(KRON) — A Nevada teachers’ group has announced state legislators there violated the constitution when they okayed a bill to give the A’s $380 million in public money to help fund a new A’s stadium in Las Vegas. Now, they intend to sue.
The news comes as major league owners are meeting in Texas this week and are poised to ok the A’s relocation to Las Vegas. They were greeted with a flyover from the Oakland 68’s with the message “A’s belong in Oakland vote no.” meaning vote no on approving the team’s relocation to Las Vegas.
“We’re trying to be visible and try to show that, you know, there are fans that care and, and we’re trying our best,” said Jorge Leon with the Oakland 68’s. “We’re not going down without a fight.”
Leon is one of several A’s fans in Texas for the owners meeting.
“We keep moving forward, we keep trying our best to do what we can in our situation,” Leon said. “I believe there are many steps left before relocation takes place.”
Baseball analyst and former Miami Marlins president David Samson believes the owners will approve relocation this week, but he said there are still a mountain of things to do before the team can actually move.
“Before a move actually happens, there have to be agreements that are negotiated between the A’s and the city of Las Vegas, the state of Nevada,” Samson said. “There have to be construction agreements, operating agreements, non-relocation agreements. There has to be MLB approval of all private financing.”
Add to that Schools Over Stadiums, the Nevada teachers’ group, which opposes using $380 million in public money to help build a new A’s stadium, has announced they now plan to file a lawsuit against the Nevada legislature because their approval violates Nevada’s constitution.
“We believe that there are sections within this current bill that violate the constitution, not that they’re not allowed to do it, but they didn’t follow their own rules in actually going forward,” said Alexander Marks with Schools Over Stadiums. “We do believe that these sections are very strong and if the court agrees with us will again lead to the bills partial or total invalidation, which will be right in line with our mission statement of ensuring that public money doesn’t go to a billionaire for a stadium that we quite frankly don’t need.”
The group is also pushing a voter referendum on the public financing portion of the project which if successful could also be a roadblock.
“That causes a delay, which causes a problem for baseball, and it causes a problem for Oakland A’s owner John Fisher,” Samson said.
Owners are set to vote on the A’s relocation before the end of the week.
