The A's Are Officially Moving To Vegas!
USA Today - The Oakland Athletics still don’t exactly know where they’ll be playing the next few years, but in 2028, they will be become Las Vegas’ first Major League Baseball team.
MLB owners voted unanimously Thursday morning to approve A’s owner John Fisher’s relocation proposal to move from Oakland to Las Vegas, becoming the third professional sports franchise to leave Oakland in just the last five years.
The A’s still have a lease to play in the Oakland Coliseum in 2024, but will not have a permanent home until 2028 when they are expected to move into a $1.5 billion facility on the Las Vegas Strip.
The relocation vote will bring an end to the A’s 55-year stay in Oakland after city officials and Fisher were unable to reach an agreement after nearly 18 years looking for a new ballpark in the Bay Area.
And there it is! My apologies to the fine people of Oakland, but I'm stoked for this, as I think most people are. Having another professional sports team in Vegas is awesome. The Golden Knights showed that professional sports in Vegas would work, the Raiders are the most expensive ticket in the NFL, and now having a baseball team in the desert is going to rock. Obviously it's going to be a destination for all out of town fans- a weekend in Vegas with the fellas, drinking all day, and going to a new state of the art stadium to watch baseball at night, what's better than that?
Now, the next few years is going to be weird. Their lease at the Oakland Coliseum expires in 2024, so they will be homeless in 2025, 2026, and 2027 until the the new stadium is done.
They will play games in Summerlin, Nevada, home of the A’s Triple-A team, Oracle Park in San Francisco, where the San Francisco Giants play, and perhaps also the Coliseum.
I'm always stunned the minor league team in Summerlin plays outdoors all summer. Miss me with the "it's a dry heat" nonsense- Vegas in the Summer is fucking brutalllllll. These poor kids riding buses making $13 a night playing in 120 degree heat, it must be miserable. But then one day you get called up to the show and it's all worth it.
But I digress, thoughts and prayers to the fans of the A's, and congrats to Vegas and really, baseball fans.
PS: I still think they should leave the name "A's" behind and start new. It's a divisive topic, but I think a full rebrand would do them well.