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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
A teachers group opposing the state’s $380 million public subsidy to the MLB Oakland Athletics for a baseball stadium on the Strip filed a 12-page referendum petition to the Nevada Secretary of State Wednesday in hopes of repealing government assistance for construction of the 33,000-seat ballpark at the Tropicana hotel-casino site.
The political action committee called, “Schools Over Stadiums,” needs 102,362 signatures split evenly between Nevada’s 4 congressional districts to force a statewide vote on the Nov. 2024 ballot.
“This effort, if successful, will remove language from SB1 that exists to pay off the bonds,” Schools Over Stadiums spokesperson Alexander Marks told LVSportsBiz.com Wednesday. “The way it’s worded, we’re asking for approval/disapproval of the bonding language in Sections 29 and 30. This strategy will get us around any sort of development deal that is signed by the State or County.”
Nevada legislators in both houses approved Senate Bill 1 in a special session two months ago. Gov. Joe Lombardo signed the bill into law.
“Based on comments made by the sponsors and lobbyists, we believe it would remove all public funding; the structure of the deal is essentially a house of cards,” Marks said to LVSB. “The way the bonds are structured, if we pull out the state taxes that are backing them and the $14M credit enhancement, we don’t believe Clark County will be able to issue bonds.”
Schools Over Stadiums says the legislators did not to hear a single bill to reduce Nevada’s overcrowded classrooms, which is the largest in the nation. And the group said there was no movement on generating new revenue streams for our schools.
“Shortly after Session, a report was released showing Nevada leading the nation in educator vacancies. While those important issues went unaddressed, the Governor and Legislature moved their focus to the needs of John Fisher and his lobbyists. For eight days, Nevada politicians singularly focused on financing a ‘world-class’ stadium for a California billionaire, while ignoring Nevada’s second-class education system,” the Schools Over Stadiums release said today.
The Athletics expect demolition of the Tropicana hotel in mid-2024 and a 31-month construction period that would result with the $1.5 billion stadium open by the 2028 MLB season. The A’s will play in Oakland in 2024, but it’s unknown where the team will play in 2025, 2026 and 2027 after the A’s lease at the Coliseum in Oakland expires after the 2024 MLB season.
“Schools Over Stadiums has been committed to pursuing every possible path to stop the use of public funds to subsidize a billionaire’s stadium and that has always included putting the question to Nevada voters who were effectively shut out of the process,” said Dawn Etcheverry, a music teacher and President of NSEA and Schools Over Stadiums.
Marks noted, “We’re excited to get out there and start gathering signatures from Nevadans who want to put our schools first. We’re confident that a majority of Nevadans will join us in taking action to put Nevada’s priorities back in line so we can address an education system that ranks 48th in funding with the largest class sizes and highest vacancies in the country.”
LVSportsBiz.com reached out to the A’s for comment. We have not heard back, but if we do we will add the team’s response into the story.