A's 'prudent' to explore Las Vegas ballpark option, MLB commissioner says

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred thinks the Oakland Athletics made a good decision to explore a possible new ballpark in Las Vegas, expressing frustration their stadium situation remains unsolved in an industry just shy of $11 billion US in revenue this year.

The A's have played at the Coliseum since 1968 and their lease expires after the 2024 season. After proposing and withdrawing plans for ballparks in Fremont and San Jose, the team announced in November 2018 it had found a waterfront location for a new ballpark at Howard Terminal, close to the Jack London Square neighborhood.

Major League Baseball instructed the team in May 2021 to explore relocation options if no ballpark agreement could be reached. Team president Dave Kaval has said the club was working on plans along "parallel paths" in Oakland and Las Vegas.

"The pace in Oakland has not been rapid, number one," Manfred said Monday after announcing Game 3 of the World Series between Houston and Philadelphia had been postponed by rain. "We're in a stadium situation that's really not tenable. I mean, we need to do something to alter the situation. So I'm concerned about the lack of pace.

The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission voted 23-2 in June to reclassify a 56-acre terminal at the Port of Oakland as a mixed-use area where a new ballpark could be built. The vote is the first in a series of legal hurdles the team would have to overcome before it gets permission to break ground for the project.

Oakland's City Council approved preliminary terms for the project last year, but Kaval said the financial terms didn't work for the team.

Manfred said any timetable for a possible relocation decision would be "partially dependent on decisions that