The Oakland Athletics appear to be two small steps from extinction.
The Nevada legislature on Wednesday approved $380 million in taxpayer funds toward a new ballpark in Las Vegas, leaving two hurdles for the A's in their proposed move: Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo to sign the ballpark bill into law, and major league owners to approve the move.
Major League Baseball expects both steps to be cleared, with the A's projecting the grand opening of their new ballpark in 2028. The A's would pay the balance of the projected $1.5 billion construction cost, plus any cost overruns.
The governor introduced the bill he will be asked to sign. The owners appear virtually certain to approve the move, weary of the two-decade wait for a new ballpark in Oakland and grateful for the exit ramp offered by Las Vegas.
In order to secure the necessary votes, the bill was amended several times this week, in part to mandate the A's guarantee an annual value of $2 million in community benefits. The legislative deal-making also resulted in an amendment that would expand paid family and medical leave benefits in the state.
In December, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said an owners committee authorized him to waive a relocation fee — a liability that might have cost the team hundreds of millions of dollars — if the A's moved to Las Vegas. Manfred is expected to discuss the proposed relocation Thursday, at a previously scheduled news conference at the conclusion of the MLB owners' meetings in New York.
The A's have proposed a 30,000-seat ballpark with a view of the Las Vegas Strip, on the site of the Tropicana Hotel. The hotel would be demolished, and the company that owns the site would give the A's free land for the ballpark. The A's then would transfer ownership of the land to a public agency, so they would not have to pay property tax, and the agency would provide the A's with a rent-free lease.
A's president Dave Kaval has said the Las Vegas Aviators — the team's Triple-A affiliate — agreed to let the A's share their minor league ballpark while the new stadium is under construction.
The A's also could build their statewide brand by playing some regular-season games in Reno during that time, said Steve Hill, president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
The A's lease in Oakland expires after next season, but the city and team could agree to end the deal after this season rather than have the A's play a lame-duck season next year.
The A's would become only the second MLB team in the last half-century to relocate. In 2004, the last time a team moved, the league announced the relocation of the Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C., on the day of the Expos' last home game — even before owners voted to approve the move.
In 2003 and 2004, the final two seasons before the move, the Expos split their home schedule between Montreal and San Juan, P.R. The team played in a temporary home for its first three seasons in Washington during construction of a new ballpark.
The Aviators play in a state-of-the-art ballpark with seating for 10,000. The A's have sold an average of 9,137 tickets per game this season.
On Tuesday night, A's fans packed the Oakland Coliseum, with one fan group having crowd-funded $25,000 to manufacture and distribute T-shirts that said "SELL," urging owner John Fisher to sell the team to someone who would keep it in Oakland. Under Fisher and previous owners, the A's leadership has dumped star players to save money and trashed the Coliseum, and fans who were repeatedly told neither the team nor the ballpark were any good understandably stayed home.
In what might have been a last grand hurrah, on a night in which spirited fans alternating chants of "Sell the team" and "Stay in Oakland," the A's sold a season-high 27,759 tickets.
