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Oakland Athletics agree to a new land deal to build a stadium in Vegas
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JJ Bleday of the Oakland Athletics bats during the third inning in the game against the Seattle Mariners at Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California, May 4, 2023. /CFP
JJ Bleday of the Oakland Athletics bats during the third inning in the game against the Seattle Mariners at Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California, May 4, 2023. /CFP

JJ Bleday of the Oakland Athletics bats during the third inning in the game against the Seattle Mariners at Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California, May 4, 2023. /CFP

The MLB's Oakland Athletics have reached an agreement with Bally's Corp. to build a new stadium worth $1.5 billion on part of the Tropicana Las Vegas resort site, The Nevada Independent and the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on Tuesday.

In late April, the Athletics announced that they had signed a "binding agreement" to build a stadium on a 49-acre (about 198, 000 square meters) site owned by Red Rock Resorts near Allegiant Stadium and the Strip. The team needed $500 million in public financing to do it. The figure later dropped to $395 million, thanks to the deal with Bally's Corp.

The Athletics moved to Oakland from Kansas City in 1968 and have been playing at Oakland Coliseum as their home park since then.

Though the team's president Dave Kaval told The Athletic that moving to Las Vegas is not a done deal yet, he also said that they are "focused on Las Vegas."

"This has been such a long process, and there's been so many twists and turns. So, I hate to speak so categorically one way or the other, but what I would say is we're focusing all our energies on Las Vegas. We were on this parallel path for a while where we had kind of two markets, and we were kind of juggling – that period is over. We're focused on Las Vegas," Kaval said.

A panoramic view of the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California, April 30, 2023. /CFP
A panoramic view of the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California, April 30, 2023. /CFP

A panoramic view of the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California, April 30, 2023. /CFP

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred expressed his support of the Athletics to move to Las Vegas in April. "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," Manfred said in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

However, Oakland mayor Sheng Thao doesn't like the Athletics' decision very much and expressed her disappointment in a statement to San Francisco Chronicle.

"I am deeply disappointed that the A's have chosen not to negotiate with the City of Oakland as a true partner in a way that respects the long relationship between the fans, the city and the team," Thao said. "In a time of budget deficits, I refuse to compromise the safety and well-being of our residents. Given these realities, we are ceasing negotiations and moving forward on alternatives for the redevelopment of Howard Terminal."

The Athletics are not the only team to leave Oakland in recent years. The NFL's Las Vegas Raiders did so in 2019. 

The team could begin playing in their new Las Vegas stadium as early as 2027.

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