OAKLAND, Calif. — A few weeks ago, reports indicated the A’s had a binding agreement to build a new stadium in Las Vegas. That deal was to secure a 49-acre plot with the hopes of having the new ballpark open in time for the 2027 season.
The original deal also had the team seeking $500M in public funding for the new stadium. Then late on Monday, both The Nevada Independent and Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the A’s scrapped the original deal and now have a new agreement to build a $1.5 billion stadium on the Tropicana Las Vegas site. The Tropicana would be demolished, and the new ballpark would take up nine acres of the 30-acre site.
This season has been a roller coaster of emotions for fans of the Oakland Athletics, who watch nightly as the team flounders, compiling an MLB-worst 9-28 record while also trying to keep track of where in Las Vegas their team is moving.
On the latest episode of the Locked On A’s podcast, host Jason Burke discussed his emotions with regard to this latest development in the A’s to Vegas saga.
Burke opened his show by talking about the latest news and said, “I know that I am an Oakland A’s fan, and I sound a little too excited right now, but it’s because this is bananas, and I don’t know that any of this is necessarily good for the A’s moving to Vegas.”
The A’s lease at the Oakland Coliseum ends after the 2024 season, and if they move to Vegas before a new stadium is finished, they would more than likely have to play in their Triple-A ballpark for a couple of seasons.
With this new agreement, construction of the “new” new ballpark in Vegas would begin sometime in 2024 - which was also the start date for the first Las Vegas site’s construction.
So the stadium would still be on schedule to open in 2027, but if there are construction delays—and aren’t there always construction delays on any new project?—it’s possible the new stadium wouldn’t open until 2028.
Burke joked about this being an insane time to be an A’s fan, and explained how the change in venue is lowering the amount of money the A’s need from the public to build the new stadium. Initially, the A’s asked for $500 million from the public. Now it’s “only” $395 million. Burke wondered why that aspect of the deal wasn’t the story's lede and joked that maybe the people in Las Vegas are realizing this may not be a good idea after all.
The latest Vegas stadium for the A’s would be a 35,000-seat capacity venue with a retractable roof, and Bally’s would build a 1500-room hotel and casino across from it. The location is right on the strip. The Tropicana Las Vegas opened in 1957 and has a colorful history including being the place where the infamous Rat Pack hung out in the 1960s and having ties to mob activity in the 1970s.
The legislative session in Vegas ends on June 5 so the A’s have to get this deal finalized before then in order to have any hope of breaking ground in 2024. The reason why there is a new deal is because of the A’s having difficulties finding legislative support. And the clock is ticking on this new deal because the report in The Nevada Independent stated the Democratic legislative leaders are “still awaiting solid details from the team (about this new deal) and would likely need them by this week.”
This situation is fluid and changing all the time and who knows? Maybe the A’s will have a third deal for another new stadium in a few weeks. For now, A’s fans have to sit back and wait.
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