Las Vegas became a top destination for new expansion major league sports franchises and teams looking to relocate beginning with the arrival of the National Hockey League's Vegas Golden Knights in 2017 and then with the National Football League's Raiders in 2020.
Sin City also considered bringing a Major League Baseball team to Southern Nevada when the Montreal Expos were planning to leave Canada, but those hopes were dashed when Major League Baseball agreed to relocate the team to Washington, D.C., in 2004. Developer Chris Milam in 2012 said he wanted to build a stadium in Henderson, Nev., to relocate either the Oakland Athletics or Sacramento Kings, the Las Vegas Sun reported, but that idea never went anywhere.
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Major sporting events were also coming to Vegas as the NCAA men's basketball conference tournaments have taken the court in Sin City for years, including the Pac-12 men's basketball tournament, which arrived at MGM Resorts International's (MGM) MGM Grand on the Strip in March 2013 before moving to the new T-Mobile Arena in 2017, and the Mountain West, West Coast, Western Athletic Conference and Big West. It took a little longer for the NCAA to bring March Madness to Las Vegas for the first time as it in 2020 awarded the city the 2023 Men's Basketball West Regional at T-Mobile Arena and the Men's Final Four in 2028 at Allegiant Stadium.
The NFL Draft has already come to Las Vegas and a huge auto racing event debuts Nov. 16-18 when Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix takes to the streets.
And the most popular sporting event in the country, Super Bowl LVIII, will be held at Allegiant Stadium on Feb. 11, 2024.
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Oakland A's Ballpark Plans Miss Deadlines
The Oakland A's have been trying seal approval of a $1 billion waterfront ballpark as part of a bigger $12 billion Howard Terminal project in Oakland. It seems like the A's have faced nothing but problems trying to finalize a deal, as the City of Oakland on Sept. 30 missed a self-proclaimed deadline to reach an agreement with the A's for a ballpark.
And yet another deadline has passed as Major League Baseball and the A's said last fall that a deal needed to be in place by the end of the year for the project to be completed in the near future. The A's lease at the RingCentral Coliseum runs through 2024, and MLB officials say the team needs to have a new ballpark plan in motion by then.
But on Feb. 7, here comes Oakland again. New Mayor Sheng Thao said during her annual economic forecast that the city had resumed talks with the A's for a new stadium at Howard Terminal, but she would not discuss any details, KTVU Fox-2 reported.
However, the soap opera doesn't end there. Former Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak last year reportedly indicated to the A's and Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred that the state had no desire to use public tax money to finance construction of a ballpark, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Then in January, new Gov. Joe Lombardo's spokeswoman said he was not in favor of raising taxes to fund a stadium, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Now, in comments made Feb. 15, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has said that he expects the A's to end up in Las Vegas.
“I don’t think they are in agreement on the affordable housing issue,” Manfred said. “The threshold issue right now I think in Oakland is how to handle the funding for the infrastructure.”
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But wait, on Feb. 13, during a Super Bowl hand-over event held in Phoenix, Lombardo would not comment on what specific public funding could be available for an A's $1 billion ballpark, but left open the possibility for funding, the Review Journal reported.
"Those negotiations are so early in the process that it would be detrimental for me to even talk about any details,” Lombardo said. “Right now it’s all been ancillary conversations.”
The A's have set their sights on the Las Vegas Strip and have been talking with Circus Circus owner Phil Ruffin about building a stadium at the Las Vegas festival grounds site adjacent to Circus Circus. They have also considered Bally Corp's Tropicana Las Vegas property.
