Perhaps this won’t be the A’s last season in Oakland after all.
Team president Dave Kaval will meet with officials from the city of Oakland and Alameda County on Thursday to discuss a lease extension at the Coliseum that would keep the A’s in Oakland until their ballpark in Las Vegas is ready, according to an industry source.
The A’s are entering the final year of their lease with the Coliseum and have been exploring other options for the 2025 season and beyond until they’re ready to play in their new ballpark, which is expected to open in Las Vegas in 2028.
They’ve already begun discussions with city officials and those conversations are ongoing.
Expected to be at Thursday’s meeting along with Kaval are the Oakland mayor’s chief of staff, Leigh Hanson, county Supervisor David Haubert and City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, according to the Chronicle, which first reported news of the meeting.
Last June, a Vegas official suggested the A’s could play in Reno in the interim. There has also been talk about sharing Oracle Park with the San Francisco Giants.
More recently the A’s met with city officials in Sacramento and Salt Lake City while touring both Triple-A ballparks there.
Sutter Health Park in Sacramento was the home of the Triple-A affiliate for the A’s from 2000-14, then became the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate in 2015. Smith Ballpark in Salt Lake City is the home of the Los Angeles Angels’ Triple-A affiliate and seats 15,400, the largest capacity in the Pacific Coast League.
The A’s would like to get this sorted out as soon as possible. The MLB schedule for the 2025 season comes out in the summer and the league is hoping to have this resolved in the next few months.
For the A’s, extending their lease at the Coliseum makes the most sense, but would likely come at a cost.
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said last September that the A’s would need to give up something valuable in return.
“To extend the ballpark lease for the Oakland A’s to play here in Oakland, there’s going to have to be some conversation, some real conversation, some tangibles for our city of Oakland,” Thao told NBC Bay Area at the time. “Including the possibility of an expansion team guaranteed, including the possibility of a name staying here in the city of Oakland. … I’m not going to stand here and allow for there to be abuse in this so-called relationship that we have.
“And so, if (the A’s are) willing to have that conversation and be … a good tenant here in the city of Oakland and a good team player, then that’s a conversation we should have. We should really talk about possible expansion and keeping the name here in Oakland.”
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has commented that the league is not in position to guarantee expansion teams to anybody. To date, there has been no known ownership group to publicly declare interest in an expansion team in Oakland.
Fisher said at the MLB owners meetings in November that it would be up to Manfred where the A’s play until their stadium is ready in Las Vegas.
MLB Players Union head Tony Clark will need to approve any temporary location, and the players are unlikely to approve Triple-A ballparks that don’t meet specific standards.
The A’s will need to remain in their media market to continue to receive a reported $67 million in their deal with regional sports network NBC Sports California.
In December, the A’s agreed to pay $45 million to Alameda County to officially acquire half of the Coliseum property — the other half is owned by Oakland. The club was on a payback plan with the county, but had agreed to pay the entirety within 180 days of announcing a plan to take the A’s out of Oakland, which the team did last year.
It’s uncertain what the A’s have planned for the Coliseum property following their departure, whenever that may be.
The A’s declined to comment on this story. City officials did not respond to requests for comment.
