UPDATE (May 10): The Oakland A’s say they have reached an agreement with Bally’s Corporation to build a stadium on the site of the Tropicana resort.
The Nevada Independent reports that the proposed stadium would cost about $1.5 billion, with under $400 million of that figure coming from public financing. If the agreement goes through, Bally’s would demolish the Tropicana and permit the A’s to build a stadium which would seat about 35,000 people and feature a retractable roof.
Bally’s would build a separate hotel-casino across from the new stadium once it is finished, though it would not be linked to the ballpark.
UPDATE (May 9): Three weeks after confirming they had a “binding agreement” on a 49-acre site west of the Strip for a $1.5 billion baseball stadium, the Oakland A’s have reached out to owners of Southern Nevada sites the team previously considered as a potential backup plan should the team fail to secure legislative support for a $500 million tax package, property representatives told The Nevada Independent.
Read more from Howard Stutz at The Nevada Independent.
ORIGINAL REPORT (May 8): The plot continues to thicken for the Oakland Athletics and their potential move to Las Vegas.
Just two weeks ago, the A’s agreed to buy land not too far from Allegiant Stadium to build their own stadium. To help pay for it, they're seeking $500 million in taxes collected from around the stadium in a special tax district.
And if the taxes collected in that district aren’t enough to pay off the loan?
That’s the big question facing Nevada lawmakers, who will ultimately be responsible for making the deal happen or killing it.
But lawmakers have yet to see any bill or language for the proposal, and there are only 30 days left in the legislative session.
Nevada Independent gaming/tourism reporter Howard Stutz explains the tax district, one of a few possible sources of government
funding.
"Everything that's built on that site — the stadium, and the A's want to build an entertainment district, with restaurants, retail and other attractions — any taxes generated on that 49-acre site, that's what goes to pay off the ... the bonds Clark County would take out to build the stadium."
But the proposal has to pass the legislature and be signed by the governor. If lawmakers balk at a stadium proposal with public funding, the team may have to go back to an already exasperated City of Oakland for a new deal on a waterfront ballpark. Critics of the proposed move have accused billionaire team owner John Fisher of prioritizing savings on a stadium deal over the needs and welfare of a host city.
"The whole point of this stadium thing with Oakland and Las Vegas is leverage," says sports producer Casey Pratt, who is based in the Bay Area and has been covering this development for years. "It was a parallel path: Oakland or Vegas, Vegas or Oakland. Then it was the Tropicana or the Rio or the [Las Vegas] Festival Grounds site or now this [former Wild Wild West] site. They're always playing something against something else to get a better deal."
Team owners have long made the argument that publicly funded stadiums are a financial and employment boon for host cities. But longtime stadium economics expert and journalist Neil deMause says that talking point has been continuously disproven.
"Economists have looked at this every single possible way — does it increase sales tax revenues, does it increase per-capita income, does it increase jobs? — and found no evidence that it does any of these things, and certainly not to a half-a-billion dollar degree."
Guests: Howard Stutz, gaming and tourism reporter, The Nevada Independent; Casey Pratt, senior sports producer, KGO-TV (ABC) San Francisco; Neil DeMause, journalist and author, "Field of Schemes"
