Rubble From Old Tropicana Buildings Getting Moved To Make Way For A’s Stadium, Bally’s Hotel On Strip
ADVERTISEMENT
Shop at Jay’s Market at 190 East Flamingo Road at the Koval Lane intersection east of the Strip.
ADVERTISEMENT
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Much of the rubble is gone.
Only two months ago, the old Tropicana hotel-casino buildings were imploded to make for an MLB A’s stadium and Bally’s hotel-casino on the site at the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard, one of the two main intersection on the Strip.
LVSportsBiz.com checked out the site this week and the scenes speak for themselves.
The Las Vegas Stadium, to no surprise, approved lease, development, non-relocation agreement with the A’s. The stadium board is chaired by LVCVA CEO Steve Hill, who lobbied for the A’s stadium subsidy bill that was approved by the Nevada Legislature.
It’ an obvious conflict of interest for a public agency head like Hill to lobby for a subsidy bill that benefits a private company that also does business with the public board he chairs. But that’s how public business is conducted in Las Vegas/Clark County and elected officials don’t mind.
The A’s have hired the construction team of Mortenson/McCarthy to build the $1.75 billion domed stadium project. Bally’s wants to build a hotel-casino that would be connected to the stadium concourse via a walkway bridge.
Here’ a look at the plan:
Besides the A’s and Bally’s, a third partner, Gaming & Leisure Properties, Inc. (GLPI), is involved in the redevelopment of the 35-acre site as the land owner.
The A’s say they can build the 30,000-seat stadium with standing room for another 3,000 fans on a nine-acre footprint of the 35 acres.
The A’s said groundbreaking will happen in either April, May or June with a construction period of 30-31 months to have the ballpark ready for the 2028 MLB season.
This was an obvious tourism industry play. That’s because the literal name of the stadium subsidy bill approved in special session a year and a half ago is called the Southern Nevada Tourism Innovation Act. The public is on the hook for $380 million in government assistance for the A’s stadium construction, though the A’s say they will need only $350 million in public aid.
Here is the construction project:
A’s owner John Fisher said he and his family, which owns the Gap retail empire, are committed to spending $1.1 billion on the stadium construction in addition to taking out a $300 million U.S. Bank loan.
It’s unclear why Fisher didn’t just spend the same $1.1 billion on building an open-air baseball stadium in Oakland. But Major League Baseball and most baseball team owners derive satisfaction from squeezing host markets for free government money help build their palatial baseball playgrounds.
