Alden GonzalezESPN Staff Writer Oct 27, 2023 8:42 PM ET2 minute read
ARLINGTON, Texas – Major League Baseball owners will vote on moving the Oakland Athletics to Las Vegas at their next meetings, scheduled for Nov. 14-16 in Dallas, commissioner Rob Manfred reiterated before the start of the World Series on Friday.
The A’s hope to break ground on a new 33,000-seat, retractable-roof stadium on the site of the Tropicana Hotel in Vegas by April 2025 and hope to have it ready in time for the start of the 2028 season. The A’s lease at the current Coliseum expires at the end of the 2024 season.
Addressing a relatively small group of reporters from Globe Life Field, Manfred declined to say where the A’s would play during this three-year transition period.
Tony Clark, executive director of the MLB Players Association, said there is “an ongoing dialogue with the league and we will continue to have that dialogue, but nothing is set in stone at this point.”
Manfred said the league’s three-member relocation committee — made up of Milwaukee Brewers chairman Mark Attanasio, Philadelphia Phillies CEO John Middleton and Kansas City Royals CEO John Sherman — had “regularly” discussed the A’s request met. From there it goes to the eight-member board, which needs majority approval so that all 30 owners can participate.
If three-quarters of MLB owners agree, the A’s will be allowed to officially move to Las Vegas, a highly controversial decision based on the franchise’s 50-plus-year history in Oakland and lack of roots in Las Vegas.
“I find it interesting that in the midst of the conversation and dialogue around finance, instead of staying in the sixth-largest market, they are moving into a market that potentially locks them into the perpetual cycle of revenue sharing,” Clark said. “But all of this needs to be fixed sooner rather than later because at this point the entire league is tied.”