Interesting Wrinkle to Oakland A's Relocation Saga

Jason Burke | Jul 18, 2024

Feb 15, 2024; Tampa, FL, USA; MLB commissioner Rob Manfred talks with media at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports / Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports

Rob Manfred speaks to the media occasionally, and when he does, he tends to be asked about the Oakland A's potential relocation to Las Vegas because there are just oh so many questions left to be answered more than a year into the process, with construction needing to begin in just eight months to hit their 2028 target.

You can read all about what Manfred had to say (or not say) this time around here, where the San Francisco Chronicle brought up something that hadn't been talked about before: a gag order.

From Scott Ostler: "Why is it, then, that various Bay Area groups interested in buying the A’s and keeping them in Oakland, or bringing an expansion team to Oakland, have been warned to keep quiet about their interest or risk being crossed off the list of potential buyers? That warning has come to prospective buyers from Oakland officials, who say they have tried to get MLB to lift that gag order so the world can know that there are folks with money who believe in Oakland as an MLB city."

Of course MLB wants to control the narrative as much as possible when it comes to the A's move to Sacramento and then Las Vegas. The problem they're running into is that A's owner John Fisher is up to his old tricks and isn't making this process easy to carry out, leading to the relocation saga being a bad look for the entire league.

One interesting wrinkle here is that those local buyers are adhering to the gag order. They likely wouldn't do that if they didn't feel that they have a shot at landing something in Oakland at some point, whether that is the A's if a Vegas deal falls apart, or an expansion franchise down the road. If they feel that all hope is lost, then what would be the harm in going public?

It feels like we keep saying this, but the next few months should be pretty interesting in the future of the Oakland A's. Today there will be a Las Vegas Stadium Authority meeting, which is expected to discuss the A's revised non-relocation agreement, as well as a draft of the development agreement.

The specifics included with the non-relocation agreement and the development agreement should shed some light into just how seriously the A's are taking this process, and how much work is still ahead of them before they get to an actual binding deal with Las Vegas.