Posted on: December 3, 2024, 11:24h.
Last updated on: December 3, 2024, 11:41h.
Documents to be revealed during a Las Vegas Stadium Authority board meeting on Thursday will firmly commit John Fisher to spending more than $1 billion of his family’s personal finances to build a $1.5 billion ballpark in Las Vegas for his MLB team, the former Oakland A’s. Only now, that ballpark will cost $1.75 billion.
The team blames the estimate’s $250 million increase on inflation and new stadium features. The estimate for hard costs, according to the meeting’s agenda, is now $1.45 billion, with $52 million required for financing costs and $248 million for “soft costs & other.”
The documents to be revealed during the meeting will include:
- A letter from Fisher committing $1.07 billion
- A letter from U.S. Bank stating the Fisher family has the resources to make that commitment
- A letter from Goldman Sachs and U.S. Bank committing to loan the A’s and Fisher $300 million
- A letter from Athletics StadCo, an entity created to handle the private capital investment, confirming that funding is sufficient to move forward.
Fisher’s $1.07 billion is up from the $820 million he originally promised due to the increased cost estimate.
As the Authority is aware, the relocation of the Athletics to Las Vegas is the culmination of a sustained effort by our organization to develop a new state of the art stadium for our team and its fans,” Fisher’s letter reads. “We have expended many millions of dollars and years of hard work to make this happen and are excited to begin a new chapter in Las Vegas.”
Public funding for stadium construction is capped at $380 million, secured through a special legislative session last year. The projected cash budget estimates using only $350 million of those funds, with any cost overruns becoming the team’s obligation.
Slam Dunk
Yes, we realize that’s the wrong sport, but there’s no baseball expression that more accurately conveys the certainty of a Las Vegas A’s stadium at this point in time.
Even the loudest skeptic of its odds of happening, Casino.org’s own Vital Vegas blogger Scott Roeben, issued a surprising mea culpa on Monday, opening it with “we hate being wrong, but…,” and shifting all disbelief to whether the financially embattled Bally’s Corp. has the capital to complete a promised resort adjacent to the stadium.
On Thursday, the Stadium Authority’s board is expected to vote that the aforementioned documents constitute the “adequate financial security” required to move forward with the project. It’s also expected to rubber-stamp revised nonrelocation, development, and lease agreements with the A’s.
According to the latest version of the nonlocation agreement, the A’s will only be allowed to play up to four home games away from the stadium each season. This amends a heavily criticized earlier draft that permitted up to seven home games away.
Bally’s, in partnership with landowner Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc., already agreed to provide the A’s with nine acres of the former Tropicana site, valued at around $180 million, for free.
