Las Vegas Stadium Negotiations

The Athletics’ efforts to secure public funding for a Las Vegas stadium project has been pending in the Nevada legislature for the past few weeks. Reports in late May suggested the organization and lawmakers had reached a tentative agreement that’d see around $380MM in public funding committed to the project via tax credits, exemptions and county-issued bonds.

They’re still awaiting formal approval from the legislature, though, and the process has slowed down substantially. Nevada’s standard legislative session only runs through June 5; the A’s stadium bill didn’t come up for a formal vote in that time. That’s not a death knell for the project, as the governor’s office called a special session this morning to keep legislators in Carson City.

Both Tabitha Mueller of the Nevada Independent (Twitter link) and Mike Watson of 8 ABC report that the A’s stadium proposal will be up for debate. Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal tweets the A’s stadium is not scheduled for tonight but could be heard tomorrow at 10:00 am PDT. It’s not clear whether there’ll be a formal vote on the proposal within the next 24 hours but there should soon be more clarity about the project’s chances of getting off the ground.

The A’s are hoping to construct a 30,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof on the Vegas Strip. If their stadium plans are greenlit by Nevada officials, the A’s could then formally apply to MLB for relocation out of Oakland.

The A’s stadium drama has been one of MLB’s biggest storylines of the past couple months. The franchise has already expressed its hope for getting a deal done in Las Vegas that’d allow them to relocate out of Oakland within the next couple years. They’ve entered into a pair of land purchase agreements for potential stadium sites in recent months, but the franchise’s biggest hurdle — a public financing agreement with the Nevada legislature — has yet to get off the ground.

Reports on Monday suggested the organization was likely to formally put forth a funding proposal by the end of the week. That still hasn’t happened, and multiple reports yesterday indicated potential reluctance on the legislature’s part to meet the A’s ask. The franchise’s as-yet unofficial proposal is expected to call for $395MM in public funding via Clark County-issued bonds to be paid by tax dollars related to the stadium project. Initially, the organization was set to pursue $500MM in bonds before revising their anticipated ask after changing their target stadium site.

Even that “diminished” $395MM figure seems to be beyond the legislature’s comfort. Both Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Tabitha Mueller/Howard Stutz of the Nevada Independent reported yesterday the legislature wasn’t keen on the $395MM price tag. The respective reports present differing details on precisely how large the gap between the organization and state is.

The Nevada Independent suggests the legislature is mulling an approval of $150-195MM in tax credits, which would leave a $200MM+ gap on the organization’s desired figure. The Review-Journal pegs things more closely, reporting that government officials are willing to commit $320MM in financing. That’d be a much smaller but still not insignificant $75MM shy of the A’s goal.

Akers writes that the A’s formal financing proposal is now not expected to go in front of the legislature until sometime next week. Lawmakers are only in scheduled session through June 5, leaving a small window for a deal to be approved before the session is set to close. The governor or 2/3 of the legislature can choose to call a special session to continue negotiations beyond June 5 if necessary, Mueller and Stutz note.

In any event, there’s an increasing sense of urgency for the organization to accelerate talks. The franchise is hoping to build a 30,000-seat retractable roof facility with an estimated $1.5 billion price tag on the south end of the Vegas strip. Just over $1.1 billion would be paid by the A’s under their expected proposal, with the $395MM in public funding accounting for the remainder of the costs. It’s to be seen whether either side will budge on the funding discrepancy (however large it is at present) to get a deal done.

Under the 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement, the A’s have until next January 15 to sign a stadium deal somewhere if they’re to retain their status as recipients of revenue sharing. It’s clear the organization hopes that’ll be in Vegas, though there remains some chance they turn their focus back to Oakland if talks with the Nevada legislature fall apart.

The Athletics are continuing to pursue their potential relocation to Las Vegas and will likely be filing their funding bill with the Nevada Legislature in the coming week, per Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Twitter, who adds that there will be enough time to get the deal done during the current legislative session.

The timing is significant on a couple of fronts. The current Nevada legislative session adjourns on June 5 and there’s no even year session, meaning there won’t be another chance for the A’s to file until early 2025, after the 2024 election. Under the terms of the recent collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLBPA, the Athletics have until January 15 of 2024 to sign a contract for the construction of a new facility in order to retain their status as revenue sharing recipients.

It was reported last month that the club had agreed to purchase 49 acres of land west of the Las Vegas Strip, though a later report indicated the club had pivoted to the site of the Tropicana hotel on the Strip. That hotel is owned by Bally’s Corporation, on land leased from Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. The former plan would have involved asking for $500MM in county-issue bonds but the latter plan involves a lesser ask of $395MM.

Akers’ report provides some details on the latter plan, indicating that Bally’s and Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. will be giving nine acres of the land to the A’s. Akers speaks with Bally’s Corp. Chairman Soo Kim in the piece, who estimates that land on the Strip is worth about $20MM per acre, making the total value of that land around $180MM. Once the 30,000-seat stadium with retractable roof is completed, the A’s would contribute the land to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, following a similar path to the Raiders and Allegiant Stadium. Bally’s has plans to build a new hotel-casino on the remaining portion of the land once the stadium is completed, though it’s still being determined if the Tropicana would shutter completely during construction or stay open as the work is done in phases.

The A’s currently have about three weeks to submit their proposal and get it approved before the legislative session is done. Whether they will succeed in that regard remains to be seen.

The A’s plans for a stadium proposal in Las Vegas have changed. According to reports from both Mick Akers of the Review-Journal and Howard Stutz of the Nevada Independent, the A’s have entered into a new land agreement for the construction of a stadium at the current site of the Tropicana hotel on the Vegas Strip.

Initially, the organization had been focused on a site just west of the Strip. They even announced a land deal last month, but the Nevada Independent reported yesterday the franchise was looking into alternatives due to concerns about the extent of the public funding for their previous plan. They’ve quickly settled on a new location and are moving on from the land they’d planned to build on a few weeks ago.

The A’s had been set to propose a plan that called for $500MM in public funding via county-issued bonds to be paid by tax dollars related to the stadium project. Both the Nevada Independent and Review-Journal report that the team’s public funding ask for the new site will be $395MM. The hope is that by reducing their ask on public funding by $105MM, their proposal will be more palatable whenever it’s formally put in front of the Nevada legislature.

Whether that’ll prove to be the case remains to be seen. The A’s are seeking approval from county and state officials for the construction of a park that’d be ready by the start of the 2027 season. If they receive government approval and sign a binding stadium agreement, they could then petition MLB for relocation out of Oakland.

The A’s lease at Oakland’s RingCentral Coliseum runs through the end of next season. The organization has until January 15 to formally sign a contract for the construction of a new facility if they’re to retain their status as revenue sharing recipients in the collective bargaining agreement.

The A’s have reengaged with various landowners as they look into potential stadium sites in the Las Vegas area, report Howard Stutz and Tabitha Mueller of the Nevada Independent. According to the report, A’s officials have recently been in contact with land holders at multiple Vegas-area locations that had previously been under consideration.

It’s a bit of a surprise considering the A’s already announced a land purchase agreement for 49 acres west of the Vegas strip three weeks ago. The Nevada Independent report suggests the A’s are scoping alternatives as backup plans. While the agreed-upon site still seems to be the organization’s top priority, it’s somewhat notable they’re also exploring other options.

It seems there’s at least some concern the A’s won’t get legislative approval for their stadium plan at the site they’re already buying. To date, the club’s only agreement has been the land purchase. They have not finalized a stadium deal that’d set the stage for formal relocation. Indeed, they’ve still yet to even put an official proposal up for consideration in the Nevada legislature. They’ve expressed plans for a 35,000-seat ballpark that’d involve a $1 billion investment from the franchise in addition to $500MM in county-issued bonds to be paid by tax dollars related to the stadium project.

Without a formal proposal on the legislative docket, though, there remains some uncertainty whether the plan will be greenlit. “We haven’t gotten anything concrete yet of exactly what it is that they’re looking for, or what they would like us to take a look at,” a state senator told Stutz and Mueller last week. “So it’s tough to have conversations about what exactly we may or may not do, and time here is finite. … We only have a few more weeks left, so if there’s going to be a deal, it’s got to come very soon.”

While there’s no indication the A’s are seriously alarmed about the prospect of negotiations falling through, it’s clear they’ll have to accelerate talks in the relatively near future. The Nevada legislature remains in session through June 5, though they could call a special session to continue negotiations into the summer.

Oakland mayor Sheng Thao announced at the time the A’s entered into the Nevada land purchase she was ceasing discussions about a possible stadium project in Oakland’s Jack London Square. She later left open the possibility for reopening negotiations, though it’s clear the A’s efforts for a Vegas site would have to be in peril for that to happen at this point. There’s still nothing to suggest the A’s are considering sites outside Nevada.

In any event, there’s a clear target date for the A’s to have a binding stadium agreement in place. A provision in the collective bargaining agreement mandates that the organization have a formal stadium deal by next January 15 if they’re to retain their status as revenue sharing recipients. The A’s lease at RingCentral Coliseum runs through 2024.

A potentially monumental change to the MLB landscape was announced late last night. A’s team president Dave Kaval confirmed the club was firmly turning its attention to Las Vegas in its stadium search after months of parallel discussions with both Vegas and Oakland.

The A’s entered into an agreement to purchase 49 acres in Las Vegas for what they hope to be the location of their next stadium. That led Oakland mayor Sheng Thao to announce the end of negotiations between the city and the franchise regarding a potential new Howard Terminal ballpark in Oakland.

Given yesterday’s events, it now seems very likely the A’s will relocate to Vegas within the next few years. Nothing has yet been finalized, however; the franchise’s land purchase is not the same as a binding stadium agreement, which involves many more hurdles at the government level. A’s leadership and Nevada politicians have both expressed general optimism about a stadium agreement getting done, though there’s still plenty of work to be done in sorting out the details.

Howard Stutz, Tabitha Mueller and Sean Golonka of the Nevada Independent shed more light on the proposal the A’s are likely to put in front of the state legislature within the next couple months. The A’s would invest around $1 billion for the construction of the new ballpark. The organization is seeking the creation of what Kaval calls an “incentives package” for half a billion dollars in public funding. According to the Nevada Independent, the general idea would be to use tax dollars created by the stadium project itself — primarily sales taxes of consumers at the new stadium and its surrounding area (Kaval suggested the end goal would be to create a mixed use development reminiscent of Atlanta’s Battery) — to pay off $500MM worth of bonds issued by the county.

According to the Independent’s report, Nevada legislators have been generally briefed on the proposal. They haven’t yet received concrete details nor made any firm commitments on the project. Various reports have suggested Nevada governor Joe Lombardo is generally supportive of the project, though a spokeswoman tells the Independent that “(t)here is no set timeline (for an official stadium agreement). The financial elements of the concept are still being discussed.” Stutz, Mueller and Golonka note that the legislature remains in session through June 5. If no agreement is in place by then, the legislature could call a special session to continue negotiations into the summer.

The A’s lease at RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland runs through the end of next season. Kaval has pegged 2027 as a target date for a new facility in Las Vegas. He told reporters last night the organization was hopeful of having a binding stadium contract in place by the end of this year and breaking ground on the stadium in 2024. (Under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, the A’s need to have a stadium agreement signed by next January 15 or they’d forfeit their status as revenue sharing recipients.)

Obviously, there’d be a two-year gap between the end of the A’s lease at the Coliseum and the target date for the new facility in Vegas. Kaval addressed that this afternoon, telling the media the organization was open to both extending their lease at the Coliseum by two years or finding a temporary home in Las Vegas (as relayed by Shayna Rubin of the Bay Area News Group). The A’s Triple-A club, the Aviators, play in Vegas and could potentially house the MLB team while ballpark construction is ongoing.

Kaval made clear the club has no plans to displace the Triple-A team over the long term (link via Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal). “The Aviators are going to stay as part of this,” Kaval said. “Kind of like how there’s the Golden Knights and Silver Knights, we’re going to have the A’s and Aviators both in the community. We’re going to have our major league team and our Triple-A team co-located.” He pointed out the Astros (Houston to Sugar Land) and Twins (Minneapolis to St. Paul) both have their top affiliates in close proximity to the major league club.

While there’s obvious optimism on the part of A’s leadership about their next steps in Las Vegas, there’s predictably disappointment and anger among some in Oakland. The Oakland mayor was critical of the A’s negotiating tactics in announcing the end of discussions regarding the Howard Terminal project last night. Thao doubled down this morning, accusing the franchise of pulling the rug out from under talks at a time when city officials perceived they were making progress.

“Based on the A’s desire to achieve certainty in 2023, we laid out a detailed and specific plan to bring the project forward to a City Council vote this summer,” she told reporters (link via Rachel Swan and Sarah Ravani of the San Francisco Chronicle). “But it has become clear that we are not able to reach acceptable terms and that the A’s are not good partners in the effort.” She added the city had recently hired a mediator to shepherd daily negotiations throughout this week, saying the sides “were the closest we had ever been to making a deal” until Kaval informed the city about the land deal in Vegas yesterday evening.

Swan and Ravani note that Thao has left open the possibility of reopening negotiations. That’d presumably require a major setback in the A’s efforts in Las Vegas at this point. For now, the organization’s focus is clearly on getting a stadium agreement hammered out in the Nevada legislature, which would then allow the A’s to petition MLB for relocation. Commissioner Rob Manfred has already expressed his support for the A’s efforts in Las Vegas, announcing last year the league would waive the A’s relocation fee if they went there. Formal relocation requires approval from 75% of the league’s ownership groups.