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Oakland A’s agree to buy land near the Las Vegas Strip to build a $1.5BILLION, 35,000 seat ballpark | Daily Mail Online
Oakland A's agree to buy land near the Las Vegas Strip to build a $1.5BILLION, 35,000 seat ballpark | Daily Mail Online


The Oakland Athletics (A’s) have signed a binding agreement to buy land near the Las Vegas strip to build a new ballpark.

According to A’s team president Dave Kaval, the agreed upon stadium will be built on a 49-acre site owned by Red Rock Resorts. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports the site is located at Dean Martin Drive and Tropicana Avenue near the southern part of the Strip – putting it near T-Mobile Arena, home of the Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL. 

Kaval told the Review-Journal that the stadium is planned to cost $1.5billion, will have a capacity of 35,000 seats and will feature a partially retractable roof. The team hopes to move into this new home by 2027.

Meanwhile, the City of Oakland, California – one of the 50 largest in the United States – seems set to lose its final ‘Big Four’ sports franchise. By the time the move is completed in 2027, Oakland will have lost three major teams in seven years.

Oakland mayor Sheng Thao blasted the A’s for this move after years of working with the organization to try and keep the team on the east side of San Francisco Bay. He also said that the city would cease negotiations with the team.

The Oakland Athletics have announced a binding agreement to build a stadium in Las Vegas

Oakland mayor Sheng Thao (L) blasted the A’s and president David Kaval for failing to put together a deal – saying they had no intention of staying in the city

‘I am deeply disappointed that the A’s have chosen not to negotiate with the City of Oakland as a true partner, in a way that respects the long relationship between the fans, the City and the team,’ Thao said in a statement. 

‘Yet, it is clear to me that the A’s have no intention of staying in Oakland and have simply been using this process to try to extract a better deal out of Las Vegas. I am not interested in continuing to play that game — the fans and our residents deserve better.’ 

A statement released by the A’s seems to claim that they tried to stay in Oakland, but a deal just couldn’t be reached.

‘For more than 20 years, the A’s have focused on securing a new home for the Club, and have invested unprecedented time and resources for the past six years to build a ballpark in Oakland,’ the team’s statement read.

‘Even with support from fans, leaders at the city, county and state level, and throughout the broader community, the process to build a new ballpark in Oakland has made little forward progress for some time. We have made a strong and sincere effort to stay here. 

‘We recognize that this is very hard to hear. We are disappointed that we have been unable to achieve our shared vision of a waterfront ballpark. 

‘As we shift our focus to Vegas, we will continue to share details about next steps.’ 

The Athletics began playing in the Oakland Coliseum in 1968 after moving from Kansas City

But beginning in the 2000’s, the Coliseum began to show some serious signs of its age

The Athletics have been playing their games in Oakland since 1968 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the fifth oldest ballpark in the majors and one of the worst maintained.

After opening in 1966 as a multi-purpose venue to host both the A’s and the NFL’s Raiders, by the 2000’s the Coliseum was beginning to fall apart.

Failure to put a stadium deal together for the Raiders saw them bolt from the Bay Area for Las Vegas in 2020.

The departure of the Raiders came around the same time that the NBA’s Golden State Warriors completed their move from Oracle Arena – directly across from the Coliseum – to the Chase Center in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood.

The City of Oakland was determined to try and keep the A’s, offering to help them build a stadium at a redeveloped Howard Terminal – a shipping port situated on the Oakland Estuary.

In the past two decades, A’s management also considered moves to Fremont and San Jose in the Bay Area – as well as a plan to move near Laney College close the center of the city. None of those projects ever got as far off the ground as the Howard Terminal proposal did.

Even plans to completely re-develop the Coliseum as a baseball-only site were not able to gather steam.

In 2021, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred allowed the A’s to explore options to re-locate outside of the city – with Las Vegas rumored to be the preferred site for the team.  

Various plans to keep the A’s in the Bay Area – including at Howard Terminal – failed to happen

As a franchise, the Athletics have seen multiple changes in location. After being founded in 1901 as the Philadelphia Athletics, they won five World Series titles in 1910, 1911, 1913, 1929 and 1930.

In 1955, the team left its home at Shibe Park and moved out to Kansas City. There, the Athletics failed to find success and amidst an ownership change, began to look for a third home.

After considering moves to Atlanta, Milwaukee, New Orleans, San Diego, and Seattle, the A’s announced they were departing for Oakland in 1967 – with play to begin in the 1968 season.

Within four years of the move, the A’s had captured the first of what would be three consecutive World Series titles in 1972, 1973, and 1974. These were the first ‘Big Four’ sports titles in the city’s history. They would make three consecutive World Series appearances from 1988-1990, winning the 1989 title.

After moving to Oakland in 1968, the A’s won three straight World Series crowns from 1972-74

The team won their most recent title in 1989 – sweeping the San Francisco Giants

But since the 2000’s, the A’s have failed to win an AL Pennant – let alone reach the World Series

But since then, the team has become somewhat of a laughingstock as the budgets of other teams have grown steadily. 

In the new millennium, Oakland has made only 11 postseason berths in 23 seasons. They’ve only won the American League West Division title seven times in that span. 

More importantly, they’ve only won a single non-Wild Card series when they swept the Minnesota Twins in the 2006 AL Divisional Series. They were promptly swept in the AL Championship Series by the Detroit Tigers.

Since 2010, the A’s have reached the ALDS three times, losing twice to the Tigers and once to the Astros. They’ve made the AL Wild Card four times and won only one. They missed the playoffs entirely seven times – including the last two seasons. 

This content was originally published here.










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