Dysfunctional Baseball: Oakland Athletics’ Bizarre, Strange, Surreal Adventure To Win $380 Million In Government Assistance From Nevada For Ballpark On Strip

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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer

Nobody invited the Oakland Athletics and their owner, John Fisher, to Las Vegas to build a subsidized baseball stadium on the Strip.

But they showed up, hat in hand, in Carson City asking for $380 million in government assistance to build a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat ballpark at Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard.

And to show how major league sports believe they can draw preferential treatment from elected officials, the Nevada Senate indeed spent much of Wednesday discussing and dissecting the Athletics’ $380 million stadium subsidy proposal now known as Senate Bill 1 in the Legislature’s special session. The video broadcast of the marathon hearing at the Senate Committee of the Whole ended at about 11:45PM after a 1:51PM start.

It was all very bizarre.

The Athletics chose to have Las Vegas’ go-to consultant/sports promoter (Jeremy Aguero) and the local tourism agency head (Steve Hill) to do their pitch for the public assistance of $380 million.

Much of Wednesday’s hearing for S. B. 1 was a replay of a joint-committee hearing on Memorial Day when Athletics’ representatives Aguero and Hill focused on what they believe were tourism benefits of an A’s ballpark on the Strip.

Hill explained there would be 17 different taxes and charges enacted in a special nine-acre sports district that would include the ballpark where special fees would be collected on everything from liquor drinks to car rides to the site at Tropicana Avenue/Las Vegas Boulevard.

Would all the money that would be collected on the 17 separate taxes be enough to pay off the debt on the $120 million of bonds that Clark County would be required to sell under the $380 million stadium subsidy bill?

Aguero and Hill said they believe so.

The sad part of the Athletics’ loyal fan base potentially losing its Oakland ball team was that the A’s and the city of Oakland were so close to realizing a $12 billion waterfront redevelopment deal that would have been a transformative project for the area.

They were about $200 million apart on a $12 billion project at Howard Terminal that would have included a waterfront ballpark and so much more in a mixed-use development.

But the Athletics came up short — just like they did in stadium ideas for San Jose and Fremont. LVSportsBiz.com spoke with insiders who said the team’s dysfunctional management style undercut its ability to cut stadium deals for more than a decade.

After striking out on three stadium locations in the massive Bay market, the Oakland Athletics set their sights on the much smaller but sports-crazy Las Vegas market.

True to form, they changed stadium sites along the Strip entertainment corridor in the middle of negotiations here in Nevada.

In April, the A’s announced they planned a ballpark at the old Wild Wild West site on Tropicana Avenue just west of I-15 and Dean Martin Drive. Less than a month later, the A’s had a new site — the Tropicana hotel-casino site at one of the busiest intersections on the Strip.

The MLB club pitched legislation that included Clark County selling bonds to generate $120 million toward ballpark construction.

But it all seemed odd that Clark County is not deciding the legislation’s fate. That’s in the hands of state lawmakers, including some in the Reno/Carson City/Northern Nevada area who live closer to the Coliseum in Oakland than the Strip.

In fact, there are many odd and surreal things about how the Athletics have tried to win $380 million worth of government assistance.

The team’s president, Dave Kaval, has rarely appeared publicly to discuss the stadium subsidy request. There have been no public community meetings in the Las Vegas area about the A’s stadium idea.

And it seemed odd that they focused so much on the tourists who they said were going to attend A’s games in Las Vegas when they projected 70 percent of fans at the venue would be locals.

Aguero/Hill mentioned there would be 95 annual events at the ballpark, including 82 A’s games.

As was the case on Memorial Day, the unions, trades and chamber leaders Wednesday voiced their support for the stadium subsidy bill.

Proposed ballpark site — Tropicana hotel

Opponents, meanwhile, could not understand how Nevada could give $380 million in public assistance to a billionaire team owner when there are so many pressing school funding and health care problems facing Southern Nevada.

State Sen. Rochelle Nguyen set the tone when she asked why should the state pay $380 million for a MLB ballpark when Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed bills that would fund summer school and pay for family leave.  She asked why Nevada should provide millions of dollars to Fisher when the state doesn’t have enough money for schools, health care and other public needs.

And several people accused the ball team of trying to ram the bill through.

“It’s rushed. It’s clandestine. They’re trying to push you like three-card monte,” Las Vegas area Wayne Coy said. “Let’s get a major league team the right way.”

And a former Athletics executive Steve Pastorino, who worked with owner Fisher and Kaval at the MLB team, testified that, “You cannot trust Dave Kaval.”

A Las Vegas resident, Pastorino said, “There are so many holes in this proposal.”

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Nevada Sen. Fabian Donate also requested Kaval come to the mic to answer questions about the entertainment tax on A’s games in Las Vegas.

The team president complied. But Kaval dodged the question and lawmakers did not appear pleased.

At least it was a rare moment of Kaval in public answering questions.

Sen. Dallas Harris also went at it with Aguero, who maintained that public dollars for stadiums are a good idea for the Las Vegas area because of this market’s 40 million annual visitors.

On Wednesday, Congresswoman Barbara Lee also shared a letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred:

 

S.B. 1 is scheduled to be discussed in special session Thursday after the Legislature’s 120-day session ended Monday.

Stay tuned for more LVSportsBiz.com coverage later today.

 

Opinion statements for SB1:

 

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