Major League Baseball’s Prospective Move to Las Vegas, Explained

The Oakland Athletics want to move to the desert city, but complications abound.

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Fans of the Oakland Athletics protest in Oakland, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

Las Vegas has scored professional football and hockey teams in the past five years and now is on the verge of landing an MLB team: the Oakland Athletics. The Atomic City would be the fourth site for the Athletics franchise since its founding more than a century ago in Philadelphia—making the team older than its new home.

Moving a professional sports franchise is a heavy lift, and the process has just started.

Why leave Oakland?

The driving factor behind the team’s likely move to Las Vegas is its stadium. For more than two decades, the A’s have sought a replacement for the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the team’s home since coming to Oakland in 1968. (It’s currently the fifth oldest MLB ballpark.)

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