The Oakland Athletics may be playing their final season by the Bay in 2024, but their home for the next three years is undecided. The 124-year-old franchise is set for its fourth relocation as the A's will move to Las Vegas in 2028 after the owners approved the move in November.
The Athletics will play one final season at the Oakland Coliseum in 2024, the final year of the franchise's lease. With the $1.5 billion Las Vegas stadium expected to be ready in 2028, the A's need to find a home for the three years in between.
The Athletics have yet to announce or at least tell Major League Baseball where it plans to play its home games during the 2025-2027 seasons. They were supposed to notify the league by the end of 2023, yet as January 2024 comes to an end on Wednesday, there seems to be no initiative from the A's to make anything official.
The A's do have plenty of options and reports say that they are looking at multiple ballparks as potential homes for those three years. Jeff Passan says that a significant factor holding up a decision is the Athletics' TV rights deal with NBC Sports Bay Area.
“The A's contract with Comcast to broadcast their games on NBC Sports Bay Area calls for the team to receive about $70 million next year,” Passan wrote, per sources. “But if the A's aren't in Oakland, the regional sports network is no longer bound to pay the rights fee.”
Where the A's decide to play over those three seasons will likely coincide with where they can get the best deal to broadcast their games and earn revenue.
Where will the A's play?
The Athletics have no shortage of areas and cities that want to host their games. The leading candidates are Sacramento – where the San Francisco Giants Triple-A affiliate plays – and Salt Lake City.
The Sacramento River Cats were founded as an affiliate of the A's and stayed as one of Oakland's minor league teams until 2015. The franchise has played their home games at Sutter Health Park since its inaugural season in 2000.
Bob Nightengale wrote that the A's could also split time at Oracle Park with the San Francisco Giants. He also said a move to their Triple-A ballpark in Las Vegas is not out of the question.
Stadiums sometimes take a little longer to build than anticipated, so it's there’s a possibility the A's have to extend their stay beyond 2027 wherever they end up. Perhaps they'll even relocate again if the right situation presents itself.
Wherever it may be, the A's should soon make their future home(s) official. The Athletics might attract a ton of fans if they land in the right spot. The 2024 season will be rough in Oakland though as A's fans will jeer and scold owner John Fisher for all 81 home games, or at least the ones that have more than a couple thousand fans.
The Athletics averaged just over 10,000 fans per game last season. Will the majority of those fans follow the team to Sacramento? Salt Lake City? San Francisco? Las Vegas?
Stay tuned.
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