The Oakland Athletics and MLB have been holding out hope that a new stadium could be erected in Northern California. In fact, commissioner Rob Manfred seemed optimistic up until last week.
Unfortunately, an ongoing lawsuit filed by city leaders that has stunted any momentum for a new venue led to Manfred indicating that other options are now on the table. It didn’t take a genius to read between the lines. That included potential relocation.
Now, according to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff, Manfred confirmed to her that relocation to Las Vegas is now on the table.
This could be potentially huge news. It’s already known that the city of Las Vegas and one of its suburbs, Henderson, have shown interest in bringing in a Major League Baseball team.
As a growing population center, Vegas makes sense. It will soon host the Oakland Raiders starting next season and is looking to add an NBA team.
Making matters more interesting is the fact that the A’s Triple-A team just christened a new stadium in the Vegas suburb of Summerlin. The area also has a ton of room to erect a MLB stadium in the not-so-distant future.
From Oakland’s perspective, any relocation of the A’s would ultimately result in it being nothing more than a flyover city. Not only are the Raiders relocating, the NBA’s Golden State Warriors just opened their new arena in San Francisco.