A’s President Dave Kaval To LVSportsBiz.com: 31-Month Construction Period For New Athletics Stadium On Strip After Tropicana Hotel Demolition Starts In 2024
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
Athletics President Dave Kaval envisions a 31-month construction period to build a 33,000-seat MLB stadium on the Strip after demolition of the Tropicana hotel-casino site begins in summer 2024.
The A’s have hired Mortenson/McCarthy to oversee the construction of the baseball venue that the A’s are aiming to open in 2028. Mortenson/McCarthy managed the construction of the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium, which opened in 2020.
Kaval also said CAA ICON is the team’s representative for the proposed ballpark on the Strip. ICON also worked on the Raiders’ stadium.
“The band is back together,” Kaval told LVSportsBiz.com of Mortenson/McCarthy and ICON back in action to build a stadium in Las Vegas. Kaval chatted with LVSB before Thursday’s Las Vegas Stadium Authority board meeting.
Kaval said it’s up to Major League Baseball to advise the baseball team about where it will play in 2025, 2026 and 2027 because it’s something the players union must agree to and will be part of a labor agreement. The Athletics’ lease ends at the Coliseum in Oakland after the 2024 season.
The new A’s stadium will fit in the southeast quadrant of the Tropicana site at Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard, with home plate looking out toward the MGM Grand hotel-casino beyond centerfield and the NY-NY hotel-casino in the direction of leftfield, Kaval said.
Kaval said hi to the stadium board during the public comments period.
“I’ll be running point” on the ballpark project, he told the stadium authority board. He said he wants to be transparent about the ballpark construction process with the Las Vegas market.
The stadium board, which oversees the Raiders’ stadium, will now also overlook the construction of the Athletics ballpark. It’s the stadium board’s job to make sure that the Athletics stadium is built in compliance with the state legislation that earmarked $380 million in government assistance for the A’s to build their ballpark. A special tax district will be created at the 9-acre baseball stadium site to generate revenues from taxes and fees charged on all types of purchases at the ballpark.
“This will be your easiest board meeting,” stadium board chairman Steve Hill joked to Kaval.
The stadium authority said goodbye to Jeremy Aguero, a principal and co-owner of consulting company Applied Analysis, which vacated its consulting job with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority because of the conflict of interest Aguero’s Applied Analysis would have working for both the Athletics and the stadium authority.
Hill and Aguero worked together on the stadium authority board to help get the Raiders stadium built. They shared an emotional hug after Thursday’s stadium board meeting.
Aguero helped craft the 2016 state bill that authorized the $750 million public contribution to help build the Raiders’ NFL stadium, steered stadium board meetings through the early days of the stadium construction, then took a job with the Raiders as an executive in 2021 before leaving the NFL team in 2022 to return to Applied Analysis last year.
Aguero referred to the “long journey” he had with Hill after the stadium board began its work in 2017.
“You kept it steady. You kept it together,” Aguero told Hill and the stadium board.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) staff will replace Applied Analysis in furnishing the administrative work for the Las Vegas Stadium Authority.
Two stadium board members, Jan Jones and Lawrence Weekly, attempted to ask questions about whether it would be a conflict of interest for Hill to be the CEO of the public LVCVA tourism agency, which will do work for the stadium authority board, which he chairs.
Hill said there is no conflict.
Hill explained stadium board member Lawrence Epstein, a UFC executive, will negotiate on behalf of the stadium authority the work the LVCVA will do for the stadium authority. The Las Vegas Stadium Authority is a public agency and must comply with open meetings and public information requests.
Applied Analysis’ deal with the stadium authority as its consultant capped yearly payment at $600,000, Hill told LVSportsBiz.com. Applied Analysis made $331,000 working for the stadium authority in 2022.
