A’s Will Keep Name in Las Vegas, President Says Tourists Are ‘Secret Sauce’ for Move | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

The Oakland Athletics have no plans to change their nickname if their potential move to Las Vegas comes to fruition.

“We’ve been around since 1901,” team president Dave Kaval told ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

“Charter member of the American League, the Athletics. We’ve already been in three markets. We feel strongly that the A’s are such a powerful brand, it’s something we’re going to continue with the Las Vegas A’s.”

The Athletics started in Philadelphia in 1901 before moving to Kansas City beginning with the 1955 season. They only stayed in town through 1967 before heading to Oakland. The team has won four World Series (1972-1974, 1989) during its time in the Bay Area.

The A’s announced on Thursday that the team signed a binding agreement with Las Vegas to purchase 49 acres of land for a future 35,000-seat stadium that includes a partially retractable roof.

Per Passan, the A’s have pledged $1 billion plus cost overages on a new stadium on the land purchased this week. It’s not a done deal, however, as the team seeks half a billion dollars in public funding to finish the project.

Kaval believes the secret to the Athletics’ success in Vegas will be tourists and the money they would bring in on a yearly basis.

“The secret sauce to Las Vegas is you have the tourists,” Kaval said. “Those people can come in and spend big dollars. You create a business model that’s resilient and powerful.”

Kaval believes the Athletics can bring 400,000 tourists to the city on an annual basis.

Right now, the Athletics’ lease agreement does not expire until after the 2024 season. They could hypothetically move to Vegas in 2025, although they may need to use Las Vegas Ballpark (home of their Triple-A affiliate Las Vegas Aviators) until the stadium is complete.

Las Vegas has welcomed numerous pro teams into town of late, including the Aces, Raiders and Golden Knights. The Raiders notably moved from Oakland to Vegas, with the A’s hoping to do the same. Oakland also lost the Golden State Warriors, who moved across the bay to San Francisco’s Chase Center.

Vegas’ gain is ultimately Oakland’s loss as the city loses another team. Mayor Sheng Thao said the A’s had no interest in staying in Oakland and used the city as leverage to go to Vegas.

“The city has gone above and beyond in our attempts to arrive at mutually beneficial terms to keep the A’s in Oakland,” she said. “In the last three months, we’ve made significant strides to close the deal. Yet, it is clear to me that the A’s have no intention of staying in Oakland and have simply been using this process to try to extract a better deal out of Las Vegas. I am not interested in continuing to play that game—the fans and our residents deserve better.”

For now, the A’s reside in MLB’s basement at 3-16 thanks to a seven-game losing streak. They are 2-10 at home and sport a minus-86 run difference.