Major League Baseball has no plans to charge Oakland Athletics a transfer fee if the team moves to Las Vegas. This is a rare accommodation that indicates that the league is concerned about the team. The ability to find a viable home, Post learned.
Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays are currently considering moving to a city that is reported to be the target of a potential expansion team. Raise is rumored to be targeting Orlando, Florida or Charlotte, North Carolina. Insiders speculate that they may also propose a new stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida, near their current home.
However, Florida GovernorRon DeSantis provided $ 35 million to Rays' spring training facilityafter the team tweeted about gun control. This indicates that raises may face new hurdles. Get state funding for every move.
Meanwhile, A wanted to announce a move to Las Vegas this month.May be subject to public funding. Sources say the team still lacks significant guarantees from Nevada authorities to take the next step. At the end of the month, there will also be a vote in Auckland for new stadiums that may enable your stay.
It is estimated that if A leaves Auckland, the home of the team in 1954, he will have to pay $ 1 billion in relocation costs. However, MLB held an owners' meeting earlier this month, and relocation costs were not discussed in a public session, sources said.
Sports leagues are usually a way to prevent unnecessary movement. They are also giving up expansion fees in desirable cities that could be paid by potential new teams, sources said.
The last team MLB moved to was when the Montreal Expo moved to Washington, DC in 2004, but there was no charge because MLB owned the Expo at the time. Prior to that, the last MLB team move was in 1971, when Senator Washington left for Arlington, Texas. By not charging such fees for
A, MLB can help mitigate the financial blow to stadiums, mostly privately funded. According to sources, A's owner, John Fisher, could get at most $ 250 million in public funding to cover the cost of the new $ 1 billion dome-shaped stadium in Las Vegas. Fisher, whose parents founded the Gap Chain, is reportedly worth $ 3.3 billion.
Losing money, A currently has the least number of baseball spectators, with only 8,562 fans playing in the 54-year-old stadium. Before the season began, A exchanged most of their best players to reduce their salaries.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred basically approved the move of A to Las Vegas as long as the Nevada government paid a portion of the cost of the new stadium. .. MLB can also consider relocation costs, but that's for future relocations, not for A, a second source said.
The words of the free pass from Manfred surprised the team owners and sports bunker who spoke to the post on condition that the name was not used as well.
"The market in which teams move is an asset of the league," said one sports investment banker. "I would be surprised if there were no relocation costs."
"I'm sure there will always be relocation costs," another sports banker told the post.
NFL Charger for Centre Islams and San Diego 2017 Paid $ 645 million each to move to Los Angeles and share the same stadium. The Raiders also paid $ 378 million in 2020 to move from Auckland to Las Vegas.
In the NBA, the final move happened before the team's value soared. Still, Seattle SuperSonics owners paid the NBA $ 30 million for the 2008 move to Oklahoma City, and Vancouver Grizzlies owners paid $ 30 million for the 2001 move to Memphis. I did.
On the other hand, in baseball, there are only a handful of cities in attractive markets, well away from existing markets and home to new teams. Existing teams in the west could prevent expansion teams from coming to cities such as Austin, Texas, Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Canada. As a result, Las Vegas is one of the only viable markets in the western United States, sources say.
Last year, MLB said the expansion fee for the new team could be $ 2.2 billion. There was talk of adding two new franchises, including Nashville, but MLB wants to solve the situation in Auckland and Tampa first.
MLB declined to comment.