Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis isn’t known for his tongue-in-cheek attitude and harbors genuine animosity toward the Oakland Athletics. He also didn’t take too well the news that the A’s could once again become their neighbors in Vice City.
For the record, the formation of the NFL and that of major baseball shared the Oakland Coliseum for several decades, in particular from 1995 to 2020, before the move of the Raiders to Nevada. Cohabitation in this old amphitheater built in 1966 has been punctuated by ups, but above all by downs.
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“I won’t forget what they did to us in Oakland. They squatted a 10-year lease and they made it impossible to improve the stadium. […] They were looking for a stadium. We were looking for one. They didn’t want us to build one and they went ahead and signed a 10-year lease with the City of Oakland saying, ‘We’re the core team,’” Davis said in an interview with the daily. “Las Vegas Review-Journal,” Thursday.
According to the businessman, the group of leaders of the Athletics wanted to appropriate the market of the bay of San Francisco and will doubtless seek to do the same in Las Vegas.
“They marketed the team under the slogan ‘Rooted in Oakland’; it was their idea. The slogans they used were a slap in the face for the Raiders and they were trying to bring that mentality to the area. All they did was screw up the Bay Area,” Davis asserted in colorful language.
Other leaders wanted
The Vegas market is booming, also counting on the Golden Knights in the National Hockey League. Thus, the 67-year-old man does not close the door to an arrival of the baseball team, but with other owners.
“I have nothing against the players. I was an A’s fan back in the days of Reggie Jackson and those guys. Reggie is a good friend. But not this group of leaders, no,” Davis said.
The Athletics’ plan is to move to Las Vegas in 2027. A deal has reportedly been struck to purchase 49 acres of land west of the famous Strip. The construction of a 35,000-seat stadium at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion would be the goal.