The Athletics are one step closer to leaving their longtime home in Oakland for a brand new stadium in Las Vegas.
The A's and major Nevada officials, including the governor's office, the treasurer, lawmaker representatives and Clark County, announced on Wednesday a tentative agreement for a public financing package that will help fund the team's new Vegas ballpark. The Nevada Independent first reported details of the deal.
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“We’re very appreciative of the support from the State of Nevada and Clark County's leadership,” A’s president Dave Kaval said in a statement. “We want to thank Governor Lombardo, the Legislative leadership, the Treasurer, and Clark County Commissioners and staff on the collaborative process. We look forward to advancing this legislation in a responsible way.”
"This agreement follows months of negotiations between the state, the county, and the A’s, and I believe it gives us a tremendous opportunity to continue building on the professional sports infrastructure of southern Nevada,” Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo said in a statement. “Las Vegas is clearly a sports town, and Major League Baseball should be a part of it.”
The agreement is being drafted into legislation and will be introduced in the Nevada Legislature in the coming days. It's a turn of events that comes days after uncertainty on all sides surrounded the project's public financing needs, but the agreed-upon deal includes the creation of a Sports and Entertainment Improvement District, providing public financing for less than 25 percent of the project's anticipated $1.5 billion cost. According to the statement provided by all included parties, this makes it the third-lowest public share of cost for the 14 MLB stadiums built this century.
Oakland Athletics
Previously, the A's had an agreement to construct a new stadium on 49 acres owned by Red Rock Resorts. But the team abandoned that deal, which came with a reported price tag of $500 million in public funding, per The Nevada Independent, for an agreement with Bally's Corp announced earlier this month that would provide $175 million from Gaming and Leisure Properties at a new site along the Strip.
The A's now will seek less than the initial threshold of $195 million in transferable tax credits the state set last week, per The Nevada Independent, and there will be a similar reduction from the team's initial request of $200 million in Clark County-backed bonds.
This latest development is tentative, of course, given that the public financing package has yet to be presented to lawmakers. In the statement, Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro said the proposal will be given full consideration in the Senate before the end of the current legislative session on June 5.
“Over the time we have remaining during this session, we will give this proposal a thorough vetting to fully explore the opportunity and its impacts on Southern Nevada,” Cannizzaro said.
Should everything go according to the A's current plan, a 30,000-seat ballpark with a retractable roof will be built on nine acres of the Tropicana Avenue site on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip, while a new 1,500-room hotel-casino would be placed across from the stadium once it's completed.
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But should things fall through, Oakland mayor Sheng Thao on Friday revealed the city is open to a Howard Terminal deal with the A’s if team ownership re-engages.
The Nevada Independent previously reported, citing a source, that the original stadium construction timeline is still in place under the new Bally's agreement, beginning in 2024 with a planned opening date in 2027, which could be pushed to 2028 should the construction timeline change.