A's Set to Visit Las Vegas on Wednesday
Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal is reporting that members of the Oakland A's Executive team will be heading to Las Vegas on Wednesday "to continue discussions on a potential relocation to the valley."
It is also being reported that the A's are still considering two sites in Las Vegas, the Tropicana site, and the Las Vegas Festival Grounds. Previous reports had said that the talks between the A's and Phil Ruffin, owner of the Festival Grounds, had gone silent, leading people in the know to believe those talks were over and the A's had settled on one location: The Tropicana.
The A's have also met with the new Governor of Nevada, Joe Lombardo, and he has said that he doesn't support adding to the people's taxes to try and lure a sports team to Vegas. However, he did give the A's some options related to tax opportunities in relation to the ballpark they'd like to build.
Mick Akers also reported on Twitter that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred would not be in attendance for Wednesday's meetings.
So what to make of all this? The main takeaway so far is that the A's went from having one site narrowed down, and now they're back at two. They have gone backwards from where we thought they were. Meanwhile in Oakland, the A's have a site, an EIR, and a number of other balls rolling forward towards Howard Terminal.
The fact that Rob Manfred isn't going to be in attendance for these meetings could also be a good sign for the Howard Terminal project. If he were to be involved, that would lend some weight to what is happening, but he's not, so it doesn't.
Things have been quiet on the ballpark front in Oakland since new Mayor Sheng Thao came to office, leading some to worry about the A's future in the East Bay.
That said, Oakland is clearly in a better position and seemingly the desired location of ownership for this ballpark. If the city were to keep openly negotiating, they'd only be working against themselves at this point.
The Wednesday meetings could be another ploy to try and get Oakland to come with a better offer than they one they have put forth, because they have no reason to budge currently. But if things start happening in Las Vegas, then we will see how badly Oakland wants to keep the A's rooted.