Many well-known baseball faces filled the Oakland Coliseum on Wednesday for the AL Wild Card Game, including MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.
In between signing autographs for fans, there were more pressing issues that the commissioner tackled -- including the future home of the A's.
Manfred reportedly told Oakland officials they need to drop the lawsuit against the A's or there would be a risk that the team relocates to another city, specifically Las Vegas.
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Tuesday morning, Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf confirmed the report on KTVU:
https://twitter.com/sal_castaneda/status/1181590842022060032
Manfred released a statement on Tuesday regarding what was said. The quote was forwarded to NBC Sports California from the offices of Schaaf:
"In a recent meeting with the Mayor of Oakland, I did mention Las Vegas in the context of pointing out that the A's might have to relocate if a new stadium can't be built in Oakland. There is, however, no plan to move to Las Vegas. If it becomes necessary to consider relocation, there will be a formal process that will consider all potential relocation sites."
Oakland Athletics
The lawsuit against the A's is to stop the development of the 155-acre Coliseum site to help pay for a privately financed ballpark, which has been proposed to be built at Howard Terminal near Jack London Square in Oakland.
In the suit, the city argues the county violated the Surplus Land Act, which calls for extra land owned by public entities to first be considered for public housing. The city said the county did not negotiate "in good faith" for the required 90-day period. Rather, they skipped it and began working on the deal with the A's.
Manfred did not appear to be messing around. He made it clear if this wasn't dropped, A's fans could be joining the Raiders and cheering on their beloved teams in Sin City.
The commissioner hasn't ruled out the possibility of an MLB expansion team moving to Las Vegas. With the success the A's Triple-A affiliate has had in attendance this season after developing their new stadium -- plus legal gambling in the area -- Vegas has become an attractive city to the MLB.
[RELATED: Manfred 'very concerned' over A's stadium lawsuit]
In addition to the Raiders, Oakland already said goodbye to the Warriors, who relocated to San Francisco at the state-of-the-art Chase Center.
This adds yet another hurdle to what was appearing to be promising progress into building a new ballpark for the A's.