LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Oakland's mayor is not giving up on the A's.
Mayor Sheng Thao met with Major League Baseball Commissioner, Rob Manfred, on Sunday in Seattle, delivering a message that she still wants to talk.
"I know that nothing is 100 percent done until shovels are in the ground and things are starting to build," Thao said Wednesday during a Zoom interview with Channel 13.
The A's, of course, are in the process of moving to Las Vegas to play in a planned $1.5 billion ballpark that would go up at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue.
Earlier this year, Nevada's Legislature approved a package that is slated to earmark up to $380 million in public funds for the new ballpark, which would to where the Tropicana Las Vegas sits.
There is an effort by a Nevada teacher's union to block that bill — Senate Bill 1 — from going into effect, but it appears unlikely any such efforts will be successful.
On Tuesday, Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, called the Nevada State Education Association's push "misguided."
The next step for an A's move to Southern Nevada would be for MLB to approve the relocation application from the team. It's unknown when that might happen.
Thao called her meeting with Manfred "respectful." She says she simply wants baseball officials to know that Oakland is still in the game.
"I'm going to continue to fight hard for Oakland and for A's fans," Thao told Channel 13.
