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The Oakland Athletics time in Oakland might be ending as the team announced Thursday that it signed a binding purchase agreement for 49 acres of land off the Las Vegas Strip. The team moved from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968. The A’s are Oakland’s last remaining major league sports team.
The Athletics spent over 20 years trying to fund a new ballpark in the Oakland or San Jose area without success, greatly due to a lack of private investment. With the lease for The Oakland Coliseum coming up, the team opted to enter a $1 billion stadium deal for the land off of the Vegas Strip.
The A’s are hoping to have a stadium capacity of 30,000 to 35,000 and look to break ground by next year. They hope to move into the stadium by 2027.
The relocation plan includes passing a bill through the Nevada legislature to create a funding mechanism. Included, it needs a special taxation district covering the stadium site. This allows for sales tax proceeds to be put back into the area. This will also come along with an allocation of transferable tax credits estimated to be worth around $500 million, according to the Nevada Independent.
A New Sports Scene
The Las Vegas area sports scene is booming more than it ever has. The city has added three major league teams since 2016. The Las Vegas Raiders, formerly the Oakland Raiders, moved in 2020 and the Vegas Golden Knights joined the NHL in 2016. The team is also home to the Las Vegas Aces, a WNBA team, who moved there in 2018.
With these teams moving to the area, Vegas built multiple new venues. Allegient Stadium was built for the Raiders and the T-Mobile Arena was built for the Golden Knights. The Aces play in the Michelob Ultra Arena, which was opened in 1999.
Vegas will become the 14th city in America with four major league sports teams.
“We’re ready to have new teams represent Vegas,” said Bret Fitzgerald, the vice president of LVAC.
