Bally's resort may skirt ‘A’s’ Vegas ballpark

Bally’s resort may skirt ‘A’s’ Vegas ballpark

Article posted by Coliseum, November 6^th, 2024

Image: Clark County

The newly released plans are providing a glimpse of how the gambling company Bally’s Corporation might develop an integrated resort around the Major League Baseball (MLB) team Oakland Athletics’ Las Vegas ballpark on the former Tropicana site in Paradise, Nevada (US).

‘LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL’ stated that the initial plan’s renderings place the $1.5 billion, 33,000-fan capacity Major League ballpark near the center-rear of the 35-acre site. Three 495-foot-tall hotel towers will rise beside the 290-foot-tall stadium on the property’s Northeast and Southwest corners providing a combined 3,005 rooms, according to plans submitted to the Clark County in Nevada.

The Bally’s Corporation is an American gambling, betting and interactive entertainment company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island (US). It operates 13 casinos across 10 States, a horse track in Colorado and online sports betting operations in 14 States. The company was founded in 2004 as the BLB Investors.

The Oakland Athletics ((often referred to as the A’s) 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 Oakland Athletics are currently playing at the 14,014-capacity Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California (US) while they wait to permanently move to Las Vegas.

The former site of the Tropicana Las Vegas is now being developed into the New Las Vegas Stadium which will be the new home of the Major League Baseball (MLB) team Las Vegas Athletics (the name the Oakland Athletics will be known by when they move to Las Vegas). The Tropicana was a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip that operated from 1957 to 2024. It was imploded in October 2024 to make way for the ‘A’s’ stadium.

Lined with upscale casino hotels, the neon-soaked Strip is quintessential Las Vegas. As well as gambling floors, the vast hotel complexes house a variety of shops, restaurants (ranging from mainstream to high-end) and performance venues for music, comedy and circus-style acts. Attractions like the soaring, choreographed Fountains of Bellagio and the High Roller observation wheel draw crowds.

‘A’s’ Executive Sandy Dean said during a recent Las Vegas Stadium Authority meeting, “The most significant information I think is the ‘A’s’ and the Bally’s and the real estate investment trust company – the Gaming and Leisure Properties Incorporated (GLPI) have come to an agreement on the master plan for the site that accommodates both the ballpark and a planned casino-resort in a way we each think is really good for our respective projects. We’re excited that the master plan has the ballpark on a location that has a good view of the Las Vegas Strip.”

Dean noted that the plans are preliminary and must be reviewed by the Clark County and the other stakeholders in a process that will include public meetings.

What’s to Come

‘LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL’ further stated that the plans show 2,500 spaces of onsite parking between two garages on the Northwest corner and the Southeast corner of the property and a surface lot on the Southwest corner.

The rest of the site will feature a 90,000-square-foot casino, a combined 110,000 square feet of meeting space, several food, beverage and retail outlets, and a day club.

The casino is expected to feature 1,500 slot machines, 75 table games, a poker room, and a 12,000-square-foot sportsbook.

A Bally’s spokesperson informed, “The designs are initial massing diagrams intended to ensure that both our resort program and the ‘A’s’ stadium program can be successfully accommodated on the site. We anticipate that the designs will evolve as we advance the project.”

The ballpark will feature 30,000 seats and room for 3,000 standing-room-only spaces. It will also offer 60,000 square feet of office space for the ‘A’s’.

With 30,000 fixed seats, the plans note that a game at the ballpark will be considered a sellout when 29,400 fans are in attendance, or when 98 percent of the stadium is full.

Each area will be built out in phases with the ballpark and the parking garage going up first with portions of the integrated resort to be built in three phases.

Parking and More

The plans note a soldout event would require 5,370 parking spaces supplied by the 2,500 onsite spaces (100 spots reserved for office parking) and more than 4,400 offsite spaces which include 1,500 employees who will park offsite.

It is estimated 9,328 fans will walk to the stadium from the surrounding parking garages.

The plans identify 10 nearby parking structures or parking lots with 43,920 spaces within walking or shuttle distance from the Tropicana site. Those include six MGM Resorts properties, Showcase Mall, Planet Hollywood, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)-owned land.

The other travel options to and from the stadium include the Boring Company’s Vegas Loop (provides fast and convenient transportation), taxi and ride-hailing services, the Regional Transportation Commission transit, shuttle buses, limos, and walking.

The site plans did not list dates when construction would begin on any of the phases of the ballpark or hotel projects. The GLPI owns the 35-acre site and the Bally’s Corporation has a ground lease for the property with both the groups gifting the ‘A’s’ nine acres for the stadium.

Bally’s portion of the site would take up 14.7 acres with nearly 11.4 acres of shared space, according to the plans.

The ‘A’s’ plan to begin construction in the second quarter of 2025 once the site is cleared and readied following the recent Tropicana implosion. The aim is to have the ballpark completed and ready to host the ‘A’s’ for the Opening Day in 2028.

The Bally’s Corporation Chairman Soo Kim said that the Bally’s would build their resort out in phases but he did not provide a timeline as to when construction on their portion of the project would begin.

The Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson said he’s confident both projects would come to fruition but not concurrently.

Concluded Gibson, “The stadium is going to take several years to build and the commitment that the GLPI and the Bally’s have made is one that is firm but it takes the same kind of work in advance of construction as the design of the stadium and rounding up the financing. I’m confident that they’re going to get after it. But I believe that it won’t open that day that the stadium opens.”

Continue to follow Coliseum for latest updates on venues business news. Coliseum is dedicated towards building the best global community of sports and entertainment venue executives and professionals creating better and more profitable venues.

Become a member of the only Global Sports Venue Alliance and connect with stadiums, arenas and experts from around the world. Apply for membership at coliseum-online.com/alliance and make use of the 365Coliseum Business.

Watch 380 member-exclusive videos with valuable tips for your venue