The Oakland A’s are slated to relocate to Las Vegas, with a stadium planned on the site of the Tropicana Hotel. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman is standing somewhere between booing and cheering.
The baseball team wants “to get closer to the Strip with all the congestion and everything,” she said on a Front Office Sports podcast Tuesday. “And I thought, ‘This does not make sense.’ And so why’s it happening? And then I thought because they really want to stay in Oakland. They want to be on the water. They have that magnificent dream and yet they can’t get it on.”
Later Tuesday on X, Ms. Goodman took another swing, writing she’s “excited about the prospect of Major League Baseball in Las Vegas.”
The A’s lease at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum ends after the upcoming 2024 season, with the new stadium planned at the Tropicana site not opening until 2028.
In the interim, the A’s are expected to play at multiple parks, including Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, and at the A’s minor-league field in the Summerlin community of Las Vegas, according to USA Today.
The A’s have shown no sign of continuing to play ball in California’s East Bay and have not breached the possibility of extending their lease past 2024, Oakland officials say.
“To my great shock, the A’s have once again failed to provide anyone in Oakland clarity on their genius business plans. To date they have not contacted or requested an extension to their lease,” Leigh Hanson, chief of staff to Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last month.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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