Oakland Mayor Downplays Rumors A's Are Leaving Town

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf says the city continues to work on a deal with the A’s for a waterfront ballpark, and she’s “absolutely confident” it will get done next year, even after she leaves office.

Schaaf’s statement came after several national baseball writers took to Twitter on Saturday, quoting Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred as saying he thought the A’s were going to move to Las Vegas. Manfred did tell Sirius XM radio host Christopher Russo that although Schaaf had done a great job in advocating for the waterfront project at Howard Terminal, he was “not optimistic” about it. But later in the interview, Manfred qualified those remarks.

“What I said was — and I stand by it — given the lack of pace in Oakland, the lack of certainty, they have to be looking at Las Vegas,” Manfred said. “They need an alternative, ’cause they can’t continue to play in the facility they’re in.”

That facility, the Oakland Coliseum, has been the home of the A’s since they came west in 1968. At 57,682 seats, it’s too large for modern tastes — and problems like recurring drainage issues because the field is located below sea level would be prohibitively expensive to fix.

Over the past 20 years, the A’s have eyed locations in Fremont and San José as well as other Oakland sites, before unveiling an ambitious plan in 2017 for the $12 billion Howard Terminal development on the waterfront north of Jack London Square.

The A’s declined to comment on Manfred’s remarks Saturday. But the commissioner’s statement is consistent with what A’s president Dave Kaval has been saying since early in the 2021 season, that the team is pursuing “parallel paths” in Oakland and Las Vegas. However, the team has not announced a Vegas location or released any renderings.

Schaaf, in her statement, said the fact that the A’s continue to invest a lot of time and money in the Oakland ballpark proposal, including litigation with Port of Oakland trucking interests and reimbursing the city for work its staff are doing in project development, shows they are serious about staying.

“We are working together every day to realize our shared vision for a vibrant waterfront neighborhood with public parks, good jobs, affordable housing and an iconic home for our Oakland A’s,” Schaaf wrote.

The most likely candidates to replace Schaaf as mayor — Loren Taylor, Sheng Thao, Treva Reid and Ignacio De La Fuente — all support the Howard Terminal development if the city can reach acceptable terms with the A’s. Although the ballpark and the rest of the development are privately financed, the A’s are seeking the city’s financial help with infrastructure in the area.