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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
The planned Athletics stadium in Las Vegas next appears on a public meeting agenda on July 18 — nearly seven weeks away.
But LVSportsBiz.com has learned some update information about the A’s stadium site at the former Tropicana hotel-casino location at Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue.
While there has been focus on A’s owner John Fisher and Tropicana owner Bally’s Corporation, the man overseeing the redevelopment of the 35-acre site is Peter Carlino, CEO of Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. (GLPI). Gaming and Leisure Properties owns the site on the Strip and is overseeing the site’s redevelopment to include the A’s stadium that is supposed to open for the 2028 MLB season.
LVSportsBiz.com was told by an industry insider that prominent Las Vegas gaming executive Tony Marnell is working on the site plan for the 35 acres. Keep in mind that nine of the 35 acres have been designated for the Athletics’ $1.5 billion domed stadium. The A’s and their stadium development contractors believe they can build the 33,000-seat baseball stadium on a nine-acre footprint.
Gaming & Leisure Properties, Inc.’s roster of properties includes The M hotel-casino in Henderson built by Marnell in 2009.
Our source also said it’s a distinct possibility that Bally’s could be replaced by another hotel-casino company that would build a hotel on the 35-acre site at Las Vegas Blvd. and Tropicana Ave. A Bally’s exec said recently there’s no rush or urgency to build a new hotel as part of the A’s stadium development. Bally’s has not revealed any plans for the site.
LVSportsBiz.com visited the Trop site earlier this month to see the parking garage demolished.
Bally’s closed the Tropicana hotel April 2.
On May 16, the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board held a short meeting, with board chairman Steve Hill holding a media session after the stadium meeting. Hill, who appeared before the state legislature last year to support the A’s stadium funding bill, said he was confident the A’s stadium will be built on time for 2028.
The Raiders built their stadium in 31 months for a 2020 opening and the A’s have assembled the same construction team to build their stadium on the Strip. The A’s are seeking to break ground in April after the Tropicana hotel site is cleared, Hill said.
Hill, also CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), said A’s owner Fisher has the money to build the stadium and that the doubts about whether the A’s will follow through on building the baseball stadium is part of the “drama” created by media. (Hill’s LVCVA is also being paid for the stadium board’s administrative support.)
Hill said the “A’s are coming.”:
Hill said Fisher is “looking at options” to help fund the stadium such as seeking team investors to help build the venue:
The A’s stadium funding bill included $380 million in government assistance to help build the venue.
The $380 million in public aid includes $120 million in bonds from Clark County. County commissioners are expected to vote on the $120 million in bonds in the first quarter of 2025, Hill said. Clark County is also on the hook for another $25 million in stadium infrastructure costs under the state bill approved in special session in 2023.
The A’s are playing their final season at the Coliseum in Oakland in 2024 and plan to play at the Triple-A stadium in Sacramento in 2025, 2026 and 2027 while their stadium is built in Las Vegas.
The development agreement between the A’s and the Las Vegas stadium board might be ready for the July 18 meeting.
A lawyer who plans to attend the July stadium board meeting is Jeremy Koo, who wrote a letter to the stadium panel about the proposed non-relocation agreement between the A’s and the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board.
Koo, a lawyer based in Sacramento, told LVSportsBiz.com, “The draft agreement contains a clause permitting seven or eight ‘home’ games annually to be played away from Las Vegas to accommodate MLB neutral site events. This number of games far exceeds that permitted in non-relocation agreements for new stadiums over the last 15 years and is far more than the one to three games MLB historically asks a team to forego for international and domestic special events with compensation to the team from the Commissioner’s Office.”
Here’s Koo’s letter to the stadium board.
In addition, a state teachers union in Nevada is challenging the constitutionality of the state bill authorizing the $380 million in government assistance for the A’s stadium. The union’s PAC, Schools Over Stadiums, tried to put the stadium funding deal on a statewide ballot, but a judge rejected that attempt for 2024.