The Athletics are all but certain to move out of Oakland in favor of Las Vegas upon their lease’s expiration at the end of the 2024 campaign. That being said, the club’s new stadium in Las Vegas isn’t expected to be ready until 2028 at the earliest, creating questions regarding where the A’s will play in the interim. Some possible solutions that have been discussed would see the A’s look to split time in Oracle Park with the Giants or Las Vegas Ballpark with the Aviators, the organization’s Triple-A affiliate.
Perhaps the most frequently discussed option at the club’s disposal would be simply remaining in the Coliseum on an extended lease while the club’s new ballpark in Las Vegas is built, but Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle indicates that Oakland’s mayor, Sheng Thao, would not extend the club’s lease in Oakland easily. Ostler relays that Thao’s chief of staff Leigh Hanson indicated the city’s demands could include the A’s leaving the “Athletics” name in Oakland when they depart for Vegas or a guarantee of a new team when MLB eventually expands beyond 30 teams.
It seems unlikely that the A’s would be willing to give up the “Athletics” name nor that MLB would offer Oakland an expansion team in exchange for three additional years on the club’s lease in Oakland. Given those hefty demands, it seems that the A’s will have to look elsewhere as they search for an interim home while their future ballpark in Las Vegas is built. The A’s have officially filed with MLB for relocation, with their interim home ballpark remaining as perhaps the single biggest question mark regarding the relocation plan. Any interim home ballpark would have to receive the approval of not only the league, but also the MLBPA.
More from around the AL West…
- Angels GM Perry Minasian indicated today to reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register) that the club suggested two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani undergo imaging on his throwing arm earlier this month when he left a start on August 3 thanks to cramping in his finger. Ohtani and his team declined to proceed with the MRI, instead opting to make his scheduled start on August 9. Of course, Ohtani wound up being diagnosed with a UCL tear earlier this week, an injury that has ended his season as a pitcher. Ohtani has continued to his since the injury was revealed, and has done so at his usual MVP-caliber level: in four games since, Ohtani has recorded three doubles, a triple, and a home run on five hits and six walks in sixteen trips to the plate while stealing two bases. Minasian declined to provide an update on Ohtani’s injury, indicating that Ohtani and his team would determine his course of action and timeline as they gathered additional opinions on his injury.
- The Mariners have been one of the hottest teams in baseball this month, with an 18-5 since the start of August that’s pushed them to the top of the AL West standings. They’ve done all that without outfield Jarred Kelenic, who has been on the injured list with a fractured foot since kicking a water cooler last month. The 23-year-old youngster is recovering well from the incident with GM Justin Hollander indicating that Kelenic will begin a rehab assignment next week, as noted by Daniel Kramer of MLB.com. While Hollander indicated that Kelenic’s rehab could be a lengthy one, he expressed confidence that the young outfielder will return at full strength before the end of the season. That’s great news for Seattle, which has primarily relied on Dominic Canzone (94 wRC+) in the weeks since Kelenic’s injury.
- Sticking with the Mariners, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times notes that catcher Tom Murphy is expected to be cleared for an increase in baseball activities and intensity this week. Murphy has been on the injured list with a thumb sprain for the past two weeks. Prior to his injury, Murphy was the club’s primary backup to Cal Raleigh behind the plate and was having a superlative season in that role, slashing .290/.335/.538 with a wRC+ of 140 in 159 trips to the plate. With Murphy on the shelf, Seattle has relied on Brian O’Keefe as Raleigh’s backup.
Cal Raleigh + Tom Murphy combine to make quite a formidable catching tandem, offensively speaking. And can we replace all Metal or Graphite water coolers in the Mariners dugout to the papier-maché (sp?) variety , no more broken feet please.
This was always on Ohtani. He should’ve been checked in June when his velocity was dropping. He didn’t want his free agency affected. Even though passing a physical is needed before a new contract is official. Just dumb. He’s a fun and exciting player to watch, but when a team has to cater to its star in baseball, it never works out for the team. It took Bonds leaving for the Giants to win 3 titles. When the Angels let Shohei leave, things will change
It was a typical reaction of Japanese players as over there they would have proceeded the same way.
Ohtani probably should have gotten the imaging. Lesson learned for All. The team, his team, and himself.
But how is it on the team, when they suggested he get it, and he declined?
It reads to me like Perry is trying to deflect blame, seeing as how he’s not interested in getting fired because a player decided to go against the FO’s advice.
Notani is under contract, if the medical staff thinks he should get imaging then he gets it, but when the employer asks pretty please and he says no there is the problem. Notani deserves the millions he will lose for his stupidity.
JayRyder: Who would think that a cramped finger would in any way have anything to do with an elbow problem? Who’s to say it does now?
Someone in the Angels org obviously made the connection – hence the recommendation of a scan. For all his greatness on the field, I’d say Ohtani’s proving to be pretty reckless as far as his own physical welfare and future earnings go.
On one hand, it’s refreshing to see that he’s obviously not overly motivated by the prospect of a mega-contract, but must be very frustrating for his agent to see him play on instead of getting the best treatment available.
He should talk to Ichiro about personal welfare. That man really treated his body like a temple.
JayRyder- elbow and hand/wrist issues are often (but not always) related. What’s commonly known as tennis elbow is caused by overuse of wrist motion. Cubital tunnel syndrome is pinching of a nerve at the elbow that presents with hand/wrist weakness and/or pain. The muscles that move our wrist and some hand motion originate at the elbow, so an elbow ligament issue can easily present as finger or wrist weakness/numbness/pain. Especially given his past history of elbow issues that was a very logical thing to consider, and the team apparently was right to worry about it. Ohtani’s team should have as well.
Sorry, wrong reply. Meant for avenger65
You never learned that the finger bone is connected to the wrist bone and the wrist bone is connected to the elbow bone?
That would be some wild stuff from Oakland’s mayor, no idea why cities think they’re entitled to sports team especially Oakland when they’re about to lose 3 teams in a handful of years. Maybe Oakland is the issue and not these leagues and owners?
True, they aren’t willing to shift a lot of taxpayer dollars towards the team. They can’t compete with all the corporate welfare cities.
You can’t have it both ways.
I’m going out on a limb and saying whatever Oakland does, they’re wrong, to you. If they cave and give Fisher what he wants, then they’re neglecting public needs like crime and education.
If they don’t give the capitalist his government handout, they’re the bad guys who forced the team to move.
They were attractive enough to go there in the first place, along with the Warriors and Raiders.
Maybe the real problem is the blueprint is already well established. Threaten to move if you don’t get the juicy government handouts. It’s not like the governments are the ones initiating this, it’s the teams. And if they don’t cave, the government is the bad guy, not the one who started this.
There are plenty of cities that aren’t giving teams handouts that also aren’t losing 3 teams in 5 years.
Like Josh Hamilton, California won the gene pool lottery but threw away “what could have been” by making awful choices.
Run away while you can.
Las Vegas is giving them a handout. That’s the point you’re too dim to see.
I literally have no idea what you were attempting to say, halo
Oakland is a cesspool, with fantastic geography. Is that clearer?
It’s a symbiotic relationship.
That’s really difficult for some people to understand.
Nope. No other cities have had a major league team move at all in decades.
The Raiders moved because of Fisher and the A’s. Ask MarkDavis.
The Warriors stayed in the area. They are minutes away from where they played before.
The Warriors moved out of Oakland, spin that any way you like.
Las Vegas is giving them a handout.
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I take no position on these matters, but it is important to have the government work with business to create jobs and future tax revenues.
The investment in the light show downtown is part of what keeps that area a live. And every large city does the same thing, in different ways.
The Raiders are parasites and most of the non football fans were happy to see them stop living off of Oakland and move on to living off of Vegas. Warriors moved because they want to be closer to one of the largest concentrations of both wealth and high paying jobs in the country. A’s tried to do the same but the MLB’s weird anti-competitive business model allowed the Giants to block a move to the South Bay… so they just copied the Raiders and moved to a more politically corrupt state.
Let’s not think Oakland is some victim here. They played the same game as any other city. The funny thing is the reason they were attractive to those teams is the same reason those teams are leaving. Oakland just can’t offer what they used to.
They were attractive enough for the Raiders because they rebuilt the Coliseum with Mt Davis so they could stuff more fans in there. Mind you this is after the Raiders already left Oakland years before. Sadly this destroyed what was a decent place to watch a baseball game.
They were attractive enough for the Warriors because they gave the Warriors a better place to play than the Cow Palace (and all the other crappy venues the Warriors played at in and near SF).
The A’s moved there because Finley got the best bid. He was also considering Seattle, Milwaukee, and a cow pasture in Missouri.
Oakland is not a desirable place to put a team any longer. Maybe it will be again some day, but not in its current shape.
They’ve been trying to get a new stadium approved since 2005 and more than one ownership group has tried, so it’s awful hard to buy it’s all just this one greedy owner ripping away the franchise from an innocent city that is bending over backwards to keep them and was finalizing a plan to build them a new stadium when they announced the Vegas relocation. Also it’s a city and county owned and managed stadium (through a stadium authority) that’s been allowed to fall into such disrepair that sewage was back up into the clubhouse among many issues. If they’d maintained the stadium and hasn’t stood in the way of replacement I’d be sympathetic, but with what they did, and didn’t, do they really only have themselves to blame.
The only owner since 2005 has been Fisher. Lew Wolff was his partner and managing partner, but Fisher has been the majority owner the entire time.
The A’s backed out of negotiations at the Howard Terminal, the site of the Coliseum where they still own 50% of the property, and out of the site in Fremont. The courts said they could not move to San Jose because the Giants would not forfeit their rights there.
Since its obvious you have no clue what went on with the A’s, not even the most basic facts, maybe you should stick to subjects you have knowledge about.
Thao didn’t say that. Kaval said she her chief of staff said that. Thao was never quoted as having said anything remotely close to that.
You really need to consider the source and Kaval is not a reliable source. In fact, if he said it, you can be pretty close to 100% sure its a lie.
There are 3 sides to every story, the A’s side, Oakland’s side and the truth. No one will ever know who is more at fault (except on this site and then it’s all the selfish billionaire’s).
There’s ZERO chance the A’s give up the name, too much history including in KC and Philly. Gonna be a hit few summers playing in the Aviator’s park.
“(except on this site and then it’s all the selfish billionaire’s).” …well done.
MLBPA has to approve playing in Aviators park and it isn’t looking good for the A’s. They have also ruled out them playing in their spring training facility in Az.
I passed through Oakland a few weeks ago. I don’t want to make this political but I wouldn’t go to a game there. It looks unsafe. Also, from the look of it there are more people on the streets than I could count and those people aren’t generating much tax revenue. The area looks poverty stricken and there might not be much tax revenue to collect. It looks like a 3rd world country when you’re passing through to be honest. So yea, if I had the chance I would move my team out of there as fast as I could.
Really? I passed through Oakland the other day to go to an A’s game and there was no safety problem for me whatsoever.
I travel all over the US with my job and when I draw the comparison it is only based on what I see in other major cities. For me, I wouldn’t feel safe there and wouldn’t choose to live there. It is just outside of my comfort zone. I’m sure there are some good pockets. I just didn’t see them when passing through.
Then you were no where near the Coliseum. They cleared the camp out there. Only a handful of tents and homeless this past weekend.
Not sure where you live, but Alameda County probably has a higher average household income.
Why should Oakland get the Athletics name since Philadelphia and Kansas City both had it before them?
Because it’s California and for some weird reason they feel entitled to it.
They shouldn’t and won’t. Just some last ditch effort from the idiot mayor who has no clue what she is doing. As if MLB will guarantee a team to a city who can’t support professional sports teams in this day and age, as evidence by the 3 teams they chased out of town.
If Fisher hadn’t sold the franchise for parts the A’s could have played in Sacramento. I enjoyed Rivercats games and there are a lot of A’s fans in Sacramento.
Having them play in a triple A stadium is a perfect match for the quality of the ballclub and owner though. Playing to about 2k fans in the Aviators stadium is a good measure of where the ballclub is right now.
case: Can’t wait for Fisher to cry poor after his revenue is cut from lower attendance and concession sales. These poor billionaires really need a shoulder to cry on.
No idea if this is accurate, but Ben Verlander is implying the tear is not a significant tear. Meaning no Tommy John. Anyway, that’s what I inferred.
He’s been all over the place on Ohtani. I saw this morning he put out a video backtracking a lot of his renting. I expect he got a call from someone and got reamed out. I usually like him but I’m not trusting him on this topic.
*ranting, not renting.
I appreciate that. ThanksJoe.
Oakland has just as much chance at an MLB expansion team as Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Not just in this next round, in any round, ever. If another team went into the Bay area it’d be in San Jose. Also if the Athletics name stayed anywhere it’d be in Philadelphia. It’s like the mayor has no clue this team has moved around in the past.
Damn.
Was looking forward to the Moose Jaw Golden Grilles games.
The mayor is just trying to extract financial concessions in exchange for doing the business a favor, sure to enrage all the “free market enthusiasts”.
7.753 million people in the Bay area with most of those in the East Bay. 6th largest TV market. One of the highest average incomes in the nation.
I don’t think Oakland will have a hard time getting a team. In fact, they will be at the top of the list.
No team can move to San Jose because the Giants own that area. The A’s already tried that and Fisher even sued to try to move there and was shut down by the courts.
The A’s longest tenure has been in Oakland, so why would Philadelphia have any claim to the name?
They won’t even be on the list, let alone at the top. What stadium will be in Oakland that will cause them to be at the top of the list. You know, the one they’ve been trying to get for 20 years that isnt going to happen and won’t happen? Are you oblivious? Also, the list has already been made. Nashville, Charlotte, Portland (Mariners will prevent this), Montreal and Vancouver. Oakland won’t even sniff a new team.
Oakland offered a $12 billion opportunity to Fisher at Howard terminal. They could start shoveling dirt to build the new ballpark there tomorrow. All the EIS and lawsuits are settled. The agreement is in place and taxpayer money for the infrastructure and the new owner would get the land for a huge redevelopment.
Fisher is the one that backed out of negotiations at the 11th hour by asking for $600 million more taxpayer dollars instead of what he had already agreed to.
Keep telling yourself they’ll be at the top of the list for expansion. It’s not happening. You can make all the excuses and bring up all the statistics you want. I’m not posting statistics, just facts, and here’s one; Oaklands not getting a new team.
Statistics ARE facts. What you are posting is an opinion. That you don’t understand the difference says it all.
Apparently he thinks his opinion is fact.
7.753 and only a handful like baseball.
Exaggeration but not far off.
You have never been to the Bay Area have you?
Not sure what Thao or Oakland has to lose with the A’s staying in Oakland through 2027. Just tell em they get no public funding.
No. You charge them an absurd amount to “rent” the facility. If they don’t pay then it’s their expensive inconvenience to fix.
The team doesn’t help the city. So the team can eat a bag of dog dicks
Every game played brings tourism dollars. That is what people fail to remember when complaining about public funding. All the surrounding businesses that get a major bump is most of the time worth far more than the public influx of money. Not to mention all the jobs created. Sure the billionaire owners get value, but let’s not pretend they are the only ones benefiting from this.
Fart noises!!! Everybody knows that’s BS.
Job creation? What about the off-season where they encourage people to collect unemployment? Yeah, real money generator
It costs the Coliseum Authority more money for them to play there than they receive from the lease. They would have to quadruple it to break even.
Thao has no say in the lease at the stadium. That is how you know that this article is BS. The stadium lease is controlled by the Coliseum Authority.
Tell HiFlew that there is so little tourism brought in by baseball that its stupid to even mention it. MLB released a study in 2019 showing that the highest any team gets of out of state tourism is 3%.
Oh, and there are study after study that show that ONLY the ballpark district gets any influx of jobs or tax money. The Metro area stays exactly the same. Which means other areas of the metro LOSE.
Sheng Thao is a boss hog for that. Also make John Fisher castrate himself if he wants to keep using the coliseum.
I don’t think FL was the place with large quantities of feces on the street.
How can Minasian say such a private matter to reporters? Advertise himself as a smart guy? He should be fired right away!
Oakland can keep the name since they’ll rebrand as the Vegas Hookers & Blow anyway
The A’s won’t play in Oracle. Baer said that months ago.
Thao doesn’t control the lease on the Coliseum, the stadium authority does and they already said that they would not renew the lease. According to them it costs 4 times more to allow the A’s to play under that lease than to just leave it empty.
The A’s will have to move elsewhere and it is not a guaranteed thing that the MLBPA will sign off on them playing in the minor league park the Aviators play in now.
The MLBPA has already indicated they are disinclined to sign off on them playing at their spring training facility in Arizona.
Fisher and Kaval created a cluster F for themselves with their lies and lack of acting in good faith.
I’m rooting for a spectacular failure at this point so the world will realize what frauds Kaval and Fisher are.
May as well change the name of the team to the Nomads as they may be wandering the dessert til the start of the ’28 season…
Ohtani’s agent should shut him down and get TJS now. He should be focusing on next year because the Angels season is over. Putting off the surgery just hurts him in the long run.
Showing he can continue to hit at an elite level with a tear in his ACL will get him a larger contract than shutting down now. The less time he has to miss, the more teams will be willing to pay him.
He probably wants to finish the season and see what kind of numbers he can post. Ohtani might be one of the rare players in the current era that doesn’t really care about maximizing his earnings. He gave up a ton of money to come over early.
Mind boggling that Seattle now is fifth overall in Team Batting WAR after probably being in the bottom third over first half of season. 3rd overall in Starting Pitching WAR and 2nd overall in Reliever WAR. Groovy !! I can dig it !!! Go M’s!
I know that this site relies on quoting other articles, but quoting Mick Akers just makes you look bad.
The A’s cannot play in Oracle Park. The Giants President said that 4 months ago. It doesn’t really matter what Kaval is dreaming about, the A’s won’t be playing there.
The A’s cannot play in the Oakland County Coliseum after 2024 and its not up to Oakland’s mayor. That is a decision made by the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Authority and the chairman Scott Haggerty said they would not extend the lease beyond the end of the 2024 season months ago.
The A’s still do not even have financing to build the stadium in Las Vegas, so it is doubtful that they have put in a formal request to move to MLB.
One thing we know for sure, Fisher and Kaval are liars. So, if either of them said it, its highly probable that it’s not true.
How’d about the Montreal A’s for a few years? ML ready (more or less) park. Good test to see if Montreal could support a team again.
Tampa Bay will be there full time soon enough
What park? Olympic Stadium?
Montreal has been unable to figure out a new stadium for over 25 years. Still can’t.
Maybe they can share with AAA Sacramento.
The Oakland saga has been played over and over again, and subsidies, infrastructure, and other preferences are demanded by ownership as the price of staying. It’s not just the Athletics–the first part of that dance is happening in Baltimore–and Camden is a terrific stadiums, not one with huge structural problems. It’s a question of how much the taxpayer is willing to pay, and that’s up to elected officials. Those elected officials are answerable to the voters. Sports fans want their experience to be better, they want their teams to stay, but they are only one constituency that political leadership has to answer to.. It’s real money–a lot of it. It’s often real land and other goodies. Wealthy cities/counties will have an easier time of it, but don’t forget it’s about choices. What other priorities will be made to wait so public cash goes to private hands?
Would need approval of MLB, players association and the Storm Chasers, but I’m guessing if MLB apppves the Storm Chasers wouldn’t have much choice. Use
Charles Schwab Field Omaha, seats 25,000, A’s could be on the road during the College World Series, probably wouldn’t impact Cardinals or Royals attendence.
They can share with the Storm Chasers only if they change their name to the drizzle followers.
I’d agree, I can’t imagine both A’s fans would travel to Omaha.
NYC tabloids continue to scream “Come to New York, Ohtani!” when they damn well know he’ll never play for a ballclub that’s not on the West Coast.
The Blue Jays played in Buffalo recently with COVID. I don’t see why the A’s dont try to find a temporary home in the Westernish US (Portland, Vancouver, Tacoma, Tucson, San Antonio, etc).. At least they can try to get some fresh fans who aren’t pissed they are leaving. There has to be some random ballpark that can fill 5,000+ fans.
Excellent point – Portland capacity 7,368; Sacramento has a capacity of 14,014; Salt Lake City has 14,511; Albuquerque has 13,500 seats; Vegas has 10k.
15 times Oakland has passed 14,500, 13 more times over 10k. Oaklands average this year is 10,468 (higher than I expected to be honest), on pace for under 900k total. Last year they were under 10k per game, Back in 2004 the Expos knowing the team was moving and after years of neglect from owners (sound familiar?) had 749,550 show up (9,369 per game) with their first 6 played in PR (8,494 to 14,739 per game).
So if I was going to bet – I’d expect the A’s to play in the AAA stadium in Vegas with some upgrades ala what the Jays did in Buffalo for those 3 seasons. Charge an arm and leg for seats to help compensate for the reduced capacity and go from there.
Ohtani has probably been injured most of the season. He’s had some long weak stretches. This is on both sides. Maybe Ohtani’s agents were hoping he’d get thru the season without the elbow being an issue.
Why is Ohtani still hitting? It’s obviously not as taxing as pitching, but it certainly puts some stress on the elbow. When my elbow tendonitis flairs up, mostly everything I do can set it off.
I have a golden retriever who is a champion bird dog. She finds wild game birds, flushes them for me to shoot and fetches them. She will enthusiastically do this over and over and over relentlessly through heat, cold, and injury until she drops dead from exhaustion. It is up to me to gauge her condition and know when to quit for the day. Shohei seems to have similar instincts as my beloved retriever. He is competitive to the point of driving himself into the ground to achieve his goals. The Angels should have been more vigilant about his condition but the situation is so unique that it’s hard to blame anybody for what happened. How do you tell a 2 way player what to do when the only previous example was a guy who did it over 100 years ago? Shohei’s success is mostly due to his own training methods whatever they are. I can understand why the Angels didn’t want to deny his wishes about continuing to pitch after the hand problem and then cramping. It was a case of “if it ain’t broke. don’t fix it” but something was broken. My dog never tells me when she is injured. I have to vigilantly watch for clues when we are in the field. So far so good for my pooch. Not so much for Shohei.
Glad to hear Kelnic is getting better but Canzone has only partially filled in for him.
Cade Marlow has played LF more than Canzone. He has filled in admirably. But Kelnic is the future.
I think the Babe liked hot dogs more than burgers. And women were called broads or maybe bimbos. Booze was prohibited but widely available like pot is today. According to legend, these were the staples of his training method. I get the impression that Shohei is pretty single minded about baseball all day every day. He claims that he stays in his hotel room when visiting New York on road trips instead of going to clubs or restaurants. I love the stories about Ruth but he did cause a lot of headaches for management. Shohei will not have behavioral issues like the Babe sometimes did.
No city makes money long-term by contributing hundreds of millions of dollars for a stadium. There’s a bestselling book with the data. The math doesn’t pencil out. Vegas, where the money is laundry-fresh, so to speak, doesn’t care about losing mere millions when they can give something new for the “‘fellas” to do. As far as Oakland goes, with housing prices still sky-high there, supply and demand proves that it’s a hell of a more desirable city than most of America, which I’m sure comes as surprising need to the racists still watching Fox. Manfred should be ashamed, Fisher should be ashamed, the MLB exemption should be revoked (because it was granted with the idea of an unbiased commissioner), and Oakland can stand tall alongside Seattle, whose NBA team was also stolen and moved, get this, to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where it loses millions every day. PS: Meanwhile, the Seattle arena was built with private money, business is booming there, even for the WNBA team, and the new NHL team that plays there is going gangbusters.