Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said a vote on Oakland Athletics’ potential move to Las Vegas could take place when the owners meet in New York next month.
The Athletics recently agreed to use land at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip, where the Tropicana Las Vegas casino is located, to build a 30,000-seat stadium.
“It’s possible that a vote on relocation will take place as early as June,” Manfred said Thursday in Milwaukee as he toured major league stadiums to speak to players.
“It’s very difficult to have a timeline for Oakland until there’s actually a deal to consider.” There’s an internal relocation process that they have to go through, and we haven’t even started that process.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo said Wednesday that legislative and athletic leaders have reached an agreement in principle on a $1.5 billion stadium funding plan that would lure the franchise to Las Vegas. A funding bill still needs to be approved by Parliament.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said owners could vote on moving Oakland Athletics to Las Vegas, Nevada, at owners’ meetings June 13-15 in New York City.
Athletics and Nevada State have tentatively agreed to build a stadium in Las Vegas
The move would also see Oakland lose its last “Big Four” sports franchise in the space of seven years, once the move is complete in 2027.
Manfred was asked if he thinks the door is completely closed on the possibility of the Athletics staying in Oakland, where the team has played since 1968.
“I think you should ask the mayor of Oakland that,” Manfred said. “She said she halted negotiations after an announcement made in Las Vegas.
“I don’t have a crystal ball to know where something is going. There is no definitive agreement made in Las Vegas. We will have to see how it goes.
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao released a statement after the Nevada Athletics purchase of the land, saying she was disappointed the team had not negotiated with the city as a “true partner “.
The Athletics have been looking for a new baseball field to replace Oakland Coliseum, which has served as their home park since arriving from Kansas City and where the team’s lease runs through 2024.
The team also scouted a location near Oakland’s Howard Terminal before focusing out of state.
In addition to having an uncertain future, Athletics is experiencing historic difficulties on the pitch and in the stands.
The tentative agreement has resulted in plans to build a potential stadium on the site of the Tropicana Hotel
The hotel sits on a 35-acre site that will now be used for a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat stadium
The Tropicana has been a historic staple of the famous Las Vegas Strip since the 1960s
Like most hotels and casinos in Vegas, the Tropicana offers a wide range of games to play.
In recent years, however, it has been overshadowed by luxury resorts like the MGM Grand
They started Thursday 10-41 after facing the 1932 Boston Red Sox and the 1897 St. Louis Browns for the fourth-worst 50-game start in major league history.
Their average home attendance of 8,695 is nearly 3,600 fewer fans per game than any other team.
Manfred was in Milwaukee as Wisconsin lawmakers debated potential funding plans for American Family Field, the Brewers’ home stadium since 2001. Manfred said he was confident the state would find a solution.
The Brewers’ lease, which runs through 2030, asks the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District to cover repairs. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the team said the district didn’t have enough money to pay for what was needed, and the state’s surplus offered a chance to fund it without setting up a new one. tax or borrow money.
“It’s a gem of a ballpark,” Manfred said. “It is really important that the existing obligation under the lease be funded so that this great ballpark is maintained on a regular basis. This must be done in a timely manner.
Evers proposed spending nearly $300 million in taxpayer dollars to make improvements to the stadium, a plan that Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos declared dead upon his arrival. The Republicans who control the Legislature have yet to unveil their own alternative, but talks are underway privately.
Vos said he wants to work out a deal that would require the team to commit to staying in Milwaukee longer and not being so dependent on money from a one-time budget surplus expected to be around $7 billion. of dollars.
“The choices that are made between the different ways in which public funds can be spent are choices lawmakers must make,” Manfred said.
“What I can say is that this stadium is an asset. The Brewers are interested in a long-term relationship, an extension of the lease that keeps them here.
Athletics began playing at Oakland Coliseum in 1968 after moving from Kansas City
But from the 2000s, the Colosseum began to show serious signs of its age.
Since the 2000s, the A’s have also failed to win an AL pennant or come close to a World Series.
Manfred noted that the Milwaukee situation is “really the antithesis of what happened in Oakland.”
“It’s an A-plus facility when built,” Manfred said. ‘It has been well maintained. The property is committed to not only putting a competitive team on the pitch, but to doing its part in terms of maintaining this stadium.
“And most importantly, the fans here enthusiastically supported the tam. I think the real decision that needs to be made here is what we can do to maintain this very good momentum.
“Oakland, unfortunately, is a facility that has never been as good as this one when it started. They made unfortunate decisions not to maintain the ballpark properly. This led to a drop in attendance, which impacted the quality of product the team could afford to put out on the field.
