A game at the Oakland Coliseum on July 23, 2022. The Athletics team has signed a binding agreement to purchase land for a new stadium in Las Vegas.
Jeff Chiu/AP
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Jeff Chiu/AP
A game at the Oakland Coliseum on July 23, 2022. The Athletics team has signed a binding agreement to purchase land for a new stadium in Las Vegas.
Jeff Chiu/AP
Oakland Athletics has signed a binding agreement to buy land in Las Vegas to build a new football field, signaling its departure from Oakland after more than five decades in the city.
Team officials announced this week that they have completed a deal to purchase a 49-acre venue west of the Las Vegas Strip and hope to play there starting in 2027. “We’re aware of that. This is a difficult day for our Oakland fans and community,” the team said in a statement.
Team A hopes to break ground next year on a new stadium with a capacity of 30,000 to 35,000, says Team President Dave Kaval Related press.
If the move goes as planned, A’s will become only the second Major League Baseball franchise to move cities in over 50 years.
In the statement, the team said it had made a “strong and sincere” effort to stay in Oakland, where they have played since 1968.
The team played at its current stadium, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, during their entire tenure in the city. The Colosseum is one of the oldest stadiums in the major leagues, and A’s owners have been looking for a new park for a long time.
“Even with support from fans, leaders at the city, county and state levels, as well as in the broader community, the process of building a new football field in Oakland,” the team said. has made very little progress for a while. “We recognize that this is difficult to hear. We are very disappointed that we have not been able to achieve our shared vision of a waterfront baseball field.”
Negotiations have focused most recently on a riverside site near downtown Oakland. Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao announced Wednesday night that the city had stopped those negotiations with the group, adding that she was “deeply disappointed” with the group’s decision.
“The city has made every effort to reach mutually beneficial terms to keep Person A in Oakland,” she said in a statement. “However, it’s clear to me that Person A has no intention of staying in Oakland and is simply using this process to try to get a better deal out of Las Vegas. I’m not interested in that. keep playing that game – our fans and residents deserve better.”
Team A was a powerhouse when they first moved to Oakland, taking home three consecutive World Series titles from 1972 to 1974, then a fourth title in 1989 behind the “Bash Brothers,” Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco.
The team’s current owner, John Fisher, bought back the majority of the team’s shares in 2005 and became the team’s full owner in 2016. During the Fisher era, the A’s cut staff. and exchange the stars. The team made seven appearances after the season but only made it past the squad once.
After a dismal 2022 season in which Team A lost 102 games, the team’s 2023 season got off to a particularly dismal start: The team’s entire salary fund was just $58 million, the lowest in the league and with 3-16, Team A has the worst record in baseball.
The team’s move would mark the third major professional sports team to leave Oakland in recent years, leaving the city without a team. In 2019, the Golden State Warriors, which have played at Oakland Arena since 1971, moved across the bay to a new arena in San Francisco. The following year, the Raiders, Oakland’s longtime NFL team, moved to Las Vegas.
Las Vegas is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States. Its population has tripled since 1990. Team A will be its third-largest professional sports team, joining the Raiders and NHL’s Golden Knights, added as an expansion team in 2017.
