Athletics Show Appreciation For Nevada State Legislators, Clark County Commissioners With Political Contributions
Planned Athletics stadium site at Tropicana hotel land on the Strip.
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
It looks as if the Athletics wanted to thank some Nevada state and Clark County lawmakers for voting to back their stadium subsidy deal.
The Major League Baseball team, which hopes to open a new $1.5 billion stadium on the Strip in 2028, paid more than $100,000 in election contributions to elected officials, including Nevada Senate and Assembly leaders and three Clark County commissioners.
Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager, who is a very big sports fan, and Senate leader Nicole Cannizzaro each received $10,000 for their political campaigns after both voted yes on the Athletics’ $380 million stadium subsidy that was approved by the state legislature in June.
Even state Senator Fabian Donate, who drew attention for his tough guy act by calling A’s President Dave Kaval to the mic during a committee hearing, ended up voting yes for the bill that provides $380 million in government assistance to the A’s to build a baseball stadium on the Strip.
The Athletics $380 million stadium bill includes $120 million in Clark County bonds — and that’s where Clark County commissioners Ross Miller, Michael Naft and William McCurdy II come in. They supported the county floating bonds to the tune of $120 million as part of the overall stadium funding subsidy.
Miller, Naft and McCurdy each received $10,000 apiece, according to contribution records. The A’s want to build their 33,000-seat stadium at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue where the Tropicana hotel-casino is located. The hotel and all associated buildings will need to be demolished to make way for the A’s stadium.
State lawmaker Selena La Rue Hatch, who opposed the A’s stadium subsidy bill, said she was not surprised by the A’s campaign contributions to Nevada politicians.
“They want to build and maintain relationships with Nevada’s lawmakers, and that’s how they’ve decided to do that. One thing I can say for sure: I certainly haven’t received any contributions from John Fisher and the A’s and wouldn’t keep the contribution if I did,” La Rue Hatch told LVSportsBiz.com this week.
“These ‘deals’ keep getting approved is because organizations like the Oakland A’s hire armies of lobbyists (registered or not) to convince decision-makers that these events and stadiums will bring a return on investment that wildly eclipses whatever dollar amount they are asking for in the first place<‘ she said.
“They dazzle lawmakers with stats, graphs, and projections which promise to completely transform a community for the better, none of which are supported by actual economists. Unfortunately, as economists typically do not get multi-hour pitch sessions with lawmakers to make their case, nor do they have dozens of lobbyists to sell their messaging, their expertise is often lost in the cacophony of information,” the legislator told LVSB.
The $10,000 political contributions to the county commissioners are newsworthy because Clark County is the local government that will review the Athletics stadium and transportation plans. The A’s want to build their stadium on a nine-acre section of the hotel-casino’s total site of 35 acres.
Clark County approved the Las Vegas Raiders NFL stadium to sail through the review process. For example, county rules required the Raiders to build 16,250 parking spaces for their stadium on the west side of Interstate 15, but Clark County allowed the Raiders to get away with installing only 2,400 parking spaces.
That’s how the stadium sausage is made in Clark County.
