Oakland Area Man Launches Website To Oppose Athletics Ballpark Public Assistance Deal In Las Vegas
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
The MLB Athletics’ request for $395 million in public assistance to help build a ballpark on the Strip has drawn mixed opinions here in Las Vegas. But there’s one man back in the Oakland area who has a strong message for Nevada lawmakers who may vote on a potential public ballpark funding bill.
Don’t approve government financial help for an A’s ballpark in Las Vegas, said Matt Ortega, a 39-year-old web designer and longtime Oakland Athletics fan who lives in San Leandro south of Oakland.
And to publicize his point, Ortega has published a website called, nonevadamoney.com, in hopes of killing any ballpark subsidy deal in Nevada and getting the A’s and the city of Oakland back to the table to build an Athletics ballyard at Howard Terminal.
“If the deal in Las Vegas blows up, that’s the best shot we have to keep the team,” Ortega told LVSportsBiz.com Thursday.
Ortega wanted to share with Las Vegas that Athletics owner John Fisher would not necessarily beef up the player salary payroll even if he gets government subsidies from Nevada and money from bonds sold by Clark County for a ballpark now planned for nine acres on the Tropicana hotel-casino property on the Strip at one of the busiest corners in Las Vegas.
Only three weeks ago, Athletics owner Dave Kaval crowed about how great the team’s first proposed site — a 49-acre location at the old Wild Wild West casino at Tropicana Avenue and Dean Martin Drive just west of I-15 — was for a retractable-roof ballpark in Vegas. In fact, Kaval said focus groups stressed to the A’s they wanted good access to a ballpark without waiting in traffic for an hour. He mentioned the first site was going to be a baseball village that would be used year-round. Not anymore with the site on the Strip.
“It’s really hard to make heads or tails of what’s going on with them,” Ortega said of a second proposed ballpark site floated only three weeks after the first one in Las Vegas. “They’re grasping at straws.”
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
The Nevada Legislature adjourns June 5, though Athletics consultant Jeremy Aguero told LVSportsBiz.com this week that a special session could be called on an Athletics ballpark funding bill.
Ortega also launched the website to “combat the bad rep” being targeted at Athletics fans, who have supported the franchise for decades but have not attended like they used to because of ownership’s lack of support.
The reclusive owner, Fisher, rarely makes a public appearance. He actually visited the Triple-A baseball stadium, Las Vegas ballpark, in early March to watch his Athletics play a preseason game as part of Big League Weekend in Las Vegas. Stadium staff blocked LVSportsBiz.com from approaching Fisher at the spring training game where he stayed in the Las Vegas Aviators suite.
Ortega said the best case scenario would be to keep the Athletics in Oakland and force Fisher to unload the team.
He said he hopes Nevadans tell their elected leaders that they don’t want public money used to help build an A’s ballpark in Las Vegas. Ortega noted that a MLB expansion team in Las Vegas would work better than a relocated Athletics team.
