The Oakland Athletics are trending towards relocating to Las Vegas, but Oakland mayor Sheng Thao is making a big effort to reverse the course during the MLB All-Star Game to try and stop the relocation process.
According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, Thao met with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and reportedly provided documents showing that the city has a plan to renovate the Athletics’ ballpark, in an attempt to shut down the thought that the city had no plans to renovate its stadium, Oakland Coliseum.
“We had a good meeting, a very open exchange of views,” Manfred said of the meeting with Thao, per the report. “I understand she came to the process late and is doing her best to figure out if there is something that can be done in a process that was in a lot of ways kind of over when she showed up on the scene.”
“I’ll be very honest. I was obviously upset. This felt really unfair,” Thao said. “But there are no shovels in the ground (in Las Vegas). And until there is a shovel in the ground and it’s starting to be built, it’s still reality that the Oakland A’s can still be in Oakland. That’s the stance I’m going to continue to take.”