Published on: December 27, 2024, 03:26h. 

Last updated on: December 27, 2024, 03:26h.

Dave Kaval, the public face of the Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas, has announced his resignation as team president on Friday.

Kaval, who has been in charge of the team for eight years, will step down on Dec. 31. In a statement issued by Major League Baseball, he stated: “I will be remaining in California to explore new opportunities at the intersection of business and government.”

Kaval will be temporarily replaced by Sandy Dean, a long-time business associate of team owner John Fisher and his family, until the search for a new president begins next year.

“We appreciate Dave’s contributions and leadership over the past eight years,” Fisher said in the MLB statement. “He steered our organization through a period of significant change, and we sincerely thank him for his steadfast dedication to the team.”

Kaval was the A’s representative who participated in public hearings in Las Vegas and advocated to Nevada lawmakers last year to secure $380 million for a $1.75 billion stadium that the A’s plan to construct on the site of the former Tropicana. (The estimated cost increased by $250 million earlier this month.)

The announcement of Kaval’s resignation follows the team overcoming most of the final contractual and political obstacles towards that objective. Earlier this month, the Las Vegas Stadium Authority approved leave, non-relocation, and development documents. A development agreement with Clark County remains to be finalized.

Until the new stadium is scheduled to open in time for the 2028 MLB season, the A’s will play in a minor-league ballpark in Sacramento.

Concerns Raised

Despite the documents submitted to the Stadium Authority earlier this month supposedly including a commitment from Fisher to allocate over $1 billion of his family’s personal funds towards the new ballpark, many A’s fans and Las Vegas insiders still have doubts about its realization, and are questioning the optics of Kaval’s resignation.

“Kaval getting out before the Vegas deal collapses and they have to search for a new stadium deal in another city, most likely Sacramento,” tweeted X user @O_dogg81.

Following news of Kaval’s resignation, Casino.org’s own Vital Vegas, a leading skeptic of the Las Vegas deal ever since it was announced in April 2023, tweeted a link to a definition of the idiom “like rats fleeing a sinking ship.”