Athletics president Dave Kaval will resign from the organization after being the public face of the organization’s departure from Oakland after 57 seasons.

Kaval has been president of the A’s for the past eight years and will step down from the role on Tuesday to pursue new business opportunities in California.

Sandy Dean, a longtime business partner with the Fisher family that owns the team, will serve as interim president and a search to fill the full-time role will begin in 2025, when the A’s begin what they hope will be a three-year stint in Sacramento before the franchise ultimately settles in Las Vegas.

Kaval and principal owner John Fisher were at the center of Oakland fans’ growing discontent as multiple potential East Bay stadium plans failed, the franchise’s biggest stars were traded away, and ticket prices increased at the same time the franchise annually fielded a team with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. Kaval will forever remembered for saying the team was on a “parallel path” that included the ballpark plans in Oakland and Las Vegas, a path that ultimately ended with the team playing its final game in Oakland in September.

Kaval, 49, made the decision to step down after the team had cleared its final major hurdles to get a stadium built in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Stadium Authority approved lease, non-relocation and development documents earlier this month for the Athletics to construct a $1.75 billion stadium on the Strip.

“We are grateful for Dave’s contributions and leadership over the past eight years,” Fisher said in a statement. “He guided our organization through a period of significant transition, and we sincerely thank him for his unwavering commitment to the team. As we look ahead to the next chapter of our franchise, the team will continue to grow under new leadership.”

Kaval failed in his efforts to get a new stadium built for the team in downtown Oakland and eventually helped the organization reach the deal to move to Las Vegas, ending a run of of 57 seasons in Oakland that included four World Series titles. The A’s will play at least the next three seasons at a minor league ballpark in West Sacramento.

Kaval, who in 2016 succeeded Michael Crowley as A’s president, had previously served as president of the MLS’ Earthquakes, who are also owned by the Fisher family. When he first came to the A’s, he drew praise for his open-door policy to hear from fans and for changes he made at the Coliseum. He brought in food trucks for games and opened the “Treehouse” a 10,000-square-foot area that included a bar, lounge and patio for fans to watch games from left field.

Kaval took a less public role in the Bay Area after the team announced plans in 2023 to move to Las Vegas. But by then the man who once promised the A’s would remain “Rooted in Oakland” had been long branded by A’s fans a primary villain (along with Fisher) in the relocation saga.

In May 2021, while Kaval and other A’s officials were in Las Vegas exploring possibilities to move the team to the area, he rankled two Bay Area fan bases with a single social media post.

While attending the Vegas Golden Knights’ home playoff game he posted a video on the social media platform now known as X of the boisterous crowd on its feet at T-Mobile Arena just before the drop of the puck.

“Wow! #StanleyCup playoffs! @GoldenKnights,” Kaval tweeted in regards to the atmosphere inside the arena. Sharks fans were angered because he was complimenting a hated rival, and A’s fans were enraged because it was at the same time his team was losing to the Seattle Mariners at the Coliseum.

Kaval was outwardly optimistic about a new ballpark getting done in Oakland early in his tenure. In 2017, he announced the team had decided on a piece of land in the Peralta Community College District in Laney College. But the plan was met with quick opposition from city leaders and residents who were concerned the stadium would displace low-income families and businesses in the Chinatown and East Lake neighborhoods.

A year later, Kaval and the A’s publicly announced their intentions to build their new ballpark at Howard Terminal near Jack London Square. The Oakland City Council in 2021 voted to approve a non-binding term sheet to continue negotiations with the team over the $12 billion proposal that included the ballpark and a mixed-use development project. But Kaval said the team would not accept that term sheet while the two sides disagreed over infrastructure costs.

It was around that time Kaval publicly spoke about a “parallel path” that included the ballpark plans in Oakland and Las Vegas. In June 2023, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed a bill that would give the A’s $380 million in public money toward their Las Vegas stadium. The A’s began the application process for relocation a week later, and MLB owners unanimously approved the team’s eventual move that November.

And with its lease at the Coliseum up in 2024, the team announced last April it would move temporarily to Sutter Health Park, home of the Sacramento River Cats, rather than extend their lease at their home venue they initially moved to in 1968.

Staff writer Laurence Miedema and The Sacramento Bee contributed to this report.