REPORT: A’s shift gears to new Las Vegas stadium site, lower public funding ask

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The Athletics franchise is switching gears to a new site for a Las Vegas major league baseball stadium, according to reporting from The Nevada Independent Tuesday.

The Athletics and Bally’s Corp reportedly have agreed to build the $1.5 billion stadium on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip on the current site of the Tropicana Las Vegas Casino Resort, Nevada Independent reporting indicates. The report adds that the new site would drop the amount of required public funding to $395 million.

The previous location planned for the Athletics stadium would sit on a 49-acre site at Tropicana Avenue and Dean Martin Drive, north of the Allegiant Stadium and across the freeway from the T-Mobile Arena, where the Vegas Golden Knights play. That planned 35,000-seat stadium was expected to require $500 million in public spending. At the time, Athletics President Dave Kaval said the organization was excited to announce the new location to the public.

“It’s a great site,” Kaval said of the future location of the A’s baseball stadium, “good for locals, easy to get in and out of in the resort corridor for tourists.”

The Nevada Independent reports that Bally’s plans to demolish the Tropicana in order for the stadium to be built. It will reportedly require 9 acres of the company’s 34-acre site. Sources tell the newspaper that the timeline for construction is unaltered, with a planned 2024 start date, and opening expected in 2027.

Until then, Kaval said the Athletics organization has an agreement to play baseball in the Las Vegas Ballpark, current home of the Las Vegas Aviators, Triple-A affiliate of the A’s.

“We have an agreement with the Aviators with Don [Logan] and Howard Hughes [Corporation] to play at their stadium temporarily,” he said.

Meanwhile, some A’s fans from the Bay Area are clinging to hope that the deal will fall through. Matt Ortega, a lifelong Athletics fan from Oakland, created a website hoping to persuade Nevadans into rejecting the franchise and criticizing the team’s owner, John Fisher, for being what he calls “a terrible owner.”

“Don’t buy the claims that if we get a better ballpark, we’ll put a better product on the field,” said Ortega. “It’s a very good example of the bait and switch (Fisher) pulls.”

With less than a month remaining in Nevada’s legislative session, there has been no introduction of legislation regarding the stadium.