Las Vegas Monitors Oakland City Council Meeting On Athletics Baseball Park Proposal Tuesday; Oakland Council Approves Non-Binding Term Sheet; A’s Prez Says Term Sheet Doesn’t Work For Team
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Metro Las Vegas residents tuned in to an Oakland City Council meeting Tuesday morning, when the public in Oakland spoke for and against a proposed Oakland Athletics baseball stadium proposal for the Howard Terminal waterfront.
A’s president Dave Kaval said it’s Howard Terminal or bust for a Major League Baseball ballpark or the MLB team would look at the Las Vegas market for a potential venue. LVSportsBiz.com reported there there has been no public funding source identified for any ballpark in metro Vegas, though Kaval said he has checked out sites from Henderson and Summerlin to the Strip entertainment corridor. Kaval told LVSportsBiz.com a month ago month that there were 30 sites floated in all. One site out of many is land west of the end of Summerlin Parkway.
The council voted, 6-1, with one member abstaining, to green light an amended non-binding term sheet for an Athletics waterfront baseball park proposal — an amended term sheet that Kaval said would be a no-go for the team. It opens the door for the A’s to justify leaving Oakland for Las Vegas if that’s the team’s political strategy.
“We are very close in full agreement with the A’s,” Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said. She noted it was a disappointment that the city “did not have full consensus from the team.”
The majority of the residents spoke against the ballpark proposal term sheet, which included housing besides the proposed A’s baseball park at Howard Terminal. The $12 billion waterfront project would include a 34,000-seat ballpark.
Some residents criticized “billionaire owner” John Fisher for presenting a ballpark proposal that didn’t help poor Oakland residents. One called the ballpark proposal a “scam.”
Others, including several Coliseum workers, said the A’s should stay at the current Coliseum stadium.
And some residents, including union leaders, cited the jobs and urged the city council members to keep the negotiations going to build the new ballpark in Oakland.
Oakland has already lost the NFL Raiders to Las Vegas and the NBA Warriors to San Francisco.
The Athletics have a reputation for talking about re-location for years, including chatting with former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who is married to the current Las Vegas mayor, Carolyn.
The A’s wanted a city council vote Tuesday on a non-binding deal on the waterfront ballpark term sheet. The deal is designed to give the city and the A’s the general framework for future talks and a potential final binding agreement. It’s a proposed 25-year deal.
Public comments lasted nearly two hours at the Oakland City Council meeting. Here’s the timeline:
City of Oakland’s interest in this:
After the meeting, Oakland’s elected leadership released a statement. Schaaf, Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas and Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan after the council’s vote:
“Today’s vote by the City Council marks a milestone in our mission to keep the A’s rooted in Oakland and build a world-class waterfront ballpark district that will benefit the community for generations to come. Based on our extensive negotiations, shared values and shared vision, we believe the A’s can and should agree to the terms approved by the City Council today. This is the path to keeping the A’s Rooted in Oakland in a way that protects our Port and tax payers and will produce the benefits our community demands and deserves. We look forward to continue working with the A’s to address their remaining concerns and to focus now on developing a final Environmental Report and binding Development Agreement that address the complex details of this visionary project.”
If the A’s think Las Vegas will open the bank vault in public money for a ballpark, they will find resistance. No Clark County elected official has publicly said that he or she is OK with public dollars being used for an MLB ballpark for the Athletics — especially after the Athletics’ former co-tenant at the Oakland Coliseum, the Raiders, were able to get Southern Nevada to contribute $750 million for the construction of Allegiant Stadium that opened in 2020.
Plus, the LVCVA public tourism agency gave $80 million to Howard Hughes Corporation for a naming rights deal that allowed Howard Hughes to build a $150 million ballpark in Summerlin.
Meanwhile, the city of Henderson is giving $42 million in public dollars for an $84 million arena being built by Golden Knights owner Bill Foley that will house the Henderson Silver Knights minor league team. The city of Henderson also gave a price break to the Raiders on the land for the Raiders’ team headquarters.
The A’s are looking at sites in metro Las Vegas to host a $1 billion stadium that would have a retractable roof and have room for 30,000-35,000 fans.
Here’s one resident’s opinion on Twitter:
