Elephant Rumblings: Owners to vote on A’s relocation in November, per source

Happy Friday, Athletics Nation!

Nobody expects it to happen, but if just eight MLB team owners vote “no” on the A’s relocation plans, John Fisher’s Sin City dreams will be dead in the water.

Mick Akers at the Las Vegas Review-Journal cited an unnamed “industry expert” who said the owners’ vote is expected at the MLB owners meetings in mid-November. If the “yes” votes prevail, it will mark a huge milestone and step forward for the A’s relocation plans.

Akers also laid out a sequence of events that will unfold before the vote. Fisher told the Review-Journal that the A’s submitted their relocation application last month. That application is now under review by a relocation committee spearheaded by prominent team executives.

Once their review is complete, the relocation committee will pass the application along with their recommendations to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and an executive council, which will in turn make recommendations to club owners ahead of the vote.

If the relocation plan is approved in November, few hurdles will remain for the A’s, who have already secured the public funding they sought from Nevada taxpayers. But the Tropicana resort on the Las Vegas Strip, which sits on the proposed ballpark site, will have to be demolished before construction can begin.

The A’s have stated that they expect the new ballpark to be ready for the 2028 season. We can only hope that all the fan protests and bad publicity surrounding the move will bring enough pressure to bear on team owners to reject the plan. I wouldn’t bet the farm on it, but it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

Have a wonderful weekend, AN.

A’s Coverage:

• Oakland Athletics 2023 mid-season community prospect list: No. 18
• MLB sets date to vote on A’s Las Vegas relocation, source says ($)
• A’s hope young arms follow Astros’ near no-no blueprint
• One player from each team who took a big step forward in ‘23
• History Repeating as A’s Reach 100 Losses for Second Straight Season

MLB News & Interest:

• Braves, Spencer Strider clinch another NL East title, made sweeter in Philly ($)
• Determining the third NL wild card could get nutty: Three-way tiebreaker? Four-way? ($)
• Previewing The 2023-24 Free Agent Class: Shortstop
• NPB Players To Watch: September
• Giants owner says Farhan Zaidi, Gabe Kapler ‘will both be here next year’ ($)
• The Mookie Betts trade defined, and ultimately doomed, Chaim Bloom ($)
• Why Deion Sanders was beloved by MLB teammates: ‘He wasn’t Prime Time all the time’ ($)
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

Sweet shirt giveaway next Friday.

Can I interest you in a jolt of Bolte?