Baseball fans react to stadium funding agreement being reached for Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas: "Vegas beware, shadiness is afoot" 

The Oakland Athletics have reached a tentative agreement with state and local officials in Nevada for a stadium funding plan. The understanding comes after weeks of wrangling and negotiating over how much public assistance the team will receive from the state in order to build a $1.5 billion ballpark in Las Vegas.

However, the tentative agreement is remarkably bereft of specifics. The handhake between the Athletics, state treasurer Zach Conine and Clark County officials merely notes that a funding bill will be introduced in the Nevada Legislature in the coming days.

The funding bill will have to be approved by both the Nevada Senate and Assembly, with just two weeks until the sessions end for the legislature.

Much of the "agreement" between the state and the Oakland Athletics amounted to a lot of statements, including one from Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, who said:

"This agreement follows months of negotiations between the state, the county, and the A's, and I believe it gives us a tremendous opportunity to continue building on the professional sports infrastructure of southern Nevada. Las Vegas is clearly a sports town, and Major League Baseball should be a part of it."

The Oakland Athletics organization purchased 35 acres of prized real estate at the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip on which to build a planned 30,000-seat stadium. Athletics president Dave Kaval said in a statement about the tentative agreement:

"We're very appreciative of the support from the State of Nevada and Clark County's leadership. We look forward to advancing this legislation in a responsible way."

A move to Las Vegas would be the fourth geographic shift for the Athletics in the 123-year history of the team.

The Athletics began life in Philadelphia in 1901, playing in the city until 1954. In 1955, the Athletics began a brief stint in Kansas City as MLB teams began to move off the East Coast into the wider reaches of the United States. The team only lasted in America's heartland until 1967, when the move was made to Oakland.

And now, the Athletics appear poised to begin moving east.

A move to Las Vegas would mean moving to the smallest TV market in MLB.

Oakland Athletics suffering a long, slow death in the Bay Area

Reliever Richard Lovelady of the Oakland Athletics delivers a pitch.

WIth a roster resembling a Triple-A team, the Oakland Athletics are by far the worst team in MLB with a 10-40 record entering Wednesday's game.