Earlier this summer, the Oakland A’s, in conjunction with Bally’s Corp. and Gaming and Leisure Properties (GLPI), announced plans to demolish the Tropicana and erect a new $1.5 billion ballpark in its place. Despite the fact that the team has not secured full approval for the move, all parties involved have expressed optimism that the project will come to fruition.
Of the three parties, GLPI had perhaps been the least vocal about the project, at least until the company’s second quarter earnings call July 28, when executives responded to questions about the process for the first time.
Brandon Moore, COO and general counsel for GLPI, said that the company is pleasantly surprised at how things are moving along, but noted multiple times that the A’s will have a tough road ahead in order to meet the proposed timeline of having the stadium up and running in time for Opening Day of the 2028 Major League Baseball (MLB) season.
“I think once they have their Major League Baseball approval and we’re reasonably certain the project is a go, I think you’ll start to see a timeline come out for demolition of the current site that’ll permit the physical construction of the stadium to begin,” Moore said on the call. “I don’t think there’s a set timeline on this yet, but I will say when you work backwards from the 2028 opening day, there’s not a lot of margin for error for the A’s team.”
Back on May 13, the three companies entered into a binding agreement to develop the stadium on nine of the 35 total acres of the plot, which is owned by GLPI.
However, it was soon reported that the team may request additional acreage to accommodate a retractable room system, and Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim told the Las Vegas Review-Journal July 7 that he felt there was “some language that allows for supports for a roof if necessary beyond the above (acreage).”
But on the GLPI call, CEO Peter Carlino indicated that he and other executives feel confident that the nine-acre allotment will be enough after all.
According to J.P. Morgan gaming analyst Joe Greff, the development agreement stipulates that the team will shoulder all of the design, development and construction costs, with Bally’s covering all costs related to demolishing the Tropicana and constructing a new casino resort. GLPI has agreed to contribute $175 million for developments deemed to be beneficial to both the stadium and the future casino.
And, Carlino said, that number could go up if things align correctly.
“We’ve announced that we have committed $175 million to infrastructure and various construction items at the site,” the CEO said. “We believe and hope that as the project evolves that there’s a lot more opportunity than that. We, of course, will look at what’s appropriate for our shareholders and our company, but we’re excited about the possibility of doing a whole lot more, subject of course to what Bally’s would desire. It’s Bally’s project. We have to be competitive, but that being the case, we’d like to participate at an even greater level.”
Bullishness aside, the fact that the project is even advancing at all is thanks in large part to the $380 million public funding package that was approved in a special session by the Nevada Legislature in mid-June.
The package includes up to $180 million in transferable tax credits from the state, as well as bonds and infrastructure allotments from Clark County to help fund the proposed 30,000-seat ballpark. The stadium site will also become a special tax district, whereby tax revenue generated in the area will pay back construction costs.
Before the A’s franchise even began its quest to head south to Las Vegas, though, there were several years of back-and-forth negotiations with the city of Oakland to try and build a stadium there.
A proposal to build a multibillion-dollar mixed-use development that centered around a new 35,000-seat ballpark in Oakland’s Howard Terminal, which included $425 million in public financing, gained traction among California lawmakers—including Governor Gavin Newsom—but ultimately fizzled out.
In June, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters outside of the league’s annual team meetings that the city of Oakland “never got to a point where they had a plan to build a stadium at any site,” and that the team had to leave because of the decrepit condition of Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, one of the oldest unrenovated MLB stadiums.
In the months since, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has denied that claim, and has vowed to keep up the fight until the very end, despite the fact that the deal looks very much wrapped up.
“What you’re seeing isn’t noise. It’s what we believe in,” Thao said in a recent interview with the Nevada Independent. “It’s beautiful, it’s electrifying and we’re not going to give up without a fight.”
Thao recently held a meeting with Manfred in Seattle to clear the air, during which she provided documents outlining the Howard Terminal development plan, and how it was and still is a lot more feasible than he previously made it to be. Thao even said the team had been the ones to reject multiple offers at forming a deal.
Whether or not the meeting was successful or if documents were actually reviewed was unknown.
“If you’re going to make a financial decision, you should be comprehensive in your research,” Thao told the Independent. “I am hopeful and I’m sure that many of the owners have reviewed [the documents] because this is also impactful for them as well.”
In the months leading up to the Las Vegas announcement, Thao said she met several times with A’s brass with no success, but still, she remains optimistic despite the long odds.
Unfortunately for Thao and longtime Oakland fans, the only hurdle left to finalize the relocation is approval from three-quarters of the MLB team’s owners, but the league has not given any details on the application process. The general consensus is that it will take several months for the team to gather and present all of the necessary materials for review to the league’s executive board, and a vote is not expected until later this year or sometime in 2024.
