The A’s Need a Home. May I Suggest Oakland?

Some have suggested they play at a college or minor-league stadium for a few years until the Las Vegas deal works itself out. If I may be so bold, here’s a counterproposal: How about Oakland?

The A’s moved here from Kansas City in 1968 and have won four World Series, six American League pennants and 17 division titles in those 54 seasons. These days many people associate the A’s with “moneyball”—the use of data analytics to field highly competitive teams with relatively modest payrolls. So it’s appropriate to bring cost-benefit analysis to bear on the question of the team’s future.

The city of Oakland has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to be good partners with Major League Baseball. Whenever a hurdle obstructed a deal, we cleared it. Example: When the A’s said in 2021 they would need hundreds of millions for off-site infrastructure costs, the city went to work. Oakland secured more than $375 million in state and federal infrastructure grants with another $100 million in grant applications still pending. That would more than cover the estimated $97 million in outstanding infrastructure costs that separates the team and the city from making a deal.

Oakland has been patient, even as the A’s waffled and whiffed on multiple plans for more than a decade. First they talked about moving to nearby Fremont or San Jose. Then they proposed to refurbish their current stadium, the Oakland Coliseum. After that the team floated the idea of building a new stadium at Laney College, before finally settling on a plan for a 55-acre waterfront ballpark at Howard Terminal. We continued to be optimistic even while the team pursued a “parallel path” with Las Vegas. We stopped negotiating only after it became clear the A’s were using Oakland’s goodwill as leverage to secure a deal in the desert.

Keeping baseball in Oakland makes business sense. The Bay Area is the 10th-largest media market in the nation. Las Vegas is 40th. The rivalry with the San Francisco Giants fuels ticket and merchandise sales and television viewing. And while chronic underinvestment has put the A’s at the bottom of the league in wins, Forbes placed the team 16th out of 30 in profitability. It isn’t hard to imagine where the A’s would be with a little on-field investment. As recently as 2019, the team played to sellout crowds in Oakland and finished second in the American League West.

Oakland is uniquely positioned to support Major League Baseball in achieving its goal of becoming “the sport of choice for a diverse and growing fan base.” It is in the league’s interest to stand with a passionate and well-established fan base in one of the most diverse cities in the nation.

This season, the A’s are unfortunately on pace for the worst record in baseball history. Nevertheless, Oakland’s fans have remained resilient. Next week they will stage a “reverse boycott”—packing the Coliseum for the June 13 match-up with Tampa Bay to demonstrate to Major League Baseball the strength of the fan base despite anger at the team’s ownership and dismal record.

In Oakland, the A’s had proposed a 55-acre mixed-use development bringing thousands of new homes, retail establishments and restaurants to an underused industrial area with the stadium at the center. In Las Vegas the A’s would merely be one of many Strip attractions competing with casinos, Carrot Top and Cirque du Soleil. Bafflingly, that project is limited to a 30,000-seat ballpark, the smallest in the league. Even if every game were a sellout, the team would struggle to meet its financial projections.

If the team’s current owners are dead set on playing in Las Vegas, let them sell the team and petition Major League Baseball to grant them an expansion franchise on the Strip. There are many viable options that don’t include this ill-conceived relocation. Keeping the A’s rooted in Oakland is the smart deal—for the city and for baseball.

Ms. Sheng, a Democrat, is mayor of Oakland.