On Tuesday, as Athletics fans began to gather in large numbers at the Oakland Coliseum for a long-planned event. reverse boycott Regarding team ownership and plans to move Team A to Las Vegas, the Nevada State Senate voted in favor of a bill to provide public funding for a Major League Baseball stadium on the Las Vegas Strip.
The bill, which allows up to $380 million in funding for a stadium, will be considered by the State Council on Wednesday and if passed, it will go to Governor Joe Lombardo for signature. The bill, if signed, would be the biggest hurdle cleared to date for the Athletics in their bid to move away from the run-down multi-use stadium in Oakland, California they’ve called home since 1968.
With the incentives provided by the bill passed by the Senate on August 13, the team hopes to build a $1.5 billion stadium on the site of the hotel and casino. Silver Tropicana Las Vegas.
If the bill is passed and signed, Person A’s would then seek permission from the other 29 MLB owners to move locations – a process that Commissioner Rob Manfred said could be quickly agreed upon when asked about that last month. Manfred has previously made finding new stadiums for the A team and the Tampa Bay Rays a top priority for the league, as the league cannot consider expanding beyond 30 teams until questions are asked. That club is stable.
Team A, whose roster has included any recognizable players from the past few seasons, are expected to do badly this season and have spent more than two months breaking their single-season loss record. 1962 Mets modern day. Their play has recently improved, with the team on a pretty shocking six-game winning streak against the Rays on Tuesday night, which they continued with the scoreline. win 2-1 than the best team in baseball.
In a rare scene, the Colosseum, which has the league’s lowest average of 8,555 fans per game entering the game, was packed on Tuesday with the season’s biggest audience of 27,759, many of them. Some of them wore green T-shirts with the words “Sell” across their chests as part of a protest plan. The fans, who believed they were unfairly blamed for the team’s attendance problems, returned one night to prove they were still there and would return to games if the owner The team’s owner, John Fisher, sold the team and the A. team was able to return to competitive baseball.
“I’ve only been in one game this year. I watched this game and I knew I had to come because I knew it was going to be epic and would send a message to the owners that this is what the fans want,” Scott Finney, a Sacramento resident, told Associated Press . “They want the ownership to sell the team so they can stay in Oakland.”
But if Nevada approves public funds for a new stadium, hopes of building a new park in Oakland, at Howard Terminal or elsewhere, may be dashed, even as the city of Oakland makes an effort. to open the door.
Although Tuesday was deliberately chosen for the rally to illustrate that fans would come even for a normal weeknight game against an away team not known for attracting fans grave, but it eventually coincided with a special session of the Nevada legislature, summoned by Lombardo to settle. bill after the regular session was adjourned on June 5.
Interrogation of the group has been acrimonious over the past two weeks as the state’s Senate and Congress, both controlled by Democrats, try to work out the details of a deal brokered with the help of the House of Representatives. Republican governor of the state. The plan calls for people A to provide $1.1 billion for development while agreeing to certain terms on how the team will interact with the community and how revenue will be generated and distributed. distribution in the coming years.
Senate attach two amendments for the bill before the final vote, locking Tropicana as the venue and including language from other bills Lombardo had previously vetoed related to wage and family leave laws.
“I assure every Nevadan, even those of you who are concerned about this bill – I assure you that if you see where the bill started and where it is now, no one What Nevadan doesn’t say is this bill is much better,” Senator Edgar Flores, a Democrat, told reporters Tuesday.
While representatives for A did not provide any details on how their funding would come together, they made a consistent view that the measure would provide jobs and businesses. tax revenue for the city, while also allowing major events other than the 81 regular season. The home matches that Team A will play every year will be held at the venue.
There are still a number of issues related to the Nevada project that need to be resolved, even if the bill passes Congress, including whether the stadium will cause any problems for the Federal Aviation Administration. or not because of its proximity to Harry Reid International Airport. But all signs from the team and state suggest that the stadium, with its retractable roof and easy access to some of Las Vegas’ most popular casinos, could be ready for the 2027 season if bill passed. The team’s lease at the Oakland Coliseum runs through the 2024 season, which will see Team A find a temporary home for two seasons.
Both the team and Manfred suggest that the Las Vegas Baseball Stadium, home to the Class AAA Aviators – the Athletics’ top minor league branch – could be the solution. The venue, which currently has about 9,000 fans, will likely need some improvements to host MLB games, similar to the process the Toronto Blue Jays went through when they renovated their Grade AAA stadium in Buffalo to temporarily use for major league games as travel into Canada is heavily restricted because of the pandemic.
If the A’s leave Oakland, the city will lose each of its major professional sports franchises in a few years, with the NFL’s Raiders having moved to Las Vegas and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors having moved to San Francisco.
A’s fans, at least on Tuesday, didn’t go out quietly.
