A's owner Fisher says Vegas relocation application filed, points finger at Oakland - ESPN

The Oakland Athletics have submitted their application for relocation to Major League Baseball, A's owner John Fisher told ESPN on Thursday, putting the team one step closer to a future in Las Vegas. The fate of the team now resides in the hands of MLB's owners.

MLB's three-man relocation committee, consisting of Kansas City Royals chief executive officer John Sherman, Philadelphia Phillies CEO John Middleton and Milwaukee Brewers chairman Mark Attanasio, will review the application and make a recommendation to commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB's eight-man executive council. Ultimate approval requires a three-quarters vote of the 30 team owners. No vote has been scheduled.

Fisher, in his first national interview since purchasing the A's in 2005, attributed the decision to move the franchise to a number of factors, primarily the inability of the city of Oakland to make good on its promise to provide the public funding for the offsite infrastructure at Howard Terminal, a $12 billion, 55-acre waterfront ballpark/real estate project.

«In the end, we concluded that the city had not raised sufficient money to cover the commitments it made,» Fisher said. «We also had a deadline imposed by the collective bargaining agreement from a year and a half ago that required the A's have a binding agreement on a new stadium by January of 2024 or we would lose our revenue sharing, which would be hugely detrimental to the organization.»

A spokesperson for Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao pushed back on Fisher's assertions Thursday night, saying the city had raised $475 million and was just $101 million short of reaching its goal. In addition, two grants totaling another $65 million are due to pay out in the next month, bringing the city to within