Key next step for keeping Oakland A’s in Oakland has happened

With a 23-2 vote by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) to remove Howard Terminal’s designation as a port priority use area and open up area for a new stadium, the Oakland A’s are at least one step closer to potentially staying in Oakland.

It was a big step, but one of many still ahead for the Oakland A’s to stay in Oakland and not relocate to Las Vegas

Granted, there are still plenty more steps that need to be taken before the Oakland A’s could realistically remain in Oakland, including a local vote where taxpayers would have to approve funding for all of the changes that would happen at Howard Terminal, including a new 35,000-seat stadium for the A’s. However, Thursday’s overwhelming positive vote by the BCDC was a necessary step to keep the Howard Terminal dream alive for the A’s and their fans who want to keep the team in Oakland.

That vote by the public could potentially happen in November. A vote on whether the initiative that is critical to the A’s staying in Oakland will happen next week, another time marker that A’s fans will be watching.

While A’s president Dave Kaval celebrated the vote’s outcome on Twitter, he also kept his pinned tweet in place, one saying that the A’s will explore other markets while also pursuing “the Oakland waterfront ballpark project.” Of course, those other markets primarily mean Las Vegas, a potential destination where the relocation fees for the A’s would reportedly be waived should the team decide to follow the NFL’s Raiders out of Oakland and to Las Vegas.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has gone as far as to say that the league likes Las Vegas as a market and the waiving of relocation fees proves that point.

Certainly Thursday’s vote guarantees nothing for the future of the A’s, one of the reasons why Kaval can celebrate a small victory in Oakland while also exploring what could come next in Sin City.