A's Relocation Vote Gets a Date

For Oakland A's owner John Fisher, Christmas may come early

According to Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the owners will officially vote on the A's plan to move to Las Vegas at the owner's meetings in November. That just so happens to be when the team plans to announce their design team for the proposed Vegas ballpark. 

The A's reportedly submitted their relocation paperwork last month, though there is still no word on where they will play baseball from 2025-27 when their lease at the Oakland Coliseum runs out. Oakland also presents the only big-league facility available for 81 home dates and the A's would be able to keep their RSN deal with NBC Sports, which pays out roughly $65 million per season. If they move, that money is out the window. 

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao recently said that it would take MLB promising (and presumably putting in writing) that the city would get an expansion team if they were to extend the A's lease past 2024.

There have also been reports that Oakland is a "top two" expansion site, joining Nashville, Tennessee, according to MLB executives. 

While the lease extension seems fairly straightforward, the A's own half of the land that comprises the Coliseum site, which could lead to owner John Fisher using that to his own advantage. 

The city has plans to redevelop the Coliseum site with an incoming soccer stadium for the Oakland Roots in the parking lot, as well as the AASEG (African American Sports & Entertainment Group) attempting to lure an expansion team of their own from the WNBA. The AASEG attempted to purchase Fisher's half of the site, but their offer was refused. 

With a timetable now set for the relocation vote, we should begin to hear more about the A's plan on all of these fronts. The going assumption is that the owners will vote to approve Fisher's relocation plans for the simple fact that MLB has allowed him to carry on with his Vegas search for two years and he has then gone ahead and secured funding for a ballpark. Tough to imagine that this would all happen without the votes to secure a move.

John Fisher will need 75% approval from the other owners to get his Vegas ballpark approved by the league.