A’s Say Public Will Contribute Closer To $350 Million, Not $380 Million, For $1.5 Billion Las Vegas Domed Stadium On Strip; Owner Fisher Will Pay Rest Through Equity, Loan
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
An A’s team representative offered some financing details behind the MLB team’s planned $1.5 billion stadium for the Strip that is supposed to open in 2028.
Sandy Dean, representing A’s owner John Fisher, told the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board Thursday that the team anticipates using $350 million of the maximum $380 million in public assistance designated under the state law passed in June 2023 to help build the domed stadium.
Dean also said the team plans to borrow $300 million to help pay for the 33,000-seat stadium. Fisher will pay for the balance of the ballpark at the former Tropicana hotel site at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue.
So, the stadium financing summary — Public: $350 million; Fisher takes loan: $300 million; Fisher pays rest in equity (he’s looking for investors): $850 million.
It should be noted that Dean also said the stadium — which is planned for only nine of the site’s 35 acres — will be situated on the northeast section of the site that is owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. (GLPI). Dean said the stadium should have views of the New York-New York and MGM Grand hotels at the high-profile Strip intersection. Dean has worked with the Fisher family for more than 25 years. Fisher is heir to the Gap, Inc. empire.
A’s team president Dave Kaval, who told the stadium board initially that he would be running point on the stadium project in Vegas, was absent. He did monitor the meeting, though:
As a reminder, here’s a look at a stadium rendering unveiled in March.
The planned A’s stadium has a “spherical armadillo” look, an architectural term introduced by the A’s stadium designer at the March stadium rendering session at Las Vegas Ballpark in Summerlin where the Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate, the Las Vegas Aviators, play:
The number of “home” games the A’s will be allowed to play outside of the Las Vegas market also popped up at the meeting. You might recall the A’s statement that seven “home” games a year could be played at neutral sites like a “Field of Dreams” game setting or in a foreign ballpark.
But that was updated with news Thursday that the seven “neutral” site games outside of the Las Vegas market would be over two seasons — not one.
The long-awaited 90-page development agreement between the A’s and stadium board was also introduced for the first time. It was added to the meeting’s online agenda as a background document on the day of the Thursday session when typically background documents are posted online several days before the stadium board meeting.
The first $100 million toward the stadium has to be paid for by the A’s — just like the Raiders stadium deal.
The development agreement also included a section on personal seat licenses (PSLs), which the NFL Raiders used big-time to help finance their stadium that opened in 2020 on the west side of I-15. The Raiders generated about $540 million through PSLs to help finance their domed, 62,500-seat stadium.
But Dean told LVSportsBiz.com that the A’s do not know whether personal seat licenses will be sold to ticket buyers and that it was included in the development agreement because much of the language was modeled after the Raiders stadium deal with this same public stadium board.
Dean said the San Francisco Giants successfully used personal seat licenses for their baseball stadium. But he noted newer ones like the stadium for the Texas Rangers did not.
The A’s are working on three stadiums at once — the Coliseum in Oakland that is being used for the final time in 2024, the Sutter Health Park Triple-A stadium in Sacramento where the Athletics will play from 2025-2027 and the planned Vegas venue that is pegged to make its debut for the 2028 MLB season.
The A’s Thursday also posted a video of their temporary ballpark in Sacramento Thursday when the MLB 2025 schedule was publicized.
Current photos of the Coliseum in that stadium’s final season as the A’s home.
The Houston-based lawyer for the stadium board, Mark Arnold , spent about a half-hour describing features of the development agreement. Arnold said he has worked on about 15 or 16 stadium deals, including the Raiders deal for the Las Vegas stadium board.
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