(Reuters) – The Oakland Athletics were a step closer to a move to Las Vegas on Thursday, with the Major League Baseball club signing a binding agreement to purchase 49 acres that will be used as the site of a new ballpark.
Athletics president Dave Kaval said the team was pushing ahead with plans for a new stadium in Las Vegas after the process to build a waterfront ballpark in Oakland stalled.
“We know this is a really difficult day for our fans in Oakland and the Oakland community,” Kaval told MLB.com. “We’re still maybe seven or eight years away from being even able to open a stadium (in Oakland) with the lawsuits and referendums and timing challenges.
“We have a pact in Las Vegas that we think can work and has the support from the league, so we are really putting all our focus in Las Vegas and the efforts there.”
Kaval set out a timeline which would see breaking ground on the Vegas ballpark in 2024 and it being ready to use for the 2027 season.
MLB is the latest major sport league eager to get in on the Las Vegas action.
The National Hockey League’s Golden Knights set up operations in 2017 followed by the relocation of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces in 2018 and the National Football League’s Raiders in 2020.
LeBron James has expressed interest in bringing a National Basketball Association team to Las Vegas when he transitions from all-time great player to potential team owner.
Major League Soccer has also expressed its desire to add a Vegas team that would play in a new soccer-specific stadium, with an announcement expected this year.
“The A’s have remained in Oakland long past the departures of other teams in the market,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.
“In 2021, given the continued lack of progress, MLB instructed the A’s to explore a parallel path plan with Las Vegas.
“We support the A’s turning their focus on Las Vegas and look forward to them bringing finality to this process by the end of the year.”
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto, editing by Ed Osmond)
