Baseball fans in Las Vegas must wait until the 2028 Major League Baseball (MLB) season to see their new team in action. The Oakland Athletics are relocating from Oakland, California, to Las Vegas, Nevada, following in the footsteps of the Oakland Raiders, who switched to the Las Vegas Raiders in 2020. It was thought the A’s could move to their new state as early as 2025, but reports last month revealed the team will remain in California from 2025-27.
The Oakland Athletics are one of the most popular teams with people using the best online sportsbooks in California because they have won the World Series nine times. However, the A’s last became world champions in 1989 and last appeared in the MLB’s biggest game in 1990, when they lost 4-0 to the Cincinnati Reds. Fans of the A’s are hopeful that the relocation to “Sin City” will rejuvenate the franchise and see it competing for honors again.
Why Are the Oakland Athletics Relocating?
The relocation efforts follow several failed attempts to replace the Oakland Coliseum, the Athletics’ home ballpark, with a more modern stadium in the Bay Area. The Athletics have called The Coliseum home since 1968, but the 63,132-capacity stadium is in dire need of renovating and updating. Fans and players consider the stadium outdated and poorly maintained, and it is often cited as one of the worst ballparks in Major League Baseball.
After failing to find the ideal location for a new ballpark, the Athletics announced they were building the New Las Vegas Stadium on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue in Paradise, Nevada.
If everything goes to plan, the ground will be broken in April 2025, and the 33,000-seat ballpark, complete with a retractable roof, will open to the public in January 2028. The construction cost is an estimated $1.5 billion.
The New Las Vegas Stadium will be located on the Tropicana Las Vegas casino site, which closed on April 2 after 67 years of operation. The famous Las Vegas landmark is scheduled to be demolished in October 2024.
The Oakland A’s Move to a Temporary Home For 2025-27
Plans were afoot for the Oakland Athletics to move to Las Vegas as early as 2025. Those plans included sharing the Las Vegas Ballpark in Summerlin with the Minor League Baseball team, the Las Vegas Aviators. However, last month, the Athletics’ management team revealed that it would temporarily play its home games during the 2025, 2026, and 2027 MLB seasons at the Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, California.
The A’s were in negotiations with the city of Oakland for a possible lease expansion at the Coliseum, but the two parties remained far apart on a deal. This left the A’s with no choice other than sharing the ballpark of the Sacramento River Cats for the next three years.
John Fisher, the Athletics’ managing partner and owner, explained the plans to MLB’s official website last month.
“We explored several locations for a temporary home, including the Oakland Coliseum. Even with the long-standing relationship and good intentions on all sides in the negotiations with Oakland, the conditions to achieve an agreement seemed out of reach. We understand the disappointment this news brings to our fans, as this season marks our final one in Oakland. Throughout this season, we will honor and celebrate our time in Oakland and will share additional details soon.”
Fisher thanked the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, who own the majority of the River Cats.
“We extend our appreciation to the Kings and the city of West Sacramento and look forward to making Sutter Health Park our home until our new ballpark opens in Las Vegas.”
Will the Relocation Be Third Time Lucky for the Athletics?
The A’s are one of the American League’s eight charter franchises. They started life as the Philadelphia Athletics in 1901. The Philadelphia Athletics won the World Series in 1910, 1911, and 1913 and back-to-back titles in 1929 and 1930.
In 1955, the team left Philadelphia and became the Kansas City Athletics before becoming the Oakland Athletics in 1968. Known as the “Swingin’ A’s,” the Oakland Athletics won three consecutive World Series in 1972, 1973, and 1974 and won the 1989 World Series but have not reached baseball’s grandest stage since 1990, a drought of 34 years.
Times have been tough for A’s fans in recent seasons. After finishing with a 36-24 record during the COVID-hit 2020 season, the Athletics finished with an 86-76 record in 2021. The A’s lost several key players ahead of the 2021 campaign, with Chris Bassitt, Matt Chapman, and Matt Olson moving to new pastures. The team fell to a 60-112 record thanks to batting only .216 and posting a 4.52 ERA.
The 2023 MLB season was one for the A’s to forget. They lost 45 of their opening 55 games, tying them for the worst 55-game start in MLB history. The team was on pace to break the record for most losses in a season but rallied slightly during the regular season’s second half, eventually finishing with a 50-112 record. The Athletics became the first team since the 2019 Detroit Tigers to lose 111 or more games in a season.
The 2024 Athletics have started much stronger and are currently 19-22 (.463), placing them third in the American League West, three games behind the Texas Rangers.
The Athletics’ loyal fans will hope the team can push on and return to a winning season now that the uncertainty surrounding the team for the past few years is over. They will also be hopeful that the Las Vegas Raiders can follow in the footsteps of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, who have won three divisional titles, two conference titles, and the Stanley Cup since forming in Las Vegas in 2017.
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