LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Oakland A's were back in Las Vegas Friday, looking at more potential sites to build a new ballpark. The major league team is looking into relocating to Las Vegas, but nothing is set in stone yet.
This is the third time the A's baseball brass has visited the valley. Last month, A's team leaders told 13 Action News they liked two dozen different locations throughout the valley for potential new stadium sites. Today, they said that list hasn't changed much, but they feel like their meetings today and yesterday were productive.
Oakland A's President Dave Kaval was among the group who made the trip to Las Vegas. He spent the past two days talking with local elected officials and hotel operators, including officials at Resorts World, the newest resort on the Las Vegas Strip, where he's staying.
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Kaval says he also toured the Boring Company's new underground loop and learned about how it could impact a stadium site along the Resort Corridor.
Kaval also says the team isn't ruling out locations off in the Strip in Henderson and Summerlin. He says team officials had productive meetings with Henderson city officials during this week's trip. Kaval says the key now is finding where the fans will come from.
"We've commissioned a couple of really important studies. We're having Legends Group, which is out of CSL out of Texas, who did the study for the Raiders stadium, the NFL, do a study on market feasibility. We're working with local transportation officials to understand different sites' traffic and parking capabilities. And we really want to get that data before we actually prune any sites because we're very data-driven. It's Moneyball, it's the A's. And so, we just need to make sure we have all the information before we cut anything and I think that will help us hone it down to probably six or seven top sites that we can take the next step at," said Kaval.
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There is still a key vote looming in Oakland. On July 20, Oakland City Council will vote on a proposal to build a new ballpark to keep the team in the Bay Area.
But, after some recent testimony, Kaval tells 13 Action News he feels like the team and the city of Oakland are further apart on a deal than he thought, meaning it could be more likely the team re-locates to Las Vegas after all.
