The Oakland Athletics’ years-long search for a new stadium to replace the Oakland Coliseum looks like it’s finally over and unfortunately for the team’s fans, the franchise’s new home will be Las Vegas.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Wednesday, the A’s have inked a binding agreement to purchase land in Southern Las Vegas for a potential new $1.5bn, 30,000-seat stadium.
Along with the commitment to buy the 49-acre site owned by Red Rock Resorts, the A’s have an option to purchase a further eight acres of land in the future. The Review-Journal cited Las Vegas economist Jeremy Aguero as estimating the stadium would attract around 400,000 extra visitors to Sin City annually.
The A’s had previously scoped out Tropicana as a potential new location, but Bally’s September purchase ended that pursuit. Now if all goes to plan, the A’s will one day be playing on of the former site of Red Rock’s Wild Wild West property in the sports district near T-Mobile Arena and Allegiant Stadium, home since 2020 of the formerly Oakland-based Las Vegas Raiders.
Unsurprisingly, Nevada is excited about an MLB franchise potentially coming to town, with Governor Joe Lombardo saying it would be “great news for Southern Nevada as well as our entire state.”
Not everyone’s happy, however.
franchise chose “not to negotiate with the City of Oakland as a true partner”
San Francisco Chronicle reporter Sarah Ravani took to Twitter to share the reaction of Oakland’s Mayor, Sheng Thao. Mayor Thao expressed her deep disappointment that the baseball franchise chose “not to negotiate with the City of Oakland as a true partner, in a way that respects the long relationship between the fans, the City and the team.”