https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/18/sports/baseball/oakland-athletics-las-vegas.html
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On Tuesday, the Oakland City Council will vote on the team's term sheet for financing a $12 billion project that would include a new downtown ballpark at Howard Terminal. A yes vote is not binding, because an environmental impact report would still have to be approved in the fall. But a no vote would kill it and signal the end for the Athletics in Oakland.
"If they don't approve it, it's over," Dave Kaval, the team president, said in an interview Friday. "Because basically they've had an opportunity to look at all the different facts and understand, 'Does this make sense?' We're hopeful that it's a yes, but with these things, it's hard to say. We remain apart."
The Athletics have been desperate for years to leave the antiquated Coliseum, which opened for mixed use in 1966 and has been the team's home since 1968. Their lease expires in 2024, so they would not leave immediately. If they go, they would most likely wind up in the same metropolitan area that lured their former co-tenants in the Coliseum, the Raiders, with a new football stadium: Las Vegas.
Major League Baseball has given the A's permission to explore options in Las Vegas, which is also home to the N.H.L.'s Golden Knights. Club officials have made several visits to the city, which would fit geographically into the American League West.
"Thinking of this as a bluff is a mistake," Commissioner Rob Manfred said at the All-Star Game last Tuesday. "This is the decision point for Oakland."