Why are the A’s likely to leave Oakland to move to Las Vegas?

The Oakland A’s seem to be much closer to the Nevada desert than the San Francisco Bay Area and yet that’s not because there haven’t been attempts to keep them in northern California.

In 2005 John Fisher bought, together with Lew Wolff who has since left the portrait, the A’s which were the property of Steve Schott and Ken Hoffman. The commissioner at the time, Bud Selig, supported the transaction with the intention of keeping the team in Oakland, especially since Wolff said he wanted to build a new stadium.

Fast forward to April 2023. John Fisher is now in sole command and has just agreed to buy land in Las Vegas with the intention of building a US$1.5 billion (2.04 MM$ CA) to set up his team there.

As he is asking for US$500 million (C$681.1 million) from the State of Nevada, it hasn’t been done yet, but it seems that the A’s won’t be in Oakland for much longer.

other owners

However, things could have been very different if we had chosen other owners in 2005.

Reggie Jackson told Sportico that the stadium problem in Oakland could have been solved if Major League Baseball had allowed Schott and Hoffman to sell the club to him or to Joe Lacob who became owner of the Golden State Warriors of the city. NBA in 2010.

“Joe Lacob would have bought everything, insisted Jackson. He would have bought the A’s, you have to see the job he did with the Warriors.

At the time, Selig turned a blind eye to these two bids, instead preparing a US$180 million (C$245.2 million) financial package that ended with the sale of the team to Fisher and Wolff, who was a member of the same fraternity as Selig at the University of Wisconsin.

Since then, the A’s have been caught up in a search for a new stadium that never came to fruition and resulted in many missed dates all over the San Francisco Bay Area.

Five attempts

Over the past 18 years, five projects have been explored without them leading to a stadium.

Just before selling the team, Schott had found some interesting land in the Santa Clara area, a town just outside of San Jose in the heart of Silicon Valley’s tech boom.

The land was however on the protected territory of the San Francisco Giants who put a stop to the project. The irony in all of this is that those rights were ceded in the 1980s by former A’s owner Walter Haas because the Giants were exploring a relocation to that area.

Newly installed in the seat of the co-owner, Lew Wolff has signed an agreement with the city of Fremont located about thirty kilometers south of the Coliseum where the A’s evolve. The team intended to build a 32,000-seater stadium on land purchased from technology company Cisco, which was to buy the stadium’s naming rights for 30 years.

Opposition from residents and city council members overcame the project, which ultimately cost the A’s US$80 million (CA$109 million) when it was abandoned in 2009.

Same result

Between 2011 and 2016, the A’s again attempted to explore their options in Giants-only territory by taking a long look at the San Jose side.

The A’s wanted to relocate to downtown San Jose, which led to a legal battle between the two teams that spanned several years. This new failure pushed Wolf towards the exit. He left his position as stadium manager and file manager to be replaced by Dave Kaval who had overseen the construction of the stadium for the San Jose Earthquakes of MLS, another property of John Fisher.

So Kaval became president, but his attempt to build a 35,000-seat stadium on a college campus in downtown Oakland ended in resounding failure. The site was found, the plans were made, but student and community resistance ended up getting the better of the project.

Other failure

With the Coliseum lease expiring in 2024, the A’s had to find a solution. They bought 50% of the stadium from Alameda County and then negotiated with the city of Oakland, which owns the other half.

At the same time, the team was eyeing a shabby ferry terminal west of downtown that was used for cargo. This is also the solution that was adopted and the project was progressing well, then the pandemic arrived.

In 2021, negotiations began between the team and the city, but the city was struggling to find funding sources without placing the tax burden on taxpayers. At the same time, the A’s refused to absorb these costs.

So that’s where we meet. Since last year, the team has had the agreement of commissioner Rob Manfred to explore a possible move to Las Vegas.

That’s how the A’s signed a promise to purchase land just north of Allegiant Stadium, home of another former Oakland team, the NFL Raiders.

Meanwhile, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao says one day that the community has no interest in keeping the A’s in town and says the next that the town would like to resume negotiations.