The future of the Oakland Athletics franchise remains uncertain, with the fate of their next ballpark unresolved.
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, speaking to reporters in Phoenix ahead of spring training this week, said the focus in recent months has shifted from the East Bay to Las Vegas — a potential relocation option.
“Look, I think the best way for me to answer that is to say I think that the focus since I spoke to you in December really has been on Las Vegas,” Manfred said Wednesday, via The San Francisco Chronicle.
Chronicle reporter John Shea, the “you” in Manfred’s response, joined John Lund and Kerry Crowley on KNBR to detail the situation. Shea, who’s been covering baseball in the Bay Area for the past 36 years, currently as their national baseball writer and columnist, explained the current stalemate, expressing skepticism that a Las Vegas move is coming.
“Twenty years ago, people asked where are the A’s going to be in 20 years?” Shea said on KNBR. “I said the Coliseum. And they laughed. They asked me that today, and I said 20 years from now, they’ll still be at the Coliseum. Where else are they going to go? I don’t see Las Vegas happening (for the A’s).”
Manfred had previously said he planned to connect with new Oakland mayor Sheng Thao, who replaced Libby Schaaf, but said hasn’t yet talked with Thao.
The Athletics’ plan to build a new stadium at the proposed Howard Terminal location has hit snags recently. In January, the city of Oakland failed to secure a $182 million grant for infrastructure costs.
The Athletics’ ballpark saga has been brewing for decades. Shea noted the franchise flirted with moving to Denver, Santa Clara, San Jose and now Vegas.
But here the A’s have stayed, in the Coliseum that was built in 1966 and is regarded as the most decrepit park in Major League Baseball.
“Nobody says, ‘well how about the Coliseum?’” Shea said. “But John Fisher, for whatever reason, hates the site. And therefore Dave Kaval hates the site. So where we are now is I’m asking Rob Manfred for an update, and he says the focus is not on Oakland, the focus is on Las Vegas. And number two: I have not spoken with the new mayor. And both those things tell me, really? How hard are you really trying in Oakland? Is there any attempt to get a new ballpark in Oakland, at all?”
Shea said he thinks it’s more likely an expansion team moves to Vegas. But that would only happen once the Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays find new homes.
“(Oakland management says) we want a new ballpark near the water and this big village — well, where’s the water in the desert?” Shea said. “I don’t see any, I don’t see much. So anyway, it’s just strange, goofy, and Rob Manfred wants it all to go away. Just like Bud Selig did.”
“A”ll these ballparks that started in the 90s, Baltimore, White Sox, all these beautiful yards. Atlanta gets one every few years. Texas, same thing. But somewhere it ended, and Tampa Bay and Oakland, like musical chairs, had nowhere to sit. Nowhere to build a ballpark. They won’t expand to 32 teams and form this new geographic realignment until they figure it out in Oakland and Tampa Bay. And I don’t think it’s going to happen any time soon. Unless MLB says ‘Okay, go ahead to Vegas.’ I don’t see (the A’s) going there, I might be wrong. But I see an expansion team down the road going there.”
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