OAKLAND—After losing the Raiders to Las Vegas, it looks as if the Oakland Athletics will be headed to Sin City as well.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed into law Thursday, June 15 a $380 million public financing package to help build a Major League Baseball stadium for the Oakland Athletics on the Las Vegas Strip as MLB’s commissioner outlined a months-long approval process for the A’s proposed move there.
Las Vegas is quickly gaining the reputation as “Sports Capital of the World,” with world class heavyweight Boxing, MMA, the Oakland Raiders who moved on 2020. Not to mention, Vegas pride and joy, NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights, who are celebrating their glistening Stanley Cup on the strip.
Meanwhile, the Golden State Warriors who thank God, stayed in the Bay Area at least, moved to San Francisco to the Chase Center. The Oracle Arena was torn down. In a stunning five year span, the city of Oakland is losing three professional sports franchises.
For more than 20 years, the A’s have been trying to extricate themselves from the same dingy, plumbing-challenged, possum-infested Oakland Coliseum from which the Raiders ran. Then they wanted to build a new stadium in Oakland, and between organizational blundering and governmental intransigence, that failed, too.
The success of the Golden Knights and Raiders in Las Vegas and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred waiving a $1 billion relocation fee for the A’s sealed the deal.
“This legislation reflects months of negotiations between the team, the state, the county, and the league,” Lombardo said. “Las Vegas’ position as a global sports destination is only growing, and Major League Baseball is another tremendous asset for the city,” Lombardo said.
The $1.5 billion stadium with a retractable roof is planned to hold 30,000 fans. With Senate Bill 1 providing funding for an A’s ballpark in Las Vegas now signed into law by Gov. Joe Lombardo, Bally’s Corp. will now turn its attention to when the Tropicana hotel which will be demolished.
The redevelopment of the Tropicana property is long overdue, with the resort opening in 1959, Chairman of Bally’s Soo Kim said. Bally’s Corp. is eager to get that underway as soon as possible.
Bally’s Corp. and Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc.—which owns the land the Tropicana sits on— first offered the A’s the 9 acres of prime land on the 35-acre site for free ahead of the A’s legislative dealings.
An A’s ballpark added to Las Vegas Boulevard would further what already is a vibrant sports district, Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim said. Allegiant Stadium and Michelob Ultra Arena at the Mandalay Bay are located just to the south of the Tropicana site, with T-Mobile Arena located just to the north.
“(Las Vegas Boulevard) will be the avenue of sports,” Kim said. “There’s a lot of logic with that. You see the Vegas Loop plans and that will connect all of them… It just all works.”
