Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says Las Vegas would not be ruled out for a team looking to relocate or as a prospective home for a new franchise.
“If we were looking at relocation, Las Vegas would be on the list,” Manfred told a group of sports editors at a recent league meeting.
MLB teams that could soon be facing relocation are the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays after both franchises have struggled to secure financing for new stadiums.
In February, the commissioner called Las Vegas a “viable” market during his Cactus League news conference in Phoenix, and said that legalized gambling was not keeping the city from being considered.
Manfred also noted that Las Vegas could be considered for an expansion franchise, but not until the Athletics and Rays situations were “settled,” as he put it.
Las Vegas has gained two major league teams in the last year with the National Hockey League awarding the city an expansion franchise in the Golden Knights and the Oakland Raiders getting approval to relocate.
“Those are two big moves, “Manfred said. “We’ll be watching that carefully.”
The Golden Knights will begin play this fall for the 2017-18 season at the new T-Mobile Arena co-owned by MGM Resorts International.
The terms governing the Raiders arrival, including funding and construction of a stadium, are still being worked out. The target date is the 2020 season. But there is speculation the team could also relocate sooner, possibly to the existing stadium used by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, if fan support decreases in Oakland and officials believe a sooner move could benefit the franchise.
