Is Las Vegas Rethinking the Oakland A’s Gamble?

There are some big signs that the people of Las Vegas and the state of Nevada are getting genuine buyer’s remorse over the Oakland Athletics. Last summer, Nevada’s state legislature approved a $380 million bill toward funding a proposed $1.5 billion new stadium for the A’s in Las Vegas. In November 2023, the A’s secured the unanimous approval of Major League Baseball owners to relocate from Oakland, California, to Las Vegas, Nevada, where the team would begin playing at its new stadium in 2028.

Where’s the plan for the new stadium?

At this point, all the A’s ownership had to do was create a concrete plan to build that stadium. They were already claiming the land the famed Tropicana Hotel and Casino currently occupies on the Las Vegas Strip, whose operators recently announced they would shut their doors in April 2024. They were supposed to deliver detailed renderings of the stadium that would be built and their plan to finance it by January 17, 2024.

But they blew that deadline. There is growing doubt that the A’s have a viable stadium design for the nine-acre site. As the team has wrapped up its 2024 season in the Oakland Coliseum, the club will play at the Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento until the Vegas stadium is complete. The stadium is home to the minor league River Cats.

Where’s the money?

There are also signs that A’s ownership doesn’t have the money to make it happen. Team owner John Fisher spoke to the Las Vegas Chamber at the end of January 2024. He pitched the prospect of selling a large share of the ownership of the A’s to local businessmen. The response among those who should be some of the A’s largest boosters was unenthusiastic, to say the least.

That event had followed the disclosure that Fisher’s Athletics Investment Group contributed $112,000 to state and local lawmakers who supported the $380 million in Nevada taxpayer dollars that would benefit the A’s. While it’s incredible what kind of return you can get by donating money to politicians if you’re a special interest, it’s not a way to build popularity with the people who vote for them. People who sense they will be stuck with a much bigger bill than they were sold.

It had gotten to the point that even the mayor of Las Vegas thinks the Athletics Investment Group expressed skepticism:

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman wants the Oakland Athletics to remain in the Bay Area, saying the team rejected an offer for land near the city’s downtown.

Goodman was interviewed on the Front Office Sports Today podcast, released Tuesday, about the A’s stadium situation.

The team said it plans to develop a ballpark on the site of the Tropicana hotel-casino, which lies in unincorporated Clark County and outside Las Vegas city limits.

The mayor told Front Office Sports that she doesn’t believe the site makes sense and the team should consider staying in Oakland.

Goodman evidently heard from several politicians who banked campaign contributions from the A’s. She has since walked back some of her statements, but the damage to public support in Las Vegas from her statement is still unfolding. In July, the A’s released financing plans that purported they would take $350 million in public funding, “which is $30 million less than what was earmarked by the legislature.” An estimated gap of $850 million remains.

It’s looking increasingly like the A’s are becoming a team without a town.

This article was adapted from Nevada’s Bet on the Oakland A’s Is Causing Buyer’s Remorse, originally featured on The Beacon in February 2024.