Las Vegas was supposed to welcome the Oakland Athletics to their city with welcome arms.
But so much for a warm welcome to their new home!
That’s because according to local media outlet Vital Vegas, the A’s gave confirmation their proposed $1.5 billion Vegas ballpark doesn’t have financing at this time.
In other words, the A’s still don’t have a home.
According to the Vital Vegas report, despite the move from Oakland to Vegas being made official by Major League Baseball, the A’s don’t have a single investor attached to the relocation nor the stadium.
And to make things even worse, they even hired Galatioto Sports Partners — a firm with a reputation of being high-powered — who was also unable to a single investor for the impending Vegas move.
Ouch!
The beleaguered organization still plans on pursuing investors to fund some of their relocation, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Investors who come onboard will receive a minority ownership stake in the A’s. The franchise was waiting for the introduction of the draft development agreement and their stadium designs to be deep in the process before continuing their pursuit, according to the outlet.
In the meantime, the proposed renderings of the new stadium have been released. Take a look.
Together with @BIG_Architects and @HNTBCorp, we have unveiled the design for our new ballpark project in Las Vegas on the Tropicana site. BIG will serve as the design lead and HNTB as the sports/hospitality designer and architect of record.
Images by Negativ pic.twitter.com/mvpiCBXD54
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) March 5, 2024
Speculation of the A’s moving from Oakland to a bigger market has been swirling for years. However, even if the A’s do actually re-located, there are rumors that investors do want to keep another team in the Bay Area (along with the San Francisco Giants).
But according to the SF Chronicle, multiple interested investment groups in the Bay Area who are interested in keeping baseball in Oakland have been told to stay away and not interfere or risk being considered as a potential buyer in the future by MLB.
As for whether the A’s will actually secure the investors and funding to execute their move from Oakland and build their new stadium? That’s clearly still up in the air.