With their roster depleted by trades and minimal free-agent signings, the Oakland A’s are sometimes likened to a Triple-A team — and may soon be downsized to playing in a minor league stadium.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said that the team could share Las Vegas Ballpark — capacity 10,000 — with their Triple-A affiliate, the Las Vegas Aviators, while they wait for a new stadium to be built in Las Vegas.
The team’s current lease at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum ends after the 2024 season. A’s president Dave Kaval has said that a new stadium in Las Vegas likely wouldn’t be open until 2027, leaving a two-year gap where the A’s might need a place to play.
Negotiations in Oakland were made more challenging by A’s owner John Fisher’s desire to build housing, retail, and restaurants simultaneously — not sequentially — alongside a new stadium to help the development pay for itself, per The Athletic.
It doesn’t seem the two sides ever discussed a scaled-back version of the $12 billion development.
In addition to potentially needing a new tenant, the Oakland A’s home park will also need a new name.
RingCentral, which has held naming rights to the coliseum since 2019 in a deal worth $1 million annually, ended its pact early on April 1.
The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority is looking into whether the company had the right to end the deal, which had nine months remaining. The termination could cost the managing organization $750,000 through the end of the year.
