MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred Believes Athletics Will Leave Oakland for Las Vegas
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said he believes the Oakland Athletics will move to Las Vegas in an interview with SiriusXM Radio's Christopher Russo.
The A's have been in talks with Oakland officials regarding a new ballpark as part of the Howard Terminal project, but a key deadline to get that done passed without any further progress.
Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal provided more details on Oct. 3.
"Oakland City Administrator Ed Reiskin said last month that the city and the A’s needed to finalize a development agreement for a proposed $12 billion Howard Terminal project—including a $1 billion waterfront ballpark—by last week. Without that, he said a binding vote this year by the Oakland City Council would be all but out of the question."
"Reiskin cited a tight timeline of other necessary reviews that would have followed between this month and early December as the reason for the deadline."
The issue is that the project appears it will now be delayed until 2023, and A's President Dave Kaval previously said that would hinder the team's efforts to stay in Oakland.
The team's lease agreement at RingCentral Coliseum lasts through 2024.
Oakland was home to three professional sports teams in the Golden State Warriors, Oakland (now Las Vegas) Raiders and A's just three years ago. The Raiders have since moved to Vegas, and Golden State went across the bay to San Francisco.
Now it appears the A's could join the Raiders, ending a tenure in Oakland that featured four World Series titles (1972-1974, 1989) and six pennants (1988 and 1990) in addition to eight straight winning seasons from 1999 to 2006.
