athletics

Rob Manfred ‘Disappointed' in Oakland Vote; Dave Kaval, A's Taking Time

Manfred 'disappointed' in Oakland vote; Kaval, A's taking time originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea

The Athletics received the “yes” vote from the Oakland City Council on Tuesday, which keeps their dreams of remaining #Rooted alive. At least for now.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, however, expressed his displeasure with the Council’s decision to approve the City's amended term sheet.

“For the last four years at my request and urging, the Athletics have invested significant resources and have made a major commitment to their community in hopes of remaining as Oakland’s only major professional sports franchise,” Manfred said in a statement (h/t Mercury News’ Shayna Rubin). “We are disappointed the City Council chose to vote on a proposal to which the A’s had not agreed. We will immediately begin conversations with the A’s to chart a path forward for the Club.” 

The "yes" vote that occurred Tuesday essentially was a statement by the City Council that they believe in the future of the A's in Oakland, but the term sheet approved was not one the A's agreed upon.

During the city council meeting, A's team president Dave Kaval said the "yes" vote "is not an effective path forward" given the team did not agree to the terms of the proposal put forward by the city of Oakland.

Kaval spoke with NBC Bay Area's Jessica Aguirre after the meeting on Tuesday, and said the team will take time in deciding their next steps.

"We were disappointed that the City Council didn't vote 'yes' on our proposal," Kaval told Aguirre. "So we're taking some time in understanding exactly what they voted 'yes' on. Many of the provisions we had never seen before.

"But we're going to analyze those things, see how they compare either positively or negatively with our term sheet and really dig into that in a thoughtful way, really caucus with Major League Baseball and get back to all parties with appropriate next steps."

The ball remains in the A’s court for now. It’s up to them to continue the conversation to keep these negotiations going. These “intense” marathon negotiations have been occurring for months between Kaval and the council. 

In April, the A’s created a public proposal to finance this $1 billion stadium to be built at Howard Terminal at Jack London Square in Oakland. The proposal had the A’s providing $450 million in community benefits as well as $11 billion in private investment. But both the A’s and the council remain very far apart in some of these key figures. 

Manfred and the league gave their backing to the A’s to seek out a new location for the team, since the momentum toward building the Howard Terminal park had been taking too long. 

Las Vegas had been one of the areas of interest, and Manfred himself said the area is viable. But he also did credit the A’s for all of the efforts they’ve been putting into making the Oakland park happen.

As of now, the A's are still scheduled for a fourth visit to Las Vegas on Wednesday.

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