I understand Vegas is a great city and probably a better market but now Oakland has lost all their teams in a matter of just a few years.
In: Other
Money.
The sports franchises in Oakland played in venues built decades ago.
The NBA Warriors are still in the area. They privately financed an arena in San Francisco which will makes lots or revenue from Warriors games and countless other things renting out the arena in a very wealthy city.
The NFL Raiders actually moved from Oakland twice. They left in the 1980s to move to Los Angeles. They moved back when the city of Oakland offered a financial package better than they earned in Los Angeles. The Raiders tried to move back to Los Angeles because it’s a bigger area, but the NFL chose to allow the San Diego Chargers and St. Louis Rams (both of which had previously played in Los Angeles). So the Raiders owner worked a deal in Las Vegas were the locals funded most of the cost of a new stadium where the Raiders could make more money than they made in their old stadium in Oakland lacking in amenities. Oakland was not willing to provide public funding towards the stadium like Las Vegas. Las Vegas’s population is much smaller than the San Francisco Bay population, but the way economics of the NFL work, the Raiders could make much more money with all the new amenities they could offer. Plus Vegas is a huge tourist attraction so many Raiders fans would travel there for games.
The Oakland Athletics want a new stadium too. When the Raiders moved back to Oakland, the stadium was renovated to accommodate the Raiders but hurt the stadium for the A’s. The A’s have a competing MLB team in San Francisco that had a stadium issue in the 80s and 90s. In order to help them get a stadium done, the A’s granted certain rights in the area to the Giants which gave the Giants priority for all the cities in the region other than Oakland. So when the City of Oakland was unwilling to fund a new stadium, the A’s weren’t able to go to some of the wealthy communities in the region and have them build because the Giants claimed rights to the land even though the Giants have a privately funded stadium in San Francisco.
So the A’s wouldn’t work with Oakland to find a place to build a stadium privately. They were at a stalemate for years. The A’s were envious of the deal the Raiders got in Las Vegas, so they went to Vegas for the same. Las Vegas agreed, but it was going to take years for the financing to be finalized and the stadium to be built. Unlike the Raiders, the A’s couldn’t work a deal to stay in the Oakland Coliseum until the new stadium in Las Vegas was completed. So the A’s are temporarily moving to the minor league stadium in Sacramento.
Unlike the NFL, MLB teams in larger markets have a much bigger financial advantage than teams in small markets. Las Vegas being smaller means the A’s will potentially be making a lot less money. But the game day revenue will be higher because of all the amenities they can charge money for.
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