An unlikely alliance could be an ace up the sleeve of A’s fans hoping to keep the team in Oakland, as they’re teaming up with the Nevada State Educators Association teachers’ union to push a ballot measure to block the new Las Vegas stadium.
It’s kind of an afterthought that the Oakland A’s play their final home game of the season Sunday afternoon against the Texas Rangers. And the A’s will still play in Oakland for the 2024 season, but what happens beyond that is still up in the air, as team ownership plots its move to Las Vegas and pursues a proposed $1.5 billion stadium there.
Yet out of left field, jilted A’s fans find they have another gambit in their longshot hopes to keep the team in Oakland. Over in Nevada, the teachers’ union Nevada State Education Association is organizing a “Schools Over Stadiums” ballot measure to block the $380 million in public funding that the A’s need for that Vegas stadium. And KRON4 reports that Oakland fans are donating their time and money to that Nevada ballot effort.
“From my standpoint, I think that there’s sort of only one way that we could keep the A’s. And that’s if Nevada falls through,” former A’s vendor “Hal the Hot Dog Guy” Gordon told KRON4. “If there are people in Nevada willing to fight what I think is a bad policy and something that is hurting the Oakland community, then the people of Oakland should support them.”
That Schools Over Stadiums ballot measure is still in the signature gathering phase, so it’s not yet an official Nevada state ballot measure. But an August report in the Las Vegas Sun detailed that “roughly 40” people from Oakland attended a fundraiser that month which raised “several thousands,” and that many A’s fans are willing to help gather signatures in Nevada to get the measure on the ballot.
“If we don’t help them out, they may not get the funding or they might not get the support they need to make sure this gets passed on the ballot,” Dublin-based A’s fan Will MacNeil told the Sun. “So we’re happy to dive in fully and help them out. They’re going to help us out, too.”
Image: OAKLAND, CA - AUGUST 5: Fans of the Oakland Athletics in the right field bleachers during the game against the San Francisco Giants at RingCentral Coliseum on August 5, 2023 in Oakland, California. The Athletics defeated the Giants 2-1. (Photo by Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images)
