The story of where the Oakland Athletics baseball team will play after they leave the Oakland Coliseum this season has taken some surprising turns.

If you’ve been following that story, you already know that as the 2023 MLB season ended, there were real questions about where the team would play its next several seasons. Its deal to play at the city’s stadium had come to an end. Still, it will be years before it has a new stadium built in Las Vegas at the site of the old Tropicana Resort and Casino, which closed in early April 2024. The buildings on the landmark site claimed by the A’s still must be demolished before any construction begins.

The Oakland A’s ownership burned its bridges with the City of Oakland, which presented a problem. They could make a deal to keep playing at the Coliseum, but at the cost of Oakland city officials making them truly pay for the privilege. They could play at Las Vegas Ballpark in Summerlin, Nevada, where the team’s AAA minor-league franchise currently plays. Or they could strike out to find another minor-league ballpark where they could play as a third option.

They’ve chosen the third option, which provides a new case study of why taxpayer-funded sports stadiums for professional teams are a bad deal for taxpayers. This new chapter in the A’s saga starts with what looks like a sweetheart deal for the Athletics’ owner and the town where they will play their next three to four seasons—a town that happens to be California’s state capital.

Things had looked bleak for where the Athletics baseball team would play its next seasons, but that changed when another billionaire professional sports team owner shook the scene.

Vivek Ranadivé, the owner of the Sacramento Kings NBA franchise who........

© Eurasia Review