Finances detailed for A’s Vegas ballpark

Article posted by Coliseum, November 7^th, 2024

Image: Oakland Athletics

The owners of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics will pump $1 billion into a new stadium in Las Vegas, with major banks stumping up another $300 million loan.

AP said A’s owner John Fisher and his family will invest $1 billion into the construction of a stadium in Las Vegas and U.S. Bank and Goldman Sachs will offer a $300 million loan, according to club executive Sandy Dean.

Dean made his remarks to a special meeting of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority board.

Final approvals are expected to be made at an authority meeting in December to allow construction of the $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat domed ballpark with a capacity for up to 33,000 fans.

Construction is expected to begin in the spring with a targeted opening before the 2028 season.

As much as $380 million in public funding will go into building the stadium, which will be on the Las Vegas Strip on the site of where the recently demolished Tropicana stood.

The Tropicana was a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip that operated from 1957 to 2024. It was demolished in October 2024 to make way for the ‘A’s’ stadium.

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 new 33,000-fan-capacity domed stadium will feature six primary levels with 30,000 fixed seats and an area for 3,000 standing-room-only ticket holders. The levels are broken down starting from the ground up including: The service and field, lower suite, upper suite, upper concourse, and upper deck.

About 30 % of fans attending games and events at the ‘A’s’ ballpark will enter at the lower suite level. The armadillo-shaped exterior structure with five crisscrossing pennants on the roof was done with baseball and the Las Vegas heat in mind.

The ballpark’s roof will span around 700 feet featuring a metal finish with translucent plastic panels.

Dean said Fisher is still pursuing partners in the Las Vegas area who can purchase stakes in the franchise, which in turn goes toward paying for the stadium.

Dean said, “We’ve been consistent in saying it would be good coming to Las Vegas to have outside partners from Las Vegas. That process has just begun. The ability to finance the stadium is independent of that.”

AP further stated that the A’s will play at least the next three seasons in West Sacramento, California. The club announced it will play 60 of its 81 home games next season at night, tying the 1968 A’s for the most in their history.

The A’s played their last of 57 seasons in Oakland, California.

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