Oakland A’s owner John Fisher got the support of all 30 owners to move the Oakland A’s to Las Vegas during a MLB owners relocation vote on Thu Nov 16, 2023 in Arlington Texas (San Francisco Chronicle file photo)

MLB owners voted unanimously 30-0 to move the Oakland A’s out of Oakland to Las Vegas to the Tropicana Hotel and Casino location. The A’s had played in Oakland since 1968 and are expected to leave as early as 2025 to a location to be determined while their Las Vegas ballpark is under construction. The A’s will play their final season in Oakland in 2024 and are currently trying to figure out where they’ll play in the interim between 2025-2027 when their new park in Las Vegas will be ready by 2028.

During the process the opposition Oakland A’s fans and one group called the Oakland 68s pushed for a sell the team campaign during the 2023 season which fell on deaf ears at Major League Baseball and with Oakland owner John Fisher.

The A’s have a rich history they won three consecutive World Series from 1972-1974 and another one in 1989. They started to fall off as a competitive team after the Walter Haas Sr family sold the team in 1995 to Ken Hoffman and Steve Schott who later sold the team to Lew Wolf in 2005. John Fisher bought the A’s from Wolf in 2015 and has owned it ever since.

There is only one hope left to prevent the Oakland A’s from leaving Oakland and that is the group Schools over Stadiums. Schools over Stadiums lost a court hearing on Nov 6th in Nevada District Court to circulate a petition to be signed by Las Vegas residents that would prevent public money being used to build the A’s park in on the Las Vegas strip and that money should go to schools and education.

The judge in the Nevada District court case advised Schools over Stadiums to revise the language in the petition that A’s advocates say were misleading and misstatements. Mark Alexander a spokesman for Schools over Stadiums said he would appeal the ruling and redo the petition language for the petition tho meet the District court’s standards to get an acceptable petition.

If Schools over Stadiums succeeds in getting some 102,000 Nevada residents signatures they would be able to put the referendum on the ballot and put it up to vote in November 2024 if the voters vote no for public funds for the A’s stadium then the public money for the Las Vegas site is dead.

Jerry Feitelberg is an Oakland A’s beat writer for http://www.sportsradioservice.com