Four years ago, the Oakland A’s made a proposal to the city of Oakland for a new waterfront ballpark complex at Howard Terminal and the city of Oakland is still balking at the cost, which would be $855 million out of their pockets.1 The lease on the A’s current home, the 55-year-old RingCentral Coliseum (formerly the Oakland Coliseum), “expires after the 2024 season and the best-case opening date for the waterfront ballpark is 2027”, according to the East Bay Times. A’s president Dave Kaval was recently quoted as saying that he is “ still hopeful that we can make progress in Oakland, but we’re down to some of our last at-bats.” 2
With MLB now officially granting the organization permission to begin exploring options in other cities, the A’s now have a powerful bargaining chip: either approve our ballpark plans and have it built in the timeframe required or we will move the A’s out of Oakland. If the A’s do relocate, the likeliest city is Las Vegas, followed by Nashville, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Montreal.
The official Oakland A’s twitter account posted a statement made by Major League Baseball which stated that MLB is “concerned with the rate of progress on the A’s new ballpark effort.” 3 In other words, the city of Oakland has been dragging their feet for the past four years. Hopefully, at least from the perspective of Oakland baseball fans, the city will get their act together and keep the team in the East Bay. Losing the A’s would be especially painful right now, as recent years have seen both the Golden State Warriors (moved across the bay to San Francisco in 2019) and the Raiders (moved to Las Vegas before the 2020 season) leave town. The exodus of these once-iconic Oakland franchises has depressed not just the local economy but the mood of the citizens of Oakland, sports fans and non-sports fans alike.
Oakland, the poorest of the three major cities in the region (San Jose and San Francisco being the other two) does not have the money to build the type of mega stadiums that pro sports teams now require.
The Raiders were able to get a much better stadium than anything offered in Oakland, by moving to Las Vegas, a much wealthier city. Because NFL teams host only 8 home games per season, it is important to maximize the amount of money taken in at those games. Having hundreds of luxury suites, which are sold to corporations so that their high-powered executives can use them to wine and dine clients, is one of the ways that teams maximize profit from the newer stadiums. Additionally, the increased seating capacity which these new stadiums boast means more money brought in through ticket sales.
In addition to wealth, there is another quality which can make a suitor city attractive to a franchise looking to relocate: prestige. San Francisco is one of the tourist capitals of the United States, in addition to being one of the economically most robust cities in the country, thanks to its proximity to Silicon Valley, the hub of high tech. Economics and prestige go hand-in-hand, however; without a population filled with million- and billionaires, there would be no takes for luxury suites, club seats, and other perks which the new stadiums dangle in front of status-seekers.
So what is going to be the fate of Oakland’s beloved Athletics? The team is using the fact that they are the city’s last remaining franchise to their advantage, feeling that it gives them leverage in the ongoing negotiations with the city. One thing that is clear, whether they are doing it in order to try to force the city to pony up more cash for a state-of-the-art stadium or because they are truly champing at the bit to move, the A’s are moving things along quickly. According to a recent article in the Mercury News, a mere six days after first announcing that they were going to explore options, the team announced that they will be sending officials to Las Vegas next week in order to closely investigate the possibility of relocating there when their lease with the Oakland Coliseum runs out in 2024. If that’s not enough to make A’s fans quake in their cleats, then try this on for size: reportedly, “the A’s are in the process of hiring a government relations firm to help them explore the feasibility of making a move to Vegas work.” 3 In other words, hold on to your Oakland A’s memorabilia because the Oakland elephant logo is going to be an endangered species soon. Once you can flip it for a nice profit, you can then use that dough to buy some brand-spanking-new “Las Vegas A’s” gear. Provided, that is, that the charlatans in the City of Sin don’t change the team name to something more in keeping with its tacky image. Too bad the “Las Vegas Aces” has already been taken by the local WNBA franchise. Given Vegas’ proximity to the enigmatic Area 52, perhaps the “Vegas Aliens” would do?
Bibliography
“Oakland Athletics to start looking at relocating elsewhere.” Jeff Passan, Espn.com, May 11, 2021
“MLB gives Oakland A’s green light to explore relocation options.” Shayna Rubin, Eastbaytimes.com, May 11, 2021
“MLB instructs Oakland A’s to explore relocation options amid slow progress on ballpark.” Alex Hall, www.athleticsnation.com, May 11, 2021
“Oakland A’s will visit Las Vegas next week to hear relocation pitch.” Jon Becker, www.mercurynews.com, May 18, 2021
