‘A’s’ Vegas venue plans a long haul

Article posted by Coliseum, June 7^th, 2023

Image: Oakland Athletics

The Major League Baseball (MLB) team Oakland Athletics (US) will need extra innings to get their Las Vegas stadium funding bill passed by the Nevada lawmakers.

‘LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL’ stated that the Legislature adjourned without passing the Senate Bill 509 on June 5^th.

The Oakland Athletics are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California, US. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League West division. The team plays its home games at the Oakland Coliseum.

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The 63,000-capacity Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum is a stadium in Oakland, California, US. It is part of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex, with the adjacent Oakland Arena, near Interstate 880. The Coliseum is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics.

The ‘A’s’ new venue plans included creating mixed-use development with up to 3,000 residential units, up to 1.5 million square feet of offices and up to 270,000 square feet of retail uses. The proposed development at the Port of Oakland’s Howard Terminal included plans for a $12 billion mixed-use project built around a $1 billion, 30,000-seat waterfront ballpark.

But, with a lot of feet-dragging on the Oakland plan, the team decided to relocate to Las Vegas. The team has a lease agreement to play at the aging Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum through 2024.

Last month, the Oakland Athletics reached an agreement with Bally’s and Gaming and Leisure Properties to build a potential stadium on the Tropicana hotel site along the Las Vegas Strip in United States.

The Bally’s Corporation is a gaming, betting and interactive entertainment company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island (US). It owns and operates 15 casinos across 10 States, a horse track in Colorado and online sports betting operations in 14 States.

The Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. is a real estate investment trust specializing in casino properties, based in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, US. It was formed in November 2013 as a corporate spin-off from the Penn National Gaming. The company owns 57 casino properties, all of which are leased to other companies.

The Tropicana Las Vegas is a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, US. It is owned and operated by Bally’s Corporation, on land leased from the Gaming and Leisure Properties. It offers 1,467 rooms, a 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) gaming floor and 72,000 sq ft (6,700 m2) of convention and exhibit space.

‘LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL’ further stated that the Legislature now will have to meet in a special session to consider public financing for the stadium plan. Either the Governor of Nevada, Joe Lombardo, can issue a proclamation, or the Legislature – with the signatures of two-thirds of its members – can convene a session.

The Senate Bill 509 would have earmarked up to $380 million in public funds for the construction of the ‘A’s’ planned 30,000-seat, $1.5 billion Strip ballpark on the site of the Tropicana Las Vegas resort.

The public funding includes $180 million from the State in transferable tax credits, of which $90 million would be repaid via a sports entertainment improvement district set up around the nine-acre stadium site. The Clark County would contribute $145 million, of which $120 million would be repaid by revenue generated by the tax district, with $25 million going toward infrastructure improvements.

The timing on passage of the ‘A’s’ public funding bill – if it ultimately happens – won’t have any bearing on when the MLB owners could approve the team’s relocation to Las Vegas. The MLB owners won’t vote on the team’s Southern Nevada move at the owners meeting next week, even if the Bill is signed into law by then.

Once a relocation application has been filed and reviewed, the MLB owners could conduct a conference call, likely via Zoom, to hold a vote by team owners, the source indicated.

The MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters last month that the ‘A’s’ relocation could be approved as soon as the owners meetings set for June 13^th-15^th in New York.

One source indicated a special session for the ‘A’s’ stadium bill could be held over the Summer, but that could not be immediately confirmed.

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