MLB commissioner highlights urgency in A’s ballpark talks

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said pushing the Oakland Athletics’ stadium negotiations into next year would add increased uncertainty in the Bay Area.

Manfred addressed the situations involving stadiums in Oakland and Tampa Bay during the CAA World Congress of Sports in New York on Tuesday. Southern Nevada officials are keenly interested in the Oakland situation as the A’s are still discussing potential ballpark sites in Las Vegas should the plan fail and the team pursues relocation.

The A’s and Oakland failed to come to terms on a development agreement for the proposed $12 billion Howard Terminal Project — a massive mixed-use project with a $1 billion ballpark at its center — by the end of September as officials had hoped.

Missing that deadline all but ends any chance of the two sides reaching a binding agreement this year, according to Oakland City Administrator Ed Reiskin. That’s due to a series of meetings and approvals that would have to occur between October and December to reach a finalized agreement.

A’s President Dave Kaval in June said that if ballpark negotiations stretched into 2023 it would “all but doom our efforts” in Oakland. That could work in Las Vegas’ favor as the A’s have been exploring possible relocation to Southern Nevada since May 2021.

The murky outlook is mainly due to a political shakeup coming in Oakland after nearly two years of negotiations on the project. Mayor Libby Schaaf is out of office after this year because of term limits, and the Oakland City Council will see new faces on its board as well.

Manfred highlighted the work Schaaf and A’s owner John Fisher have done in attempting to come to a binding agreement in Oakland, according to the Sports Business Journal.

But he further stated that the changes coming to the city council added a “degree of urgency” to the process playing out in the Bay Area.

“The city and Oakland A’s continue to negotiate the terms of the development agreement, including community benefits, and the other necessary agreements and entitlements for the project,” Karen Boyd, Oakland spokeswoman told the Review-Journal on Wednesday. “Negotiations on the proposed development are active and positive.”

The A’s and Manfred weren’t immediately available for comment.

If the A’s stay in Oakland, Las Vegas could still potentially gain a team through expansion.

When asked about potential expansion, Manfred said the stadium situations in Oakland and Tampa Bay needed to be figured out before those talks went further.

“I am an advocate of getting the industry to 32 (teams),” Manfred said in a video posted to Twitter by the Sports Business Journal. “First of all, there’s a demand for baseball. … People want baseball, you know, that’s what we sell.”

Manfred didn’t mention cities by name, outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, but noted there are several cities that are interested when the league looks to add two teams.

“There are cities that want baseball and we should try to meet that demand,” Manfred said. “There are advantages for the sport. Getting to 32 gets you out of five team divisions, probably into four team divisions. Really helps you in terms of scheduling flexibility.”

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.