As the Oakland Athletics (A’s) franchise continues its quest to build a $1.5 billion stadium with a partly retractable roof on the 49-acre, off-Strip plot it recently purchased from Red Rock Resorts, the question of how the ballpark will be financed still looms large.
The team has made it clear that it wants at least $500 million in public funds to help facilitate the project, and most analysts believe that a bill will eventually be proposed in the state Legislature to create a special tax district around the stadium site, which sits near Dean Martin Drive and Tropicana Avenue.
According to a recent report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the team had previously been in talks with casino operators from the north end of the Strip and downtown Las Vegas to help cover any gaps in tax revenue needed to fund the construction of the stadium, but that proposal was only tied to the Las Vegas Festival Grounds, which already sits in a special tax district.
The operators, which included the likes of Resorts World Las Vegas, Circa and others, were reportedly supportive of the proposal, given the additional business that the stadium would generate for the area.
Once the team pivoted and purchased the site of the former Wild Wild West casino from Red Rock, however, that proposal became null and void, the Review-Journal reported.
In a statement to the newspaper, Resorts World President Scott Sibella confirmed that the team-operator tax partnership was “something we have discussed,” but ultimately was “not the reason the deal didn’t get done at the festival site.”
Additionally, Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), reiterated to the Review-Journal that the tax proposal is not being considered for the Wild Wild West site.
“It was a concept that we thought might work because of the specifics around the (festival grounds) site and the number of properties that were near it,” said Hill. “If that site had remained the primary site, it was an option that would have probably been pursued. There was interest in at least further discussion by the properties around there.”
According to details included in the tax proposal, the operators would have been liable to fill any gaps between the amount needed to repay the county and the amount of tax revenue generated by the special stadium district. Hill estimated that the proposal would have cost each operator approximately $12 million a year.
Neither the A’s nor Phil Ruffin, who owns the festival grounds site, responded to requests for comment on the matter.
Sibella, for his part, indicated that he and others were none too happy to see the team go a different route—he told the Review-Journal that he is “disappointed because we know it’s the best site for the city of Las Vegas.”
“We’re happy that the A’s are coming and will support them, but not as much as we would have if it was the festival lot,” he added.
With that in mind, the Wild Wild West site does offer some attractive benefits to the team, most notably in the form of transportation. The plot sits right next to the $305 million project that will see the Tropicana interchange completely redesigned, which will make it easier to accommodate the larger flow of traffic.
The four-way stop at the intersection of Dean Martin and Tropicana will also be reconfigured so that drivers on Dean Martin will travel underneath the heightened Tropicana bridge, thus streamlining the flow of traffic to and from the A’s stadium and Allegiant Stadium.
“Long term, that’s a huge benefit to that site,” A’s President Dave Kaval told the Review-Journal. “That all this investment, hundreds of millions of dollars, is going in, making it easier to go in and out. Right now, it’s not so great. But over time that’s going to mean that site is going to be easier to get to for people coming from all parts of Southern Nevada.”
The project, which began last year, is expected to be completed by early 2025, plenty of time before the team begins playing in the new stadium for the 2027 season.
Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) Deputy Director Jeff Lerud told the newspaper that the city had other plans for the land, but now that the team is coming, “it will be better that it’s a stadium-type of thing than a daily trip generator during peak hours. Because, I think, typically stadiums are. You think about the Knights, it’s typically 7 o’clock at night. There’s some day games, but those are usually on the weekends. I think baseball is very similar, early-evening games, so we’re kind of lucky in that impact, because it’s not going to add to our peak hour traffic.”
The team is also excited about the progress being made with the Las Vegas Loop underground transportation system that is spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Boring Co.
The system, if it reaches completion, is projected to feature 50-plus stations throughout the Las Vegas Valley, a good number of which would be tied to casinos. One sticking point, however, is that the properties will have to fund the construction of the station themselves if they want to be included.
In any case, one of the planned stations is in close proximity to the stadium site, and Kaval told the Review-Journal that it “would be another great way to connect from the Strip for tourists to that location. So that’s another win-win at that site.”
