CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FOX 46) – A major shakeup nearly 3,000 miles away from the Queen City could help bring Major League Baseball to Charlotte.
Tuesday, the Oakland City Council passed a non-binding draft term sheet for a new stadium to be developed along the waterfront in the bay area.
But before the first votes were cast, leaders with the Oakland A’s were already coming out against it.
“I want to stress that voting yes on something that we don’t agree with or we don’t have consensus around is not an effective path forward,” said A’s President Dave Kaval.
Soon after the vote, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred came out with his own statement, alluding to the fact that the A’s may soon be moving.
“We are disappointed the City Council chose to vote on a proposal to which the A’s had not agreed. We will immediately begin conversations with the A’s to chart a path forward for the club.”
Does that plan include the Queen City?
Manfred has previously listed Charlotte, along with Nashville, Las Vegas, Montreal and others, as possible sites for relocation or expansion.
“I think this will eventually will help Charlotte,” said Rick Curti with Charlotte Bats, a grassroots organization that hopes to bring an MLB team to Charlotte.
Curti doesn’t believe the A’s will be coming to Charlotte, his guess is Las Vegas, but he does believe this is the first domino to fall.
“I think what’s good about this is when Commissioner Manfred came out with his expansion list, he said before he expanded he wanted to get stadiums situated in Oakland and Tampa Bay. So I think this is the first step towards expansion. Charlotte is still on that list for expansion,” Curti said.
Major League Baseball has said that the entry price tag for an expansion team would be $2.2 billion.
