Earlier this year, Gaming and Leisure Properties (GLPI), Bally’s Corp. and the Oakland A’s entered into an agreement to demolish the Tropicana Las Vegas and build a new, $1.5 billion ballpark on nine of the 35 total acres on the plot, which GLPI owns.
Bally’s, which had just purchased the non-land assets of the Tropicana from GLPI in late 2022 for $148 million, agreed to relinquish the casino with the stipulation that it could construct a new resort on the remaining acreage after the stadium was completed.
At the time, GLPI brass announced that the company was willing to allocate up to $175 million to help fund developments that were deemed to be mutually beneficial. Now, however, it appears that GLPI may in fact be willing to commit more than that, based on comments given at the recent Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas.
Mitch Germain, an analyst for JMP Securities, met with GLPI executives at the show to talk about the progress of the ballpark deal. In a note to investors published October 16, Germain contended that the company “was enthusiastic about prospects for participation at the project in larger scale, above the original $175 million commitment.”
The overall deal involves several moving parts outside of GLPI, some of which have yet to be fully resolved. For starters, the A’s have not yet secured final relocation approval from Major League Baseball (MLB)—the team will need a three-quarters majority vote from other MLB owners in order to complete the deal, and there have been little updates as to when that vote will take place.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred previously said in an interview with the Associated Press that he hopes the vote will take place during the next round of owners meetings, which are set for November 14-16 in Arlington, Texas, but that is not a guarantee.
Additionally, the team will need to secure over $1 billion in extra financing to pay for the bulk of the stadium costs. Early reporting has indicated that A’s owner John Fisher, who is the son of Donald and Doris Fisher, founders of Gap Inc., will make a sizable contribution to the stadium, perhaps one of the largest ever made by an MLB owner for a stadium project.
Back in June, Nevada lawmakers approved SB1 in a special legislative session, which earmarked up to $380 million in public financing for the stadium project, consisting of tax credits and bonds issued by Clark County. That leaves roughly $1.1 billion for the team to secure.
According to the Nevada Independent, a spokesman for the team said that MLB had requested any announcement regarding the project be delayed until after the World Series is completed.
In his post-G2E research note, Germain noted that GLPI acknowledged the complexity of the project, and that executives “alluded to several moving pieces about not only the stadium, but the potential for Bally’s to re-develop the Tropicana site.”
