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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
It didn’t take long Thursday for the topic of a proposed Athletics ballpark on the Strip to percolate at the Las Vegas Stadium Authority board meeting, where the public panel typically handles matters of overseeing the NFL Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium.
During public comment time at the meeting’s start, a Las Vegas man stood at the lectern and told the stadium authority board that building a Major League Baseball venue on the Strip was not the best idea. “Build it in Henderson,” he suggested.
He also said the Little League World Series venue in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, which has room for 40,000 fans on its grounds, holds more people than the proposed 30,000-seat ballpark proposed for nine acres at the Tropicana hotel-casino’s 35-acre site on the Strip’s east side.
The man in the ballcap also brought up the fact that Raiders owner Mark Davis and Athletics owner John Fisher don’t like each other and also argued the proposed ballpark site at Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard was too close to Allegiant Stadium.
When Davis left Oakland to build and open his domed, 62,000-seat football stadium in Las Vegas, he probably didn’t think Fisher would be trying to follow his path to Las Vegas for a new venue, too.
And not only does the public stadium authority board oversee the palatial NFL stadium, there’s talk that the panel would oversee the Athletics ballpark under any proposed legislative bill in Carson City.
Stadium board chairman Steve Hill, the LVCVA chief, said state legislators working on a potential ballpark funding bill are contemplating having the stadium board also oversee the Athletics baseball park.
Lawmakers are still negotiating a bill with Oakland Athletics representatives, who have asked for $395 million in tax credits and other incentives toward the construction of a $1.5 billion retractable-roof ballpark.
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After beginning talks with state legislators, the baseball team switched ballpark sites from the old Wild Wild West 49-acre site on Tropicana Avenue west of Interstate 15 to the current proposed location at the Tropicana hotel-casino site in the past month.
At the meeting, the stadium board went through the formality of approving its annual budget.
In Oakland news, the mayor said she is welcoming Fisher to return to the table and negotiate a deal at Howard Terminal. The Athletics have left $375 million worth of infrastructure grants on the table for the proposed ballpark site there.