Oakland Athletics relocation to Las Vegas

The Oakland Athletics are in the process of relocating from Oakland, California, to the Las Vegas area in Nevada. The team called Oakland home from 1968 through 2024, winning four World Series championships during that stretch. This move follows the Oakland Raiders of the NFL, who relocated to Las Vegas in 2020, making the Athletics the second major sports franchise to leave Oakland for Vegas. Having previously played in Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Oakland, the Athletics have now called four different cities home—more than any other MLB team. The relocation effort comes after years of unsuccessful attempts to replace the aging Oakland Coliseum with a modern ballpark in the Bay Area. In 2023, the team announced plans to build a new stadium in the Las Vegas Valley. That June, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo signed SB1, a $380 million stadium funding bill. In August, the Athletics submitted a formal relocation application to MLB, which received unanimous approval at the owners’ meeting in November in Arlington, Texas. The Athletics’ lease at the Oakland Coliseum expired after the 2024 season. For the 2025 and 2026 seasons, the team is playing at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California. This would be the franchise’s third intercity move. It would also be the first American League team to relocate since 1972, when the Washington Senators moved to Arlington, Texas, to become the Texas Rangers, and the first MLB team to move since 2005, when the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals. The proposed move has drawn strong criticism from the community, directed at Athletics owner John Fisher. The Athletics were founded in 1901 as a charter member of the American League, originally playing in Philadelphia as the Philadelphia Athletics alongside the National League’s Philadelphia Phillies. From 1901 to 1954, they played at Columbia Park and Shibe Park under owner Connie Mack. In 1955, Mack sold the team to Chicago businessman Arnold Johnson, who moved it to Kansas City, Missouri, where it became the Kansas City Athletics and played at Municipal Stadium. After Johnson died of a cerebral hemorrhage while watching spring training in Florida, the team was sold to another Chicago businessman, Charles O. Finley. Finley tried to move the team out of Kansas City as early as 1961, courting Dallas-Fort Worth.