The ongoing saga between the Athletics and the city of Oakland has a new chapter thanks to a sitting member of Congress.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, U.S. Rep Barbara Lee (D., Calif.), whose congressional district covers Oakland, posted a reply to an SF Chronicle article detailing the talks between the city and the A’s about a lease extension for the baseball team to remain at the Oakland Coliseum beyond the 2024 MLB season.
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“I hope this meeting signals a willingness to reignite conversations about keeping the A’s in Oakland long term," Lee wrote in her post. "It’s become abundantly clear that the A’s are valued in the East Bay more than anywhere else.
Lee had a hopeful take on the situation and expressed her desire to see the A’s renege on their move to Las Vegas and stay in Oakland.
“Let’s keep them #RootedinOakland,” Lee concluded.
Despite Lee’s optimism, the MLB has cleared the way for the A’s to relocate to Las Vegas, with promises of a new $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat ballpark to be built on the strip at the previous location of the Tropicana Resort & Casino.
Oakland Athletics
The new stadium is not supposed to be finished until 2028 and while MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is confident that the new ballpark will be ready for opening day of that year, the A’s remain in limbo as their lease agreement at the Coliseum expires at the end of the 2024 season.
While they have been scouting other possible locations to play home games, it now appears that the A’s and the city of Oakland are in talks to potentially have the team stay at the Coliseum, with the potential for rights to a new expansion franchise also on the table.
Since taking over as owner of the A’s in 2005, John Fisher has seemed unwilling to seriously invest in the franchise, with the team consistently trading away some of their best players and letting others walk away in free agency.
As fan interest in the franchise dwindled and negotiations with Oakland to build a new state-of-the-art stadium stalled, Fisher began to court Las Vegas as a potential relocation destination. The move would leave Oakland without any major sports franchises after the Raiders moved to Las Vegas in 2020 and the Golden State Warriors moved across the bay to San Francisco in 2019.