A’s begin relocation application process with MLB
The Oakland Athletics have taken another step to land the MLB team in Las Vegas.
The A’s officially began the relocation application process with MLB, one that will eventually end with a vote of the league’s owners that will decide if the team’s future home is a $1.5 billion ballpark on the Strip, a person with knowledge of the process told the Review-Journal.
Beginning the relocation proceedings occurred after Gov. Joe Lombardo signed Senate Bill 1 into law last week, pledging up to $380 million in public funding toward the planned 30,000-seat retractable roof stadium to be located on the Tropicana site.
“The passing of the legislation in Nevada, really, really important, it’s another important step forward,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said last week following owners meetings in New York. “There is a pretty thorough relocation process that the club now needs to go through as a prelude to a vote of the clubs.”
The application will require the A’s to talk about Oakland and why they are planning to leave the market, what efforts they carried out to stay in the Bay Area before exploring relocation, and why Las Vegas would be a better home for the team.
How long that process plays out depends on a number of factors, Manfred noted, including how quickly the A’s put together their application and how long the appointed relocation committee takes to reviewit before arriving at a vote of the owners.
“There’s some work that needs to be done,” Manfred said. “I’m not going to predict a timeline on that.”
The A’s will need 75 percent of owners to vote in favor of the move for it to become official. Manfred twice declined to answer questions regarding what items might pose an issue to some owners.
“I think that the owners as a whole understand that there has been a multiyear, approaching a decade effort, where for a vast majority of time the sole focus was Oakland,” Manfred said.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.
