Mark Davis, the owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, is accusing the Oakland Athletics of screwing over the Bay Area. Davis claims that the A’s prevented his football team from potentially building a new stadium on land the A’s held the rights to but weren’t using. “They squatted on a lease for 10 years and made it impossible for us to build on that stadium,” Davis told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He also said that the A’s signed a 10-year lease with the city of Oakland, preventing the Raiders from building a stadium there.
The Athletics recently signed a binding agreement to purchase 49 acres of land in Las Vegas with the intention of using the site to build a new stadium. This comes on the heels of news that the Raiders have already moved to Sin City in 2020.
Davis admitted to having “a lot of personal animosity towards the front office” of the A’s, accusing them of trying to phase the Raiders out of their marketing plans even with them still playing in Oakland. He also accused the A’s of never giving the Raiders a real chance to stay in Oakland. However, Davis clarified that he has nothing against the players on the A’s team, and he’s happy that the Raiders ultimately ended up in Vegas.
Despite the tension between the two teams, the Athletics’ proposed move to Las Vegas is not yet a done deal. The team will still need to gain the approval of Major League Baseball to relocate.
