The mayor of Las Vegas put out a statement Tuesday saying she'd welcome the Oakland Athletics to the city, but didn't back down from earlier comments that the franchise should try to build a new ballpark in the Bay Area.
Carolyn Goodman said on a Front Office Sports podcast the A's "should figure out a way to stay in Oakland."
In a statement on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, Goodman seemed to clarify her comments, saying "I want to be clear that I am excited about the prospect of Major League Baseball in Las Vegas, and it very well may be that the Las Vegas A’s will become a reality that we will welcome to our city.”
But she reiterated that her points in the interview "included that is is my belief that in their perfect world, the ownership of the A's would like to have a new ballpark on the water in Oakland and that the ownership and government there should listen to their great fans there and try to make that dream come true."
Last spring, the A's and Bally's Corp. agreed on a deal to build a stadium on the Tropicana Las Vegas Resort site.
MLB owners unanimously approved the move in November. The team is in the final year of its lease at aging Oakland Coliseum and has not announced where it will play in 2025.
Construction on a Vegas stadium isn't expected to be done until at least 2028.
With the team among the worst in baseball and a potential move on the horizon, the A's attracted tiny crowds to many home games last season.
The NFL's Oakland Raiders moved to Las Vegas in 2020 and the latter city is hosting the Super Bowl this week.
The NHL expanded to Vegas in 2017, giving the city its first team in one of North America's biggest four pro leagues. The Golden Knights have been a huge success story, winning the Stanley Cup last season.
The NBA also reportedly is eyeing Las Vegas as a potential expansion market. The league already has deep ties to the city, hosting Summer League in the entertainment mecca.
Meanwhile, a teachers' union political group has filed a second legal effort seeking to block Nevada from spending taxpayer funds to build a baseball stadium on the current site of the Tropicana resort on the Las Vegas Strip for the relocated Athletics.
Strong Public Schools Nevada, a political action committee backed by the Nevada State Education Association, filed a lawsuit Monday in state court in Carson City challenging the allocation of up to $380 million in public funding approved last June by the Democratic-led state Legislature and signed by the Republican governor.
“Every dollar we spend building stadiums is a dollar we aren’t using for public education," the association said in a statement provided Tuesday by spokesperson Alexander Marks. "Public money should not go to a billionaire for a stadium while Nevada ranks 48th in the nation with the largest class sizes and highest educator vacancy rates in the country.”
The $1.5 billion 30,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof is planned near the homes of the NFL’s Vegas Raiders, who relocated in 2020 from Oakland to Las Vegas, and the NHL’s Golden Knights, who won the Stanley Cup last season in their sixth year.
The fight over the use of public funds in Las Vegas comes amid debate in other cities and states over the costs and benefits of taxpayer support for sports venues. Nevada state lawmakers in 2016 granted $750 million in public assistance toward the Raiders' nearly $2 billion Allegiant Stadium. T-Mobile Arena, home to the Golden Knights, opened with no public assistance.
The union also backs a referendum petition drive it is pursuing under the name Schools over Stadiums to fix what it called “misguided priorities” in the Athletics stadium funding plan.
That effort was rejected in November by a state court judge who heard arguments that the wording was too broad, confusing and misleading to be placed on the statewide ballot. An appeal by the union is pending before the state Supreme Court.
Also in November, MLB owners unanimously approved the A's move to Las Vegas.
Last month, hotel owner Bally’s Corp. said the Tropicana will close on April 2, just short of its 67th anniversary, to begin preparations for demolition.
The new lawsuit names the state, Gov. Joe Lombardo and Treasurer Zach Conine as defendants, and alleges violations of several state constitutional provisions including one requiring tax questions to be passed by a two-thirds majority of state legislators.
Lombardo aide Elizabeth Ray and spokespeople for state Attorney General Aaron Ford did not respond to messages seeking comment about the court filing.
Plaintiffs in the case also include teachers' union President Vicki Kreidel and former Clark County commissioner and Democratic candidate for governor Chris Giunchigliani. Giunchigliani once headed the teachers' union.
-- With files from Associated Press
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