The moribund Athletics have hit the jackpot with a deal to move the money-losing baseball franchise from Oakland, Calif., to Las Vegas, the team and Nevada officials said Wednesday.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo announced a deal to lure the A’s to Sin City, with state treasurer Zach Conine and Clark County. Insiders said the state will fork over between $300 million and $400 million, in line with a range requested by MLB officials.
“This agreement follows months of negotiations between the state, the county, and the A’s, and I believe it gives us a tremendous opportunity to continue building on the professional sports infrastructure of southern Nevada,” Lombardo said in a statement. “Las Vegas is clearly a sports town, and Major League Baseball should be a part of it.”
The Bally’s-owned Tropicana on the Las Vegas Strip will give the A’s nine acres of land equal to about $200 million in value, which will raise the total incentives to between $500 million and $600 million.
Jefferies, in a May 23 analyst note, said the Bally’s agreement with the A’s would drive customer traffic to the casino and allow for stronger marketing partnerships for the Tropicana.
The peripatetic A’s — who first took the field in Philadelphia, then moved to Kansas City before landing in Oakland in 1968 — will play in a new 30,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof, which is expected to be completed for the start of the 2027 season.
“We’re very appreciative of the support from the State of Nevada and Clark County’s leadership,” A’s president Dave Kaval said in a statement.
MLB is on board, two sources close to the situation said.
Legislation to approve the deal will be introduced in the next few days, and passage is seen as a near certainty, a source close to the situation said.
The A’s play in the outdated and cavernous Oakland Coliseum with a lease expiring in 2024 and have attracted the fewest fans in baseball.
Their lease could be extended until the new park is built or they could move to their Triple-A venue in Summerlin, Nev., about 12 miles west of their future home.
The A’s had two years in which MLB would only allow it to consider moving to Las Vegas, as well as negotiating with Oakland, sources said.
If the A’s did not get Nevada public financing, there were rumblings that Salt Lake City would have had the next shot at getting the A’s, sources said.
The Utah capital has also been tapped as a frontrunner to get an MLB expansion franchise.
The A’s probable move to Vegas continues the city’s transformation into a sports mecca. Oakland’s NFL franchise, the Raiders, moved to Sin City three years ago and the NHL added the Golden Knights in 2017. The NBA has also been rumored to want a team in the desert.
For years, the major sports leagues were reluctant to put teams in Las Vegas to avoid a close association with sports gambling. Now, however, sports betting has become legal in a growing number of states.
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