Las Vegas ballpark could be the home of the Oakland A’s for the 2024 season. The A’s minor team the Las Vegas Aviators and the A’s could end sharing the park starting 2024 until the A’s stadium is ready in 2027 (photo by the Las Vegas Review Journal file)
A’s after 2024, where do they Play?
That’s Amaury News and Commentary
By Amaury Pi-González
A’s fans are very upset, after the announcement a few days ago by Dave Kaval that the A’s are buying land, have a binding agreement in Las Vegas to build their new ballpark. This is a wound that will take time to heal to all the people in the bay area, especially Oakland and the east bay.
On one hand many fans were under the impression the team was still working with the city of Oakland, as Kaval has said many times “we are working on parallel plans”, but on the other hand for anybody following this soap opera, the possibility of the team leaving was greater than 50%. Honestly, I was not surprised.
According to Kaval the plan is to inaugurate the new park in Las Vegas in 2027. But many are asking the question: where will the A’s play after 2024 when the lease with the Oakland Coliseum expires. Where will the A’s play in 2025 and 2026, while they are building the new park?
Oracle Park the home of the Giants could be one option, but it is unlikely. MLB will have to work on a big schedule modification. At the Oakland Coliseum. Extending the Coliseum (what happened to the Raiders) when they were waiting for their new park.
This is a possibility, if both sides agree to terminate the lease early. But this whole story has not been distinguished by people agreeing in much. At Aviators park in Las Vegas. Dave Kaval said the Aviators will remain in Las Vegas, the Aviators are their AAA affiliate and they could possibly play regular season games there while they build their new park close to the strip. Aviators Park is located in Summerlin, a suburb of Las Vegas with a capacity of 10,000.
If you think both teams, Aviators and A’s could not play close by, I remind you that currently the Minnesota Twins have their Triple A affiliate in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and have played their home games at CHS Field since 2015, which is 10 minutes away from Target Field in Minneapolis home of the major league Twins.
Ex A’s and Hall of Fame player Reginaldo Martínez (Reggie) Jackson recently told the NY Post “what was the city of Oakland thinking?” And mentioned that they had already lost the Raiders and the Warriors and now the Oakland A’s. Two weeks ago Reggie predicted “they will not have a team in Oakland”.
Commissioner Fred Manfred wanted the A’s to leave Oakland and he knows the baseball owners are in agreement. The chances for Oakland to keep the A’s were never good. Baseball historians will have the task to record this moment in history. Once is all said and done, the A’s will become the first franchise in baseball to have played in four different cities; Philadelphia, Kansas City, Oakland and Las Vegas all keeping the same name of Athletics.
Perhaps the most famous move of major league teams happened on May 29, 1957, when National League owners voted unanimously to allow the Brooklyn Dodgers to relocate to Los Angeles and the New York Giants to San Francisco.