The Oakland A's have dreams of pulling up stakes at the dilapidated RingCentral Coliseum and following the former Oakland Raiders to Sin City to play in a brand new $1.5 billion baseball park.
The Raiders got a sweet deal from the State of Nevada in 2016, after the state legislature in a special session approved $750 million in financing for the 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium off the Strip. The Raiders easily received approval from the NFL in March 2017 to relocate to Las Vegas and kicked off their first season in August 2020 in their newly completed stadium.
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Since the stadium's opening in 2020, big name performers have bought their shows to Allegiant as well, including The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Metallica, Billy Joel, Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks and K-pop sensation BTS. The NFL will bring sports' premier event, Super Bowl LVIII, to Allegiant Stadium on Feb. 11, 2024, to top off the amazing success of the Raiders' stadium deal.
Allegiant Stadium has worked out well for the Raiders, and the A's are hoping to have a happy ending to their ballpark search. The A's had tried to complete an agreement for a $1 billion waterfront ballpark as part of a $12 billion Howard Terminal project in Oakland before turning to Las Vegas. The A's had nothing but problems trying to finalize a deal with the City of Oakland, as the city missed deadlines needed to move forward with an A's ballpark.
The A's lease at the RingCentral Coliseum runs through 2024, and MLB officials said the team needs to have a new ballpark plan settled by then. The A's pretty much washed their hands of the Oakland negotiations and began concentrating on Las Vegas.
But Nevada politicians have not been as welcoming to the A's as they were to the Raiders. Former Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak last year indicated to the A's and Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred that Nevada had no desire to use public tax money to finance construction of a ballpark. Then, new Gov. Joe Lombardo's spokeswoman said he opposed raising taxes to fund a stadium.
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A's Considered Several Las Vegas Ballpark Sites
The A's were resilient regardless of negative politician comments. Originally, they were considering sites for a ballpark on the property of the Tropicana Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Fairgrounds site adjacent to Phil Ruffin's Circus Circus. Then, the A's owners reached a binding agreement to purchase a 49-acre former Wild Wild West site near the Las Vegas Strip owned by Red Rock Resorts to build a $1.5 billion, 35,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof and entertainment complex.
That wasn't the end of the A's efforts to get a stadium site, however. In May, the A's shelved the Wild Wild West deal and reached another agreement with Bally's Corp., which holds a 50-year lease on the 34-acre site of the Tropicana. The team wants to build a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat stadium on a portion of the hotel-casino site. The team would seek $380 million public funding for the project and would not buy the site. Bally's (BALY) would maintain its lease.
Team's Vegas Strip Ballpark Plans in Limbo
The A's ran into a big wall on June 6 when the Nevada State Legislature failed to pass Senate Bill 509, which would have provided the $380 million in public funding for construction of the Tropicana Las Vegas Property, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The bill died and the legislature adjourned the session just after midnight leaving the A's ballpark plans once again in limbo.
Lombardo said on June 6 that he would call the legislature into a special session to address several issues that the lawmakers did not address, but Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager said the A's ballpark funding would not be considered in the special session, the Review-Journal reported.
A's President Dave Kaval did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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