive, so it is now in our best interest to also consider other markets.”

Those “other markets” are topped by Las Vegas, which already has the NFL and NHL, but also include Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia, in addition to Nashville, Charlotte, and Montreal, which lost the Expos to Washington, D.C., in 2005.

So far, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is playing ball, making conciliatory noises about the A’s stadium plan and saying that transportation issues have to be resolved first. "We will all see incredible revenues if this project gets built. … I am confident we can get this over the finish line.” However, that’s contingent on $855 million worth of infrastructure improvements funded by Oakland itself.

Portland has an edge on Las Vegas, in that it’s already trying to build a waterfront stadium. Sin City doesn’t even have a prospective site at this point, though when the A's executives made an exploratory trip a couple of weeks ago, stopping first in Las Vegas, they indicated a preference for their stadium to be downtown; they also revealed that a downtown stadium would be on the smallish side, 30,000 seats and 4,000 standing-room spaces, which could point to the Cashman Field site, which was originally in the running to host the Raiders' stadium.

Nashville, unlike Vegas, has an active investor group, headed by Justin Timberlake. Vancouver has a venue that could be retrofitted for baseball while an MLB-caliber stadium is built. And then there’s San José, with which the Athletics have flirted in the past. Vegas, Vancouver, Portland, and San José also share the geographical advantage of keeping the A’s in the American West, forestalling realignment of the league.

Still, the day after MLB gave the A's the relocation go-ahead, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman revealed that the city and the league has been in talks for "decades" about moving a team to Las Vegas; she said the city and the A's have been discussing the possibility since 2019.

Also, USA Today calls Las Vegas the “overwhelming” frontrunner, contingent on the construction of a retractable-roof stadium, financed with substantial public investment. (The state did it to serenade the Raiders, diverting $750 million in hotel-room taxes toward Allegiant Stadium.) So, basically, there are a lot of moving parts to the A’s-to-Vegas concept, which we'd say is in the top of the first inning.

Finally, does MLB want to leave Oakland completely denuded of major-league teams? “We know [the A’s] remain deeply committed to succeeding in Oakland, and with two other sports franchises recently leaving the community, their commitment to Oakland is now more important than ever,” said the league.

“I hate to say it’s expected, but it’s expected,” sighed Raiders owner Mark Davis to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It’s what we went through. … The government up there [in Oakland] is just not capable of putting a deal together that’s win-win.” But a more skeptical take was heard from the San José Mercury News, which called relocation talk “more bark than bite.”

For the moment, don’t get too excited about baseball in Las Vegas. The Athletics are tethered to a Coliseum lease through 2024. Said A’s manager Bob Melvin, “We continue to play in Oakland until something changes.” What that game-changing “something” is remains to be seen.

And here's your link to the new poll on what to do with the Fontainebleau.

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Kevin Lewis Jun-09-2021

Unlikely

The A's have a relatively small but committed fan base. Losing them to another city would not be well received, especially after the Warriors moved across the Bay to SF.

The fortunes of the A's have waxed and waned with, not their own success or lack thereof, but that of the Giants. The Giants have been alternately great and terrible over the last three decades. When they have stunk, the A's have been a more attractive draw than otherwise. So it ultimately may come down to how well the Giants do in the next few years.

There's also the matter of civic pride. Oakland has always been SF's ugly cousin. The image of sports teams fleeing for greener pastures isn't one Oakland enjoys.

Finally, there's the consideration that Las Vegas is a really, really shitty place for a baseball team--a city where the temperature regularly exceeds 800 degrees and traffic jams are legendary.

jay Jun-09-2021

Too Hot

Baseball is a long game compared to football. I can't imagine sitting in the stands in Vegas heat except at night. With 80+ home games there would be too many afternoon games to make it practical except with the dome closed. In the midst of summer I don't even like crossing the street from MGM to Luxor its like entering a blast furnace.

[email protected] Jun-09-2021

Stadia

I love sports, but I'm sick and tired of taxpayers having to pony up for facilities for private businesses.  With all the tourism that Las Vegas draws I doubt if a baseball team would have much economic impact.  If the A's are willing to finance their own stadium, then the people of Las Vegas should welcome them, but only if cities stop agreeing to publicly financed stadia for private businesses will the owners start building their own facilities, as they should.

Doc H Jun-09-2021

likely with some thought

See Phoenix AZ Diamondbacks on how to design a stadium to deal with heat. Phoenix has hotter/more humid summers than LV and they make it work. Hey Lewis...thought you weren't part of the low IQ 75 mil you commented on/generalized about the other day and would know about this given your know it all approach to everything/anything/generalizing nature.....interesting....

ls....agree on the nonsense of taxpayers funding stadiums. And hasn't "pro" sports largely turned into a political entity these days, not about the game anymore but playing politics? Perhaps they could fund raise like politicians to build their stadiums in the same manner and leave LV/NV taxpayers alone?

Roy Furukawa Jun-09-2021

Oakland

The A's should stay in Oakland, but they do need a new stadium. And I'd discount whatever Mark Davis has to say about Oakland, I am sure he was asking for a win-lose situation where he would be the only winner. What he should do is invest in a haircut that doesn't make him look like a bad imitation of Moe Howard.

Kevin Lewis Jun-09-2021

Feenicks is a different story

I KNEW someone (from the 75 million) would point out the obvious, that Phoenix has a baseball team and a stadium. Duhhh, really? That doesn't mean one in Vegas would work. The only way it would be feasible is if the funding and the willingness to build a big, domed or retractable roof, air-conditioned stadium existed. Then there would have to be a huge cooling plant, which would increase the total footprint. Chase Field in Phoenix has all that, but it would be very difficult to secure a decent site, funding, permits, etc. in LV. 

That ballpark was financed by a 1/4 percent increase in the sales tax, which was massively unpopular, in no small part because the voters had no say in the decision. I really doubt that Vegas residents would be any more enthusiastic. This is not to say it won't happen anyway; Vegas is a company town, and if the casinos determine that a major league ballpark and franchise would benefit them, why, then, there will be one.

Doc H Jun-09-2021

ballot

"I really doubt that Vegas residents would be any more enthusiastic."

Well lewis, this isn't for you to decide alone, is it? You once again catagorize everything neatly into what people are, what they want, what they believe, etc. Put it on a ballot and let the voters decide. After all, if someone who many think has some form of dementia, ain't that bright, and has a hard time putting 2 sentences in a row can "win", well, anything is possible with the herd types in the game of voting, correct? You know, the other X million like yourself who made that happen. See, we can play the same generalizing/projection game, right lewis? :)

IdahoPat Jun-09-2021

It's all about the eyeballs, kids

MLB works in Phoenix because it's the 11th biggest market in the country. Las Vegas is 39th, just ahead of Austin, Texas, just behind Greenville-Spartanburg SC. It would become immediately, and not narrowly by any stretch, the smallest Nielsen market in all of MLB.

Kevin Lewis Jun-09-2021

Someone is off his meds...

The thing is, the voters probably won't have any say in the decision, just the way things happened in Phoenix. Vegas might figure a way to stick it to the tourists, though, the way they did to finance Allegiant Stadium.

IdahoPat, whether the whole thing makes financial or fiscal sense probably won't be a factor in the ultimate decision, either. But the Vegas metro area, if you include Henderson and North Vegas, ranks 27th in population---since there are 30 MLB teams. #22 through #26 don't have baseball teams, while #28 does. So the potential fanbase is large enough to make a team viable, ignoring other considerations.

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