Las Vegas? Latest potential transfer from Auckland

After years of unsuccessful attempts to find a new stadium site that would keep them in Oakland, the Athletics announced Wednesday night that they have signed a binding contract for the land in Las Vegas where they intend to build a new stadium for the team.

The agreement indicates that the franchise, which has been in Oakland since its 1968 move from Kansas City, intends to move to Vegas in the near future — but there are a lot of questions to answer. What still needs to be known before moving? Are there any obstacles that may stand in our way? When can the Oakland A’s officially become the Las Vegas A’s – and will they keep that nickname in their new home?

Here’s what we know (and don’t know) about the potential move.

So is the first letter officially moving to Las Vegas?

It’s not a done deal. But it will almost certainly be soon. The team’s purchase agreement on a 49-acre plot off the Strip made clear what people had long expected about sports: After more than two decades of failing to build a stadium in Oakland and the surrounding area, the A-Team is close to becoming the latest major professional sports team to move to Vegas. Vegas – after the NFL’s Raiders, who also moved from Oakland in 2020.

The scoops that will start on the new field are not quite ready. Some minor policy details remain. But the A’s are confident, and in an interview with ESPN, team president Dave Kaval said, “This is a huge deal for our franchise and the entire league.”

What details do you still need to know?

Only $500 million worth of them. The A’s, who have spent the past two years dealing with Las Vegas and Oakland on what they deem to be “parallel tracks,” have taken off in Las Vegas. They pledged $1 billion, plus overhead costs, on a new stadium on the land they purchased this week. The cost of the project is expected to be $1.5 billion, leaving half a billion dollars of public funding to the municipalities involved.

Group A members have worked with Clark County, the state legislature, and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, Kaval said, describing talks with the parties as “ongoing and positive.” They’re using Allegiant Stadium, the Raiders home of $750 million in public dollars, as an agent.

What is the timeline for this move?

The Nevada Legislature ends in July. If the A’s and the government can strike a public-private partnership, the next step would be for the A’s to file a transition application to MLB. If the commissioner’s office approves, the A’s will need a vote by the owners to legalize the transition. If all this is done before January, the team can start at the new stadium by next year in preparation for the 2027 season.

Of course, the Auckland A’s lease expires after 2024 – so even if all goes according to plan, where they will play in 2025 is currently unclear. Kaval said the A’s have negotiated a deal with the Las Vegas Aviators, their Triple-A affiliate, to use the Las Vegas Ballpark for home games starting in 2025. (He added that the Aviators will remain in Las Vegas, similar to the Minnesota Twins’ company.) Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul.) or possibly earlier, if the A’s and Coliseum reach an agreement to end the lease early. The team can also extend the lease agreement temporarily in Oakland, as the Raiders did before their move.

Whatever the case, MLB will have an important say in this, as it will help the league shape the interim plan. Commissioner Rob Manfred’s first public comments after the move was announced were positive. “We support shifting the focus of the A’s to Las Vegas and look forward to them finalizing that process by the end of the year,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Wednesday.

Why Las Vegas?

It’s not population or TV market size – because both are much smaller than the metro area from which A.J. One of the most fleeting franchises in sports – with moves from Philadelphia to Kansas City to Oakland in the past – early adopters have long sought the shiny new city as a panacea, often for the failures of ownership and management. And there is no city shinier than Vegas.

“When you think about what makes a market successful, you need to have a strong local fan base,” Kaval said. “The 2.3 million people are rabid fans of the sport… That’s one of the reasons we chose the location we chose: it’s easily accessible to locals.”

Kaval said the stadium and car park will only occupy 15 acres or so of the site. The rest of the area could serve as a mixed-use development – perhaps baseball-themed – that encourages locals and tourists to spend time at bars, restaurants and other attractions, such as The Battery in Atlanta.

Kaval said the raiders estimated to bring an additional 800,000 tourists to the city annually. He suggested that A’s would bring in 400,000.

“The secret behind Las Vegas is that you have the tourists,” he said. “These people can come in and spend a lot of money. You can create a flexible and robust business model.”

Will they be the Las Vegas A – or are we looking at a possible name change?

The name “A” is here to stay, according to Kaval.

He said, “We’ve been around since 1901.” “A charter member of the American League, the Athletics. We’ve already been in three markets. We feel very strongly that the A’s are such a strong brand, it’s something we’ll continue with the Las Vegas A’s.”

Was this step inevitable?

“Once the league set the January 2024 deadline for a binding deal, it really made that inevitable in some ways,” Kaval said. “He got us a binding deal on a schedule that wasn’t on offer in Oakland.”

Kaval pointed to the $100 million the team has spent trying to stay in Oakland. He said: “Despite all of that, we’re looking forward to another eight years before we open our doors [a new stadium]. It’s impossible to go forward with a facility in the Colosseum that’s ten years beyond its lifespan.”

Oakland Council President Nikki Fortunato-Bass said the city was in “active negotiations” with the team when the Vegas deal was announced. “Oakland has worked incredibly hard to reach an agreement with the A,” she said in a statement. “Our City Council has created a framework to support a win-win deal to preserve Auckland’s top flight.”

While it is true that public money was more difficult to obtain in Oakland than in other locations, including Las Vegas, the idea that public funding was needed to build a stadium is a false premise. Across the bay, the San Francisco Giants have built an entirely private Oracle Park.

John Fisher, owner of the A Club, had never considered the idea of ​​a private stadium in Auckland. The A’s fans, despite years of success on the field, have lost faith. The narrative of inevitability became reality, and the city of Oakland lost its last major professional sports team.

“We feel for our fans in Auckland,” Kaval said. “It’s a sad day for the community and our fan base. We’ve been here for over 50 years.”

A has been really bad in recent years. Does this speed up their schedule or increase the budget to put together a winning team?

In theory, sure, but the Athletics have the lowest athletic paychecks this season and have ranked higher than 25 in the majors only once in the past decade, so the idea that once the A’s get to Las Vegas they’ll suddenly switch to the bigger budget team isn’t a guarantee. . Oakland’s president of baseball operations, Billy Beane, and his successor, David Forrest, have both done a yeoman’s job of keeping the team competitive on a slim payroll—they’ve made the playoffs in six of the past 10 years. But Auckland’s horrible 2022 – and worse start to the season – speaks to the difficulty of this approach.

“Once we are sure of the schedule for the new building, it allows us to plan,” Kaval said. “Right now, for David Forrest and Bailey as our senior advisors, there’s a lot of uncertainty. With revenue down, it’s a precarious situation. We need to get through that and have a plan that we can work against so we can develop talent. I have full confidence in the baseball operations team.” We have, and once we get through the transfer process with the league, we can put together a plan.”