By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
The Athletics scored a win in the legal arena Monday when the Nevada Supreme Court ruled against a state teachers union’s effort to allow Nevada voters to decide whether the A’s should receive $380 million in public assistance to help build a $1.5 billion stadium on the Strip.
The state’s high court validated a ruling in November by a First District Court judge in Carson City that struck down an attempt by anti-stadium subsidy PAC Schools Over Stadiums that looked to force a public vote in Nevada on the state bill that designated the $380 million to help fund the Athletics’ 33,000-seat domed stadium at the Tropicana hotel site on the Strip.
Schools Over Stadiums, led by a statewide teachers union, argued Nevada voters should decide whether public dollars should be used to build the baseball stadium.
Bottom line: Nevada’s highest court confirmed a lower court judge’s ruling that the Schools Over Stadiums referendum language was inadequate. So, not public vote on stadium subsidy in 2024.
Schools Over Stadiums said it will work toward putting the SB 1 stadium subsidy on the ballot for 2026. The teachers union PAC believes Senate Bill 1 is unconstitutional.
“Nevada voters deserve the opportunity to decide whether their money goes,” Schools Over Stadiums said in a statement today.
Unfortunately, in a split decision, they affirmed the District Court’s decision. While the dissent agreed with our position in its entirety, it’s a disappointing decision for Nevadans, Oakland fans, and anyone else who knows publicly funded stadiums are a scam. Billionaires and their lobbyists made sure Nevadans can’t vote in 2024, but there’s always 2026! We have every intention to work toward that goal. With biennial legislative sessions, NSEA is used to running multi-year campaigns, and we’ll just do what we always do. In the meantime, we have our constitutional challenge which could invalidate the entire bill as well. Yesterday was not a win for us, but after a year, the A’s still have no funding, no actual site location, and no signed agreements, with the looming threat of a current constitutional challenge to SB1 and a 2026 referendum — Alexander Marks for Schools Over Stadiums
Work on clearing the 35-acre site at the southeast corner of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard is supposed to start later this year and the A’s want to hold a groundbreaking event in the first half of 2025 so that the stadium will be ready for the Major League Baseball season of 2028.
The A’s are using the same stadium builders that the Raiders used for their football stadium about a mile and a half to the southwest.
The A’s are playing their final season in Oakland in 2024 and will then play in a Triple-A minor league stadium in Sacramento in 2025, 2026 and 2027 while the stadium is built on a nine-acre section of the 35-acre site.
The $380 million public funding includes $120 million in Clark County bonds and another $25 million for infrastructure. A tax increment financing (TIF) district will be created for the stadium’s nine acres and fees on items purchased at the stadium will be collected to hopefully pay off the debt on the $120 million in bonds. The exact location of the nine-acre stadium footprint on the 35-acre site has not been determined yet as Tropicana operator Bally’s Corp. said there is no “urgency” to build another hotel building.