Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed a bill Thursday granting $380 million in public money to the Oakland A’s for the construction of a ballpark in Las Vegas, leaving few obstacles for the team’s departure after five decades in the Bay Area.
Lombardo, a Republican, signed the bill a day after both houses of the Nevada Legislature approved the deal, which includes a slew of community benefits and financial commitments promised by the A’s in order to secure the necessary votes.
“This is an incredible opportunity to bring the A’s to Nevada, and this legislation reflects months of negotiations between the team, the state, the county, and the league,” Lombardo said in a statement. “Las Vegas’ position as a global sports destination is only growing, and Major League Baseball is another tremendous asset for the city.”
The bill’s passage clears the way for Oakland’s last major professional sports franchise to leave town and marks a significant milestone in the team’s decades-long search for a new stadium.
“We are excited about Southern Nevada’s dynamic and vibrant sports scene, and we look forward to becoming a valued community member through jobs, economic development, and the quality of life and civic pride of a Major League Baseball team,” the A’s said.
The team’s statement did not mention Oakland.
Oakland officials had spent years working with the A’s on a highly ambitious ballpark-and-housing development on port land at the city’s harbor that is normally reserved for industrial use. But when the team first announced in April a deal to acquire land in Las Vegas, Mayor Sheng Thao said she would end negotiations for the waterfront development.
The $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat ballpark in Las Vegas would be the smallest in Major League Baseball and is expected to be constructed over the next half decade.
The A’s lease at the Oakland Coliseum — where it owns half the property rights — runs through 2024, and team officials have looked into a small minor-league ballpark elsewhere in Nevada while the Vegas ballpark is being built.
With a commitment by Nevada to a large sum of public money, the A’s have made it past perhaps its most difficult obstacle to relocation.
Three-quarters of the other Major League Baseball franchise owners must approve the move, and the newly passed legislation must also withstand any legal challenges by Nevada residents.
In the meantime, Oakland residents will need to contend with a bitter, and increasingly likely, possibility of losing all three of the city’s major professional sports franchises in a span of four years.
And the A’s — whose green-and-gold branding, “Moneyball” mythmaking and dynastic World Series success in the 1970s transcended the team’s small-market status — will be taken from a city often seen as a gritty underdog that punches above its weight.
The A’s have threatened relocation for decades, dating back to plans for a Denver move in the late 1970s and including several plans for relocation to the South Bay.
On Thursday, after Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred suggested the city had not stepped up to support a new ballpark, Thao’s spokesperson promptly fired back.
“There was a very concrete proposal under discussion and Oakland had gone above and beyond to clear hurdles, including securing funding for infrastructure, providing an environmental review and working with other agencies to finalize approvals,” the spokesperson, Julie Edwards, said in a statement.
With a deal formally struck in Nevada, the A’s are now expected to submit a relocation application explaining the efforts taken in Oakland and why Las Vegas is a better market. Eventually, a relocation committee will review the plans and make a recommendation to Manfred and an eight-person executive council, which then needs three-quarters approval by vote to sign off on the move.
Last fall, Manfred offered to waive the A’s relocation fees if the team left to Las Vegas — a trend among American sports leagues eager to occupy a market once avoided for its proximity to gambling.
This week, prominent East Bay lawmaker Rep. Barbara Lee accused Manfred of violating anti-trust laws by attempting to the facilitate the A’s move. She introduced federal legislation that would force the team to compensate Oakland on its way out the door.
But for fans who just days ago staged a “reverse boycott” — which brought over 27,759 fans to the Coliseum in protest of billionaire owner John Fisher — there wasn’t much to be hopeful about upon hearing news of the Nevada bill’s passage.
“It feels like everything the A’s do,” said Jorge Leon, who spent years trying to keep the team in town. “They’re pretty good at messing with the fans and the community, so it’s fitting.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
