The Oakland A’s agree to purchase land near the Las Vegas Strip

the Oakland Athletics They signed a binding agreement to purchase land near the Las Vegas Strip, where they intend to build a major soccer stadium, team president Dave Kaval said Wednesday night.

The agreement is for a 49-acre site owned by Red Rock Resorts, the parent company of Station Casinos.

Kaval told Las Vegas Journal Review A $1.5 billion, 35,000-seat stadium with a partially retractable roof will be built on the site, adding that other developments, including restaurants and an amphitheater, are also being discussed.

The A’s will work with Nevada and Clark County in a public-private partnership to fund the stadium. The A family hopes to start next year, Kaval said, and hopes to have it moved into its new home by 2027.

“For a while we were on parallel tracks [with Oakland] But we turned our attention to Las Vegas to get a deal here in order to find a long-term home,” Kaval told the Review Journal. Oakland has been a great home for us for over 50 years, but we really need to complete this 20-year saga and we feel there’s a way here in Southern Nevada to do that.”

The A’s had been looking for a new home for years to replace the outdated and dilapidated Oakland Coliseum, where the team had played since arriving from Kansas City for the 1968 season. They sought to build stadiums in Fremont and San Jose before turning their attention to the Oakland Waterfront, then Las Vegas. Coliseum A’s lease expires after the 2024 season.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred expressed support for the purchase agreement and shifting their efforts toward relocating to Las Vegas.

“We support shifting the focus of the A’s to Las Vegas and look forward to them finalizing that process by the end of the year,” Manfred told the Review-Journal.

Auckland Mayor Sheng Thao criticized the announcement and said the city was “pausing negotiations and moving forward” to other options.

“I am extremely disappointed that the first team chose not to negotiate with City of Auckland as a true partner in a way that respects the longstanding relationship between the fans, City and the team,” Thao said in a statement. “However, it is clear to me that the A’s have no intention of staying in Oakland and they have used this process to try and get a better deal out of Las Vegas. I’m not interested in continuing to play that game — our fans and residents deserve better.”

According to the Review-Journal, the purchase agreement is for the land only, and A has the option to purchase an additional eight acres at a later date. The site is located about a mile north of Allegiant Stadium, where the Las Vegas Raiders play in the NFL, and about a mile west of T-Mobile Arena, where the Vegas Golden Knights play in the NHL.

“It’s really exciting to have a site,” Kaval said. “We spent nearly two years doing due diligence, working with community leaders, elected officials, and everyone in the city to identify a location that could truly be a win for A’s as well as community and government officials.”

Las Vegas has been home to a Triple-A team since 1983, currently, the club is the Athletics affiliate.

Information from the Associated Press is used in this report.