MIA: Transportation, Parking Plan For Athletics Ballpark At Tropicana Hotel Site On Strip; Public Has Not Seen A’s Stadium Infrastructure Proposal
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
The Electric Daisy Carnival attendees dressed in colorful outfits staggered off the buses at the Tropicana hotel-casino parking lot at 7 AM Saturday.
They looked worn out after the all-nighter at the EDC festival at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Little did they know they were walking on ground that could become home for an Oakland Athletics ballpark.
LVSportsBiz.com visited the Tropicana hotel 35-acre site, which includes a nine-acre section designated for the Athletics’ 30,000-seat, retractable-roof stadium proposal.
Buildings toward the back of the property would need to be demolished because the baseball park appears to be situated on the southeast side of the property.
The A’s management is lobbying state legislators in Carson City to create ballpark funding legislation.
It would effect Clark County, which would be expected to sell at least $100 million in bonds to generate some of the funding for the public share of the venue’s construction. County commissioners say they will take a very close look at the Athletics stadium funding deal once it’s presented publicly.
“I haven’t seen their proposal but I will need to be persuaded before I can support spending money,” Clark Count Commissioner Tick Segerblom told LVSportsBiz.com.
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After the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Dallas Stars in Game 2 Sunday of the Western Conference Finals, Segerblom tweeted, “ironic that the best men’s team in las vegas is the one that didn’t receive any public subsidy.” He was referring to the VGK and the MLB Athletics’ request for public ballpark funding.
While the MLB team and state lawmakers haggle over the public money and tax credits for the ballpark project, one part of the proposal has received scant public attention. Namely, can transportation, infrastructure and logistics at one of the busiest intersections on the Strip accommodate a Major League Baseball stadium?
And can a ballpark be wedged into nine acres on a site that has limited surface parking and a small parking garage compared to other bigger garages on MGM Resorts International properties across Las Vegas Boulevard and also at MGM Grand.
Athletics consultant Jeremy Aguero said the A’s will rely on a multimodal transportation approach of getting fans to the ballpark site.
Only a half-mile away is T-Mobile Arena on the west side of Las Vegas Boulevard. The arena draws 18,000 people for Vegas Golden Knights games, relying on MGM Resorts International hotel garages in the immediate area. There are also RTC shuttle buses and ride share and some fans even take the monorail on the east side of Las Vegas Boulevard to MGM Grand, and walk to the arena.
But the Athletics believe the proposed ballpark will attract 30,000 fans to a site that most people agree is already congested with traffic and transportation-challenged.
It’s unclear how state legislators can come up with a proposed bill before June 5 when the Nevada Legislature adjourns when it typically takes months for private planners and engineers to create a transportation plan for a project with the scope of a ballpark.
The A’s have not released any renderings of a ballpark in Las Vegas. And there have not been any public information meetings about the proposed ballpark for residents in Las Vegas. Tropicana’s owner, Bally’s Corporation in Providence, Rhode Island, posted a press release about the ballpark idea.
Ironically, the A’s left $375 worth of infrastructure grants on the table for the team’s proposed waterfront ballpark at Howard Terminal back in Oakland.
It’s common for companies to request tax breaks and financial incentives to relocate in new states, but in this case no public bodies in Las Vegas were recruiting the Athletics to migrate to Las Vegas.
In addition, Athletics owner John Fisher, billionaire heir to the Gap retail business empire, doesn’t appear to invest in his team because the A’s are last out of 30 teams in player payroll at about $57 million. There are 22 MLB teams with payrolls of at least $100,000 million, including eight teams (Mets, Yankees, Padres, Phillies, Dodgers, Angels, Blue Jays, Braves) with payrolls of more than $200 million.
