As Expected: Lords Of Baseball Bless Athletics’ Relocation To Las Vegas Thanks To Public Stadium Funding For A’s In Nevada; A’s Owner Moved To Avoid Losing MLB Revenue Sharing Dollars
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
The Lords of Baseball have cleared a path for the Oakland Athletics to move to Las Vegas to play in a planned $1.5 billion stadium at the Tropicana hotel site on the Strip by 2028.
It was a formality, really, for Major League Baseball’s team owners to unanimously approve the relocation of the Athletics franchise to Las Vegas thanks to $380 million in government stadium funding approved by the Nevada Legislature and Gov. Joe Lombardo in June. Once the state of Nevada showed the MLB team the public money, the relocation vote was a done deal.
There was a rare A’s owner John Fisher public comment. It was after the owners meeting in Arlington, Texas. He mentioned he was excited about moving the A’s to Las Vegas. “The fans there are terrific . . . We look forward to opening day in 2028.”
Here are A's owner John Fisher's entire comments from the MLB Press Conference in Arlington.
"Today is an incredibly difficult day for Oakland A's fans. It's a great day for Las Vegas." pic.twitter.com/VZAe1ele8v
— Casey Pratt (@CaseyPrattABC7) November 16, 2023
In a letter, Fisher said he would lose revenue sharing money if a stadium deal was not done by 2024. Hello Las Vegas. And just like that, 55 years of history in Oakland — including four World Series championships — were tossed into the Bay for a starry-eyed market that preferred a MLB expansion team over another big league team from Oakland.
Lombardo’s press office issues a press release that said, in part: “Nevada is more excited than ever to welcome the A’s home to Las Vegas. As more and more Americans are finding out — and as MLB owners recognized today — Nevada is a great state to do business.”
Lombardo claimed, “This relocation will bring thousands of new jobs to our state, while also generating historic economic development and providing a return on public investment for the direct benefit of Nevada taxpayers.”
Thousands of new jobs? A MLB team typically has about 300 employees. Perhaps Lombardo is counting game day workers like stadium ushers, security, retail sellers, cleaners and food/bev staff. There is also a one-time hiring of construction workers to build a stadium.
MLB’s 30 team owners green-lighted the Athletics to move to Las Vegas in a unanimous vote. The A’s needed 75 percent of the owners to bless the relocation. This would be the fourth city in the franchise’s long history that includes Philadelphia, Kansas City and Oakland.
Before today’s owners vote, only two MLB teams have moved since 1972: The Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers 51 years ago and the Montreal Expos morphed into the Washington Nationals in 2005.
Fisher asserted the city of Oakland failed to show him the public money to build a stadium and culminate a deal in Oakland. Fisher has long contended the A’s ballpark, the Coliseum in Oakland, was behind the times in modern revenue-generating amenities.
Today marks a significant moment for our franchise, and it’s met with mixed emotions – sadness for this change and excitement for our future. I know this is a hard day for our fans in Oakland. We made sincere efforts to keep our team in Oakland, but unfortunately, it did not work out. I am grateful to the fans who have supported our team throughout the years and the home Oakland provided. The storied history of our franchise includes three cities over the past century: Oakland, along with Kansas City and Philadelphia, will always be part of this franchise’s DNA. — Athletics owner John Fisher
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said everything was done to avoid relocation. The owners waived the relocation fee for the A’s to move to Las Vegas.
Here in Las Vegas, there is no formal design of a baseball stadium that has been provided to the public. There are artistic renderings provided by the Athletics, but the team itself acknowledged those were not actual representations of its planned 33,000-seat stadium on nine acres at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. It is for that reason that LVSportsBiz.com no longer publishes those stadium drawings that you see in stories by other Las Vegas media.
Even without a site plan and a formal stadium design provided to the public, the Athletics have started doing business with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board, which will oversee the A’s stadium process in Las Vegas. The stadium board’s chairman is LVCVA tourism agency head Steve Hill, who also worked with Las Vegas consultant Jeremy Aguero to make the case for the $380 million in stadium funding before the state Legislature in a special session. And, Hill’s agency, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), works administrative support for the stadium board. When you come to Las Vegas to get public stadium funding, one man has three hats: Hill.
But a statewide teacher union promises a lawsuit in an attempt to block public stadium funding, arguing that the approved legislation, Senate Bill 1, was flawed because it violated five sections of the Nevada state constitution. The Schools Over Stadiums lawsuit could be filed in the coming weeks, a spokesman for the group said.
Schools Over Stadiums issued this statement in response to the owners vote: “While this news was expected, it’s still a blow to educators trying to right Nevada priorities and Oakland A’s fans fighting to keep their hometown team. Whether it’s today’s unanimous vote to approve the move, or the Legislature’s vote to give John Fisher $380M in public funding, priorities are misguided.
“Despite the unanimous vote, the Las Vegas stadium deal is bad for Nevada educators and every Nevadan who cares about our schools. The good news is that everyday people can still have a say, and Schools Over Stadiums remains committed to qualifying a referendum petition for the November 2024 ballot and filing a lawsuit against SB1 in the coming weeks.”
LVSportsBiz.com has texted Athletics team president Dave Kaval and emailed a team spokesperson for reaction to today’s owners vote.
The A’s issued this statement, attributing it to Fisher: “Today marks a significant moment for our franchise, and it’s met with mixed emotions – sadness for this change and excitement for our future. I know this is a hard day for our fans in Oakland.
“We made sincere efforts to keep our team in Oakland, but unfortunately, it did not work out. I am grateful to the fans who have supported our team throughout the years and the home Oakland provided. The storied history of our franchise includes three cities over the past century: Oakland, along with Kansas City and Philadelphia, will always be part of this franchise’s DNA.
“We are excited to begin this next chapter in Las Vegas. I want to thank the Las Vegas and Nevada community for welcoming us. We will continue to work hard to bring home more championships for our fans and for our new home in Vegas.”
The Raiders and Athletics were not friendly co-tenants at the Coliseum in Oakland as owners for both major league teams did not get along. The Raiders opened their new stadium in Las Vegas in 2020 thanks to $750 million in public funding that helped build the $1.4 billion NFL stadium that was the centerpiece of the $2 billion Raiders stadium project.
As a result of the Raiders’ move to a new revenue-generating stadium in Las Vegas, the value of the Raiders has soared to an astounding $6.2 billion, according to a business magazine.
The Nevada Legislature and the state governor have now made the Athletics a much more valuable team because of the A’s stadium in Las Vegas.
Fisher will still have to fund $1.1 billion in private money to build the ballpark in Las Vegas, which begs the question: Why doesn’t he simply spend the money on an open-air stadium in Oakland and have the Las Vegas metro area vie for an expansion team to offer Southern Nevada to build its own MLB team in much the same way the NHL Vegas Golden Knights took hold in this market.
The ballpark is Las Vegas would have to be built with some form of cover to buffer the 100 degree-plus dog days of summer in the Vegas Valley. It could be a retractable roof that would offer views of the MGM Grand and New York New York hotel properties beyond the baseball stadium.
As part of the $380 million in public funding in Nevada, Clark County is on the hook for $120 million. The money that will be raised to pay back the bonds of that $120 million will come from a special tax district of the A’s stadium’s nine-acre site where everything from Uber rides to beer sales will be taxed to generate revenues to pay off the bonds.
The A’s have a lease that expires at the Coliseum after the 2024 MLB season, but where will the Athletics play in 2025, 2026 and 2027? The answer is not set and MLB owners approved the A’s move without needing to know where the franchise will play in those three years while a planned ballpark is built on the Strip.
