Since the Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers in 1972, the only other team to relocate was the Montreal Expos, who became the Washington Nationals in 2005.
The A’s in 2006 proposed a ballpark in Fremont, about 25 miles south in the East Bay, but abandoned the plan three years later. San José, 40 miles south of Oakland, was proposed in 2012, but the San Francisco Giants blocked the site because it was part of that team’s territory.
After the A’s chose a site in the Oakland area near Laney College, it was rejected by the college and its neighbors. The franchise then focused on the Howard Terminal area of Oakland, though a financing plan was never reached after some approvals were gained.
The team announced on April 19 that it had purchased land in Las Vegas, then a month later replaced that location with a deal with Bally’s and Gaming & Leisure Properties to build a stadium on the Tropicana hotel site along the Las Vegas Strip.
Nevada’s Legislature and governor approved public financing for a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat ballpark with a retractable roof near Allegiant Stadium, which the NFL’s Oakland Raiders moved to in 2020, and T-Mobile Arena, which the current Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights started playing in 2017 as an expansion team.
Oakland finished an MLB-worst 50–112 this season and was again last in the majors in average attendance at 10,276 per game. That was well below the league-wide average of 29,283 but up from the previous two years, when the A’s were below 10,000 fans per game.
While San Francisco/Oakland/San José is the 10th-largest television market in the U.S., Las Vegas is the 40th. Baseball Players Association head Tony Clark last month questioned whether the shift to a smaller city would put the team on a path of needed perpetual assistance under MLB’s revenue-sharing plan.
MLB is able to control city changes because of the sport’s antitrust exemption, granted by a 1922 U.S. Supreme Court decision. In the last half-century, the NFL has seen moves by the Raiders (Oakland to Los Angeles, back to Oakland and then Las Vegas), the Colts (Baltimore to Indianapolis), the Cardinals (St. Louis to Phoenix), the Rams (Los Angeles to St. Louis and back to Los Angeles), the Oilers (Houston to Nashville) and the Chargers (San Diego to Los Angeles).
The owners held their three-day meetings this week at a hotel adjacent to Globe Life Field, a retractable-roof stadium that opened in 2020. That is the site of next season’s MLB All-Star Game and the home of the Rangers, who, in their 52nd season in Texas this month, won their first World Series title.
Manfred also announced Thursday that Atlanta will host the 2025 All-Star Game.
Last week, a Nevada judge threw out a proposed ballot referendum backed by a statewide teachers union that would have given voters the final say on whether to provide public funding for the proposed Vegas stadium for the A’s.
Schools Over Stadiums spokesperson Alexander Marks said the organization’s leadership will likely both appeal the decision to the Nevada Supreme Court and refile the referendum petition.
KQED’s Juan Carlos Lara and Rachael Myrow contributed reporting to this story.