Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke to reporters (including Susan Slusser and Tim Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle) today on a number of topics, including Athletics’ ongoing plans to build a new ballpark in Las Vegas and transfer the franchise out of Oakland. Over the past two days, the move seems to have taken a notable step forward, as state A and Nevada officials reached an interim agreement about a plan to provide $380 million in public funds for the construction of a new football field (worth approximately $1.5 billion) on the site of the Tropicana Hotel in Vegas.
Although the Tropicana site is the second Las Vegas location that Team A has pursued in less than two months, “I think they are pretty stable on a site 1685094485,” Manfred said. Mick Akers of Las Vegas Review-Journal also reported that people A only looked at the Tropicana website and did not consider other options.
On whether Athletics’ plan will come to fruition, Manfred said that he “optimistic about [a move] going on,” But “It is difficult to have a timeline for Oakland until a deal is actually considered. There’s an internal relocation process they need to go through and we haven’t even started it yet.…I don’t have a crystal ball to know where things are going. No definitive deal has been made in Las Vegas and we’ll have to see how that plays out.”
The most obvious hurdle at this point is that Nevada’s contribution to the ballpark is one of many that have not been approved as part of the state budget. As outlined by Taylor R. Avery of Las Vegas Review-JournalThe Nevada Senate and Assembly were unable to agree with Governor Joe Lombardo on several aspects of the budget, with Lombardo threatening to veto the Nevada Legislature’s budget proposal.until the policy priorities I outlined on day one are on my desk.” The Athletics proposal is of course one of the newer elements to Lombardo’s spending plan, and may not even be the most controversial, as Avery notes there’s a lot of controversy about it. a number of education-related spending priorities may or may not be included in Lombardo’s spending plan. budget to date.
It remains to be seen exactly when or how the budget deadlock will be resolved, although Nevada’s legislative session ends on June 5. However, if the ballpark funding issue is resolved before that time. there, Manfred said it was “possibly a relocation vote could happen as early as June, presumably during upcoming owner meetings. Seventy-five percent of MLB owners would have to vote in favor of this proposal for Team A to officially target Las Vegas and leave Oakland to coincide with the end of their lease at the Colosseum next year. 2024 seasons.
