Why are the A’s so eager to ditch Oakland for Las Vegas, a much smaller media market that increasingly is becoming crowded with other professional sports teams?
The team and its representatives would argue that the ambitious $1.5 billion ballpark plan — for which Nevada lawmakers last week committed $380 million in public money – justifies itself because of all the tourism that would be generated by baseball games.
But another factor looms over the decision by Oakland’s last major sports team to abandon California: the legalized gambling industry, and the rapid embrace of it in U.S. sports, including by Major League Baseball.
