Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman Backtracks on Surprising Oakland Athletics Statement

The mayor released a clarification after receiving backlash for comments she made about the baseball franchise’s potential relocation to her city.

Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman released a statement clarifying comments that she made on a podcast where she declared that the Oakland Athletics should “figure out a way to stay in Oakland” instead of relocating to Las Vegas.

“I want to be clear that I am excited about the prospect of Major League Baseball in Las Vegas, and it very well may be that the Las Vegas A’s will become a reality that we will welcome to our city,” Mayor Goodman said in a statement.

“On Feb. 5, 2024, I was interviewed for the Front Office Sports podcast. … We discussed several topics including the Oakland A’s for about seven minutes. … My points included that it is my belief that in their perfect world, the ownership of the A’s would like to have a new ballpark on the water in Oakland and that the ownership and government there should listen to their great fans and try to make that dream come true.”

Mayor Goodman concluded her statement by saying that if Oakland’s dream of building a new stadium in their city were to fail, that Las Vegas “has shown that it is a spectacular market for major league sports franchises.”

Statement on today’s conversation about the Oakland A’s. pic.twitter.com/3dOXfFuq3d

— Carolyn G. Goodman (@mayoroflasvegas) February 6, 2024

The mayor is under fire for declaring on the Front Office Sports Today podcast that she had an “odd feeling” about the A’s moving to Las Vegas ever since the franchise turned down what she believed to be a better stadium location to build on in the city. 

The mayor believed other sites in the area offered easier traffic situations near multiple highways and were better pieces of property for a potential stadium. Instead, the A’s ownership preferred to build a new stadium off the Las Vegas strip and chose the nine-acre Tropicana site.

It remains to be seen what happens to the Athletics, but all signs continue to point to relocation to Las Vegas being the most likely outcome, even if the mayor believes the A’s should remain loyal to their fan base in Oakland instead.