In the past decade, the A’s have explored moves to Fremont, Calif., and San Jose, Calif., before settling on a detailed plan for a waterfront stadium in Oakland. Two years ago they announced, with M.L.B.’s blessing, that they would simultaneously investigate the possibility of moving to Las Vegas, a two-pronged approach that appeared to many skeptics as predestined to leave Oakland behind.

The news that the team had a land deal in Las Vegas drew an angry response in Oakland. Mayor Sheng Thao of Oakland issued a statement saying the city would no longer negotiate with the A’s, whom she contended had “simply been using this process to try to extract a better deal out of Las Vegas.”

“I am not interested in continuing to play that game,” Thao said. “The fans and our residents deserve better.”

The decision is also sure to infuriate A’s fans, who have bemoaned the team’s unwillingness to spend the money required to field a competitive team that would rival its championship clubs of the early 1970s; the home-run-bashing A’s of the late ’80s; and the more budget-conscious teams that followed — clubs that introduced baseball to the cost-cutting, value-centered approach known as Moneyball.