Oakland A’s to pack their gear and head to Las Vegas

The Oakland Athletics are now poised to become the Sin City A’s.

The A’s, based in the East Bay city for 55 years, have cut a deal to buy 49 acres in Las Vegas to build a $1.5 billion stadium, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. 

The Major League Baseball team owned by billionaire John Fisher has signed a binding purchase agreement for land just west of the Strip at Dean Martin Drive and Tropicana Avenue. A price for the property was not disclosed.

The agreement with owner Red Rock Resorts, parent company of Station Casinos, ends talks with the City of Oakland to build a $12 billion ballpark and redevelopment project at Howard Terminal.

“For a while we were on parallel paths (with Oakland), but we have turned our attention to Las Vegas to get a deal here for the A’s and find a long-term home,” A’s President Dave Kaval told the Review-Journal. “Oakland has been a great home for us for over 50 years, but we really need this 20-year saga completed and we feel there’s a path here in Southern Nevada to do that.”

The A’s are working against a January 2024 deadline set by MLB to get their ballpark deal done.

If the A’s can negotiate a public-private partnership to benefit all sides and MLB approves the move, plans call for breaking ground on a Las Vegas ballpark next year – with the first pitch across the plate in 2027.

Kaval said a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat stadium would have a partially retractable roof. An expansion, such as for food and beverage establishments and even an amphitheater, may be in the cards. An A’s master plan listed by the Review-Journal pegged the ballpark at $1 billion, with 35,000 seats.

The A’s have been working with Oakland officials on the planned $12 billion Howard Terminal project, centered around a $1 billion waterfront ballpark near Jack London Square.

In addition to the stadium, an $11 billion development was to include 3,000 homes, up to 1.5 million square feet of commercial space, up to 270,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, a 3,500-seat performance center, 400 hotel rooms and up to 18 acres of public open space.

But for Oakland and its struggling baseball team based at the Coliseum since 1968, the clock appears to have run out. After the news broke about the Las Vegas deal, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao confirmed that negotiations for a deal at Howard Terminal were dead, the East Bay Times reported.

In a statement,Thao said she was “deeply disappointed that the A’s have chosen 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.”

Regarding the negotiations, Thao said “it is clear to me that the A’s have no intention of staying in Oakland and have simply been using this process to try to extract a better deal out of Las Vegas. I am not interested in continuing to play that game – the fans and our residents deserve better.”

— Dana Bartholomew