At the end of last week, it seemed like Las Vegas had secured an MLB team after the Oakland Athletics announced that it had reached an agreement to purchase a 49-acre site in Las Vegas where they would build a baseball stadium that could seat as many as 35,000 fans.
The expectation was that the MLB franchise would be moving its operations to Sin City by 2027, but this move is apparently not yet set in stone.
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The Athletics are seeking $500 million in public funding toward building the projected $1.5 billion stadium, which would be built along Interstate 15 across T-Mobile Arena -- where the NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights play.
The team and legislators have until June 5 to agree on a deal as the A’s need to meet the Jan. 1, 2024, deadline for relocation or else they lose part of the league’s revenue sharing agreement. If a deal is not approved, the A’s could still withdraw on their agreement for purchasing the land, according to the Nevada Independent.
Las Vegas has seen an influx of sports teams in recent years, with the NHL expansion team Golden Knights entering in 2017, the WNBA’s Aces moving from San Antonio in 2018, and the NFL’s Raiders moving from Oakland in 2020.
But there is a bit of tension with their former neighbors in Oakland about potentially reuniting in Las Vegas. Raiders and Aces owner Mark Davis ripped the A’s move, recalling the time the two shared an arena in Oakland.
“I won’t forget what they did to us in Oakland. They squatted on a lease for 10 years and made it impossible for us to build on that stadium,” Davis told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
