Judge Sacks Educators Group’s Legal Attempt At Forcing Public Vote On Government Funding Of Planned Athletics Stadium On Strip
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
A First District Court judge in Carson City has struck down a lawsuit Monday that attempted to force a public vote in Nevada on state-approved public stadium funding for an Athletics baseball stadium at the Tropicana site on the Strip.
A PAC called Schools Over Stadiums, led by a statewide teachers union, said its efforts to allow Nevada voters to decide whether public dollars should be used to build a $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat roofed ballpark are not over.
Schools Over Stadiums representatives have appeared at the last two Las Vegas Stadium Authority board meetings to oppose the $380 million in government assistance approved by the Nevada Legislature in a special session in June and argue there have been conflicts of interests tainting the Athletics stadium funding deal.
The judge’s ruling took place after two lobbyists took legal action to oppose the Schools Over Stadiums’ state filing for a referendum on the stadium funding. The Schools Over Stadiums is the PAC for the Nevada State Education Association.
The bottom line is the judge ruled the Schools Over Stadiums public vote paperwork contained language that was “confusing and deficient.” Schools Over Stadiums spokesman Alexander Marks said to LVSportsBiz.com, “Definitely a disappointing decision but this is just part of the process. The judge just agreed more with the A’s attorney than ours. Didn’t give a whole lot of reasons as to why (just that it was confusing and deficient). We plan to appeal and/refile. We’re far from done.”
“Nevada educators are resilient and adapt to the situation at hand. Billionaires and their army of lobbyists will do whatever they can to make sure they don’t have to pay for their own stadiums, but there are plenty of innings left to play,” Marks said on social media.
LVSportsBiz.com emailed the Athletics for comment, but did not hear back by the time this story was published today.
The Athletics hope that baseball team owners at this month’s Major League Baseball owners meeting in Arlington, Texas will approve the A’s relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas.
The A’s are hoping to open their new stadium on the Strip in 2028 after the Tropicana site’s buildings are demolished in late 2024. The team said it will build a ballpark on nine acres of the 35-acre site owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties. But it’s unclear where the team will play in 2025, 2026 and 2027 after the Athletics’ agreement at the Coliseum in Oakland expires after the 2024 season.
