OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) – Alameda County Supervisors Board President Nate Miley does not blame the team for possibly bolting to Las Vegas now that the A’s have entered into a binding agreement to purchase land there.

Miley says months went by without him talking with Oakland Athletics President Dave Kaval as Miley attended to other pressing county matters.

“I actually had called Dave a couple of days ago, just to kind of check in with him perchance, and I did not realize what the news was gonna be in another day or two,” Miley told KRON4.

He says it does not come as a complete shock, adding that he believes the A’s negotiated in good faith with the city to build a new ballpark at Howard Terminal.

“There’s just been so many false starts to achieve that goal for different reasons that I can’t at the moment blame the A’s for moving on. I really can’t,” he said.

Miley, who has had a decades-long relationship with the A’s dating back to his time in the 90s on the Oakland city council, says he hopes the team, city and county can part ways on good terms if the team does eventually secure all of the financing and other requirements to build a new stadium in Nevada. He would be willing to extend the A’s lease at the Coliseum, which expires at the end of next year, to make that happen.

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“As opposed to everybody getting angry or upset and despondent over this, and let’s try to have a good transition and then have a good plan in place that possibly could achieve even more of a monumental, spectacular sort of situation for Oakland and for the county,” he said. 

Miley says even if the A’s leave, he will continue to push for the redevelopment of the Coliseum complex site, which would include homes and a commercial district.