The Oakland Athletics are officially moving to Las Vegas.

The Major League Baseball team on Thursday announced it purchased land near the Vegas Strip as part of a binding agreement for its new ballpark, which will cost $1.5 billion, possess a retractable roof, and seat 35,000 fans.

“It’s a huge milestone for us to have a location — 49 acres — right in the resort corridor next to T-Mobile [Arena],” team president Dave Kaval told The Dallas Express on Thursday, “It’s in a location where all the sports stadiums are still like a triangle of a site. That actually is really appealing for us.”

The move will be the third relocation for the Athletics, who spent 53 years in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City. The Athletics have called Oakland home for the last 55 years.

However, various problems with their current stadium lease, the infrastructure of the Oakland Coliseum, and an inability to draw fans have driven them out of the city. In Las Vegas, Kaval believes they will have more support.

“The community there has been extremely supportive and welcoming for us from the beginning. It’s really been nice to see how they’ve rolled out the red carpet and have been very open to a dialogue around partnering and giving us help on site selection and market feasibility. That’s reassuring when you’re making a move of this magnitude,” Kaval told The Dallas Express.

The next steps for the franchise are working with elected officials and policymakers on a public-private partnership and with the league on a timeline for the move and opening of the new ballpark.

“If that goes well — and the initial conversations have been pretty positive — we could apply for relocation later this summer and then actually break ground next year for a 2027 opening,” Kaval said.

The Athletics’ lease at the Oakland Coliseum expires after next season, which leaves a couple of seasons between the expiration date and the opening of the new stadium.

Kaval said the situation is a work in progress, and some options under consideration include briefly extending the lease in Oakland or playing in the Triple-A ballpark in Las Vegas — which is the home of Oakland’s Triple-A affiliate, the Las Vegas Aviators.

Nonetheless, the team is excited to join a vibrant and growing sports scene and reach its fans at a different level.

“What was appealing in Las Vegas was you have a great local fan base — 2.3 million people who are really rabid about sports. You see that with the Vegas [Golden] Knights’ games; you see that with the Raiders’ games [and] the Aviators’ [games], and, at the same time, you have all these tourists who come — 45 million people,” Kaval explained.

“You add those things together — plus the resorts and casinos and sponsors — it really is a dynamic combination to lead to a successful business model. … And obviously, [the] teams that are there to date have done very well, so there’s a framework,” Kaval elaborated.

With the Montreal Expos being the only team to relocate since the Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers in 1972, there is little precedent to help figure out the timeline. Still, Kaval says the team will lean on the league for guidance, and there will be more clarity by the time the local legislature concludes around the end of June.

“The commissioner and the commissioner’s office have been incredibly supportive of this process over the last two years or even longer. We’ve really been working hand in hand with him on it, and he’s been abreast of the information almost on a weekly basis on all the different aspects — what was going on in Oakland [and] what was going on in Las Vegas,” Kaval told The Dallas Express.

“He’s been incredibly wise counsel on how to address some of the challenges and move forward. We’re appreciative of everything he’s done, and we’ll continue to work closely with them,” Kaval concluded.

The Athletics’ move would solve one of the primary issues Commissioner Manfred said he wanted to fix before expanding to 32 teams.