A’s officials will go to Las Vegas to hear relocation pitch
Group to be led by team president Kaval
The A’s are wasting no time beginning their Major League Baseball-approved search for a new home outside of Oakland. Team officials will visit the Las Vegas area next week to explore the possibility of moving the club to Southern Nevada after their lease at the Coliseum runs out in 2024.
A’s president Dave Kaval will lead a group of club representatives who’ll meet with Southern Nevada government officials over several days, team officials confirmed to this news organization Tuesday. The Las Vegas ReviewJournal reported details about the A’s pending visit late Monday night.
It also was reported the A’s are in the process of hiring a government relations firm to help them explore the feasibility of making a move to Vegas work.
All this comes just six days after the A’s surprise announce
ment that they would seek relocation while continuing their pursuit of a new ballpark at Howard Terminal. MLB approved the A’s plan to investigate relocation just weeks after the team submitted to Oakland officials its $12 billion term sheet for the Howard Terminal project. The A’s have demanded that the council approve the plan before summer recess in July.
Multiple reports indicate baseball’s leaders would be open to the A’s considering at least five other cities as they explore their options — Portland, Oregon; Nashville, Tennessee; Charlotte, North Carolina; Vancouver, British Columbia and Montreal.
Whether this is a leverage play or not, some might say it’s quite an ambitious undertaking for a team whose motto remains “Rooted in Oakland.” Then again, long-time A’s followers might remind them this is the ninth time the city’s baseball team has discussed or threatened to leave town during its time in Oakland.
The A’s most recently had picked a 13-acre site near Laney College in September 2017 after a yearlong search. But the Peralta Community College District halted talks three months later because students, faculty, and local residents and business owners expressed concern over the project. The district’s decision drove the A’s to two sites: Howard Terminal and the current Coliseum site. MLB last week, in addition to allowing the A’s permission to discuss relocation, for the first time ruled out the Coliseum site as an option without specifying why a new stadium there is not viable.
The A’s first official visit on their relocation tour is essentially on the same block that houses the Raiders, with whom they shared the Coliseum for nearly 40 years before they moved to the desert last season.
Familiarity, though, runs a bit deeper in Vegas for the A’s. Their Triple-A team, the Las Vegas Aviators, plays in a new stadium in the Vegas suburbs of Summerlin. The A’s also opened the season in Vegas 25 years ago, playing their first six games at Cashman Field in 1996 while workers in Oakland put the finishing touches on Mt. Davis.
Sources told the JournalReview the A’s will consider both Summerlin — thereby forcing the Aviators out of town — and Henderson as possible sites. Henderson, where the Raiders’ headquarters are located, tried and failed to land an MLB team three years ago when it tried to lure the Diamondbacks from Arizona.
While Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf has vowed not to let the A’s follow both the Raiders and Warriors out of town, other city officials have stressed that the A’s project needs to be properly scrutinized. Nonetheless, Schaaf said getting the A’s proposal to a City Council vote is her goal.
Late last week, the City Council sent a letter to MLB stating that it is, “committed to negotiating in good faith for a strong future for the A’s in Oakland, and we invite the A’s and MLB to do the same by agreeing not to seek relocation while the A’s complete the project process as the Council moves forward.”