Oakland Athletics relocation to Las Vegas

[9] In 1980, Finley agreed to sell the team to a Denver interest in industrialist Marvin Davis, but when the Raiders announced their move to Los Angeles shortly after that same year, the city of Oakland and Alameda County refused to allow the Athletics to break their lease at the Coliseum.

Around this time, the Raiders announced their impending relocation to Las Vegas and the Golden State Warriors moved across the bay to Chase Center in San Francisco, leaving the Athletics as Oakland's only major professional team.

The A's started exploring the possibility of relocating to Las Vegas and would later organize meetings with local government officials and tour potential sites led by Fisher in the next week.

[29] On October 29, Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred said in a SiriusXM interview that he was "not positive" the A's could remain in Oakland and that the team had made progress in exploring Las Vegas as a viable relocation site.

[34] The news came out around this time when the Department of Transportation (DOT) refused to grant $182 million in federal funding for the Howard Terminal project and that the city of Oakland was considering obligation bonds as an alternative.

Derek Stevens, the co-owner of the Circa, Golden Gate and The D properties downtown, confirmed that he attended the meeting and said, "I talked to with ownership in John Fisher and their President Dave [Kaval] for a while yesterday.

"[41] In April 2023, it was revealed that negotiations between the city of Oakland and the Athletics organization had ended, with the team moving forward with a new $1.5 billion 30,000-seat retractable stadium at the site of the Wild Wild West Gambling Hall & Hotel across Interstate 15 from the Golden Knights' T-Mobile Arena, financed through a public-private partnership including a special tax district after reaching an agreement with Red Rock Resorts to purchase and develop the land, with the backing of many within the state of Nevada and MLB.

[55][56] On May 4, Lombardo announced that a legislative package for the Athletics' proposed ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip is being created with an initial deadline of May 26 with other options, such as a special session if it can't be passed in time.

If there are any adjustments we can make to our schedule or prioritize certain tasks to facilitate potential stadium work, we would like to know so that we can act quickly," though he added "NDOT has not yet heard from the Athletics about the ballpark proposal at Tropicana.

[71] On May 24, Governor Joe Lombardo announced the agreement with the Athletics, Treasurer Zach Conine, and Clark County officials in a press release for the bill's sending to legislature.

In the press release, Lombardo said, "This agreement follows months of negotiations between the state, the county and the A's, and I believe it gives us a tremendous opportunity to continue building on the professional sports infrastructure of southern Nevada.

[75][76][77][78] By Memorial Day 2023, the legislature held its first and only regular session hearing on the Southern Nevada Tourism Innovation Act with officials, residents and some out of state people speaking for or against the bill which lasted for six hours.

[95] Around the same time as the bill's hearing in the Nevada Legislature and subsequent passage in the Senate, Oakland Athletics fans organized a large "Reverse Boycott" for a home game at the Coliseum against the Tampa Bay Rays.

He said that the Athletics would file an application for relocation and establish a committee to define the operating and broadcast territories surrounding the Las Vegas Valley, headed by Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio, before making a recommendation that would go to the executive council and full ownership.

[99] These plans were later confirmed by an Athletics spokesperson in an interview with The Mercury News while the options in Las Vegas and Reno were contingent on approval from the MLB Players Association (MLBPA).

On June 20, the city of Oakland and Alameda County explored the options of forcing the Athletics to pay $30 million in purchase payments for the Coliseum due to its joint ownership of the facility and impending relocation to Las Vegas.

[101] On June 19, Bally's chairman Soo Kim told KTNV-TV that the Tropicana might not be razed until two years later into construction and that there was a scenario where part of the resort-casino could remain after the ballpark is complete.

[104] On June 29, the Nevada State Education Association (NSEA) created a new political action committee known as Schools Over Stadiums[105] for the purpose of exploring "every possible path" of reversing the legislature's and Governor Lombardo's approval of SB1, including litigation or a ballot measure on the bill in 2024, with over 102,586 signatures required for the latter option.

On Oracle Park, Clark mentioned that the MLBPA could be involved in discussions about having the Athletics play in the same venue with the cross-bay Giants but noted they would engage in a different conversation by the time the votes are cast.

[112][113] When reports of Reno being considered an option were published, the city's mayor Hillary Schieve said they had not had any conversations with the Athletics organization about sharing Greater Nevada Field with the Aces but were open to discussing the possibility of the proposal.

[114] During the 2023 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Seattle, Manfred confirmed the Athletics had started the relocation process to Las Vegas by submitting information for the application.

[115] However, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao met with Manfred during the All-Star Game to share documents with him and 29 other MLB owners outlining the city's plans to build a new ballpark at the Coliseum or Howard Terminal from years prior in a bid to keep the Athletics from relocating to Las Vegas.

[128] When asked about a temporary home for 2025–2027, Kaval said a three-year lease extension at the Oakland Coliseum, Las Vegas Ballpark, or Oracle Park were strongly under consideration for the Athletics until their permanent one is finished.

The team was established in response to the Athletics' relocation to Las Vegas and is modeled after their time in Oakland right down to sharing the same color scheme and logo including its abbreviated name.

[150] By March, new renderings of the ballpark were officially revealed to the public containing a fixed roof inspired by traditional baseball pennants, multi-tiered seating, the world's largest cable-net window facing the direction of the Las Vegas Boulevard, a jumbotron and a three-acre plaza with the overall design created by the Denmark-based Bjarke Ingels Group and HNTB respectively.

[166][167] Others have opined that by many measures, such as public money available and market size, Oakland was actually offering the better stadium deal, and that the relocation was purely an effort for the A's to remain on revenue sharing with no other factors considered, as some commentators have speculated that Fisher was no longer able to afford his part of the Howard Terminal project.

[173][174][175] While most of the criticism was directed at Fisher, Kaval, and Manfred, Jon Becker of the San Jose Mercury points out that Bud Selig, who was the MLB commissioner from 1992 to 2015, is the person most responsible for enabling this relocation to materialize.

This included blocking the sale to Joe Lacob, who was interested in buying the team and building a privately financed ballpark in Oakland, after he reached a verbal agreement and an ownership group led by Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and former Athletics superstar Reggie Jackson whose bid was significantly higher than what Wolff and Fisher paid.

[177][178][179][180] Former Miami Marlins and Montreal Expos executive David Samson has been heavily critical of Fisher and Kaval, arguing that the A's and Las Vegas are moving ahead with relocation despite having no clear plan on many aspects of the deal.

[185] Among people who do not work directly for the A's or MLB, those who have written or spoken positively about the proposed relocation include Lindsey Adler of The Wall Street Journal and sports media personality Chris "Mad Dog" Russo.