Report: Oakland A’s Visiting Smith’s Ballpark During Search For Temporary Home
Jan 18, 2024, 7:48 PM
SALT LAKE CITY – The Oakland Athletics plan to visit Salt Lake City’s Smith’s Ballpark during the MLB club’s exploratory search for a temporary home, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
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A’s visiting Smith’s Ballpark during search for temporary home
The Southern Nevada publication reported the A’s upcoming visit to the Beehive State on Thursday, January 18.
Smith’s Ballpark is currently home to the Salt Lake Bees, a minor league team. In January 2023, the Bees announced that they would leave Smith’s Ballpark and relocate to South Jordan, Utah for the 2025 season and beyond. The Bees broke ground on their new ballpark in October 2023.
The A’s are a need of a temporary home after the 2024 MLB season until 2028.
“The Oakland Athletics are making site visits this week as they try to figure out where they will play once their Oakland Coliseum lease is up after the 2024 MLB season,” the newspaper’s Mick Akers wrote. “The A’s will continue their due diligence later this week, the source said. They’re scheduled to visit Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake City, home of the Los Angeles Angels’ Triple-A affiliate, the Salt Lake Bees.”
In addition to the A’s visit to Salt Lake City, team officials also traveled to Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, California, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The Oakland Athletics are making site visits this week as they try to figure out where they will play once their Oakland Coliseum lease is up after the 2024 MLB season.https://t.co/GTCLJk51aG
— Las Vegas Review-Journal (@reviewjournal) January 18, 2024
The Review-Journal added that other potential temporary homes for the A’s include the home of the Las Vegas Aviators, the Reno Aces, and Oracle Park, home of the MLB’s San Francisco Giants.
A’s moving to Las Vegas
In November 2023, Major League owners approved the Athletics’ request to relocate to Las Vegas.
The vote was unanimous.
“There was an effort over more than a decade to find a stadium solution in Oakland. It was John Fisher’s preference. It was my preference,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said of the vote to relocate the A’s. “This is a terrible day for fans in Oakland. I understand that and that’s why we’ve always had a policy of doing everything humanly possible to avoid a relocation and truly believe we did that in this case. I think it’s beyond debate that the status quo in Oakland was untenable.”
Where should the A's play from 2025-2027?
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) January 18, 2024
The Athletics plan to open their Las Vegas ballpark in 2028.
In April 2023, the Larry H. Miller Group announced the start of an attempt to bring an MLB team and a big league ballpark to Salt Lake City.
Kyle Ireland is a Sports Producer and Locals in the NFL Insider for KSLSports.com. Listen to Ireland on Yards After College: An NFL Podcast. Follow him on X (@kyleireland), Threads (@kyleirelandksl), and Instagram (@kyleirelandksl).
