Just like the Raiders did at the time, the Athletics will move from Oakland to Las Vegas. California will lose another franchise in just a few years, since the baseball team did not find conditions to change stadiums within the same city.
The Athletics, a team that Tom Hanks is a fan of, currently play at the Oakland Coliseum, which is an old and deteriorated property, for which MLB considers that it is not a suitable stadium for a professional team. For several years the baseball team has tried to build a new stadium, however it has not found the conditions to achieve it, and MLB pressures him to agree on a new stadium before reaching 2024, the year in which the lease expires.
Low attendance at the stadium condemns the A’s
In addition to not finding a new stadium, the A’s have long struggled with the poor tickets in his stadium. The team has the lowest average attendance in the MLB in recent years.
By 2022, the average attendance was less than 10 thousand fans per game. In May 2022, in a game against the Rays, they met at the stadium less than two thousand 500 followers.
Athletics have deal in Las Vegas
Faced with this situation, Dave Kaval, president of the franchise, stated that there is already an agreement with Las Vegas, the city to which it would move in 2027, upon completion of the construction of his own stadium. Work on this construction would begin in 2024.
“We have an agreement in Las Vegas that we think we can work with. and that it has the support of the league, so we are putting all our focus and effort in Las Vegas.”said the manager to the MLB.
Oakland loses to another team
The Athletics have played in the city of Oakland since 1968 and have lived their best time there, winning four World Series, but finally the move is a matter of time.
“We made an incredible effort for six years so that our vision of a stadium was approved. But at the end of it all the process has not been fast enough. We are seven or eight years away from opening the stadium in Oakland.
“We understand that this is a difficult message for our fans in Oakland. We want to thank Oakland and express our enormous gratitude for all the years they welcomed our franchise.” indicated the manager.
The Raiders, an NFL team, moved from the same city after the 2019 season and since 2020 they have been playing in Las Vegas.
