Rob Manfred Says Athletics Have Work to Do on Las Vegas Deal
Major League Baseball is hoping to become the latest major sports league to enter the Las Vegas market. The Oakland Athletics announced last week that they had agreed to purchase land near the Las Vegas Strip in hopes of building a ballpark there by 2027.
It would be the fourth home for the A’s, a vagabond club that was an original American League franchise in Philadelphia in 1901 and then moved to Kansas City, Mo., in 1955 and to Oakland, Calif., in 1968.
While leagues like the N.F.L. and the N.H.L. have been met with great fanfare (and generous funding) in the Las Vegas market, baseball may have trouble drumming up enthusiasm for a project that requires hundreds of millions of dollars in public financing. The Athletics, stripped of any recognizable talent, were 4-18 entering Monday’s action and had been outscored by an M.L.B.-high 103 runs. They appear headed to a second consecutive season of 100 or more losses.
Yet to Commissioner Rob Manfred, who sat down with a group of sports editors and reporters at M.L.B.’s offices in New York on Monday to discuss league issues, including the recent success of the World Baseball Classic and the popularity of baseball’s new rules, there are plenty of reasons for Las Vegas to be excited about the team, even as the A’s struggle.
Source: The New York Times
