MLB to Oakland: A’s can swing for Las Vegas

The owners of Major League Baseball teams have turned their backs on Oakland and its $12 billion plan to redevelop Howard Terminal into a new ballpark village for the Oakland A’s. 

All 30 team owners voted in favor of approving the Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas, leaving the Bay Area after more than 50 years in Oakland, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

“I know this is a hard day for our fans in Oakland,” A’s owner John Fisher said in a statement. “We made sincere efforts to keep our team in Oakland, but unfortunately, it did not work out.”

It remains unclear when the A’s will pack their gear out of the Oakland Coliseum at 7000 South Coliseum Way, also subject to a redevelopment plan.

The A’s have another year on their lease at Oakland’s concrete ballpark. The team’s new stadium, a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat ballpark with a retractable roof to be partially paid for by Nevada taxpayers, won’t open until 2028.

That leaves the struggling team, which finished with a record of 50 wins and 112 losses last year, scrambling for a venue for games. The A’s could either extend the lease or find diamonds to play on at San Francisco’s Oracle Park or at the A’s Triple-A stadium in Vegas, according to MLB officials and local buzz.

Wherever the 122-year-old Athletics ends up, the MLB decision called the final out for the 56-acre stadium project at Howard Terminal, just west of Jack London Square.

In addition to a $1 billion ballpark, an $11 billion development would have included 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.

In September of last year, renderings went public and an 82-page preliminary document plan was shared between the city and the A’s, according to the plan released by Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao this summer.

“We are disappointed by the outcome of this vote,” Thao said in a statement. “But we do not see this as the end of the road. We all know there’s a long way to go before shovels in the ground and that there are a number of unresolved issues surrounding this move.

“I have also made it clear to the commissioner that the A’s branding and name should stay in Oakland and we will continue to work to pursue expansion opportunities. Baseball has a home in Oakland even if the A’s ownership relocates.”

The Oakland home for any potential team must contend with the city’s rundown, 35,000-seat ballpark, half-owned by the departing A’s. A consortium of investors has offered to buy the team’s half ownership for a $5 billion Coliseum makeover, but Fisher has shown no interest in selling.

— Dana Bartholomew

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