The Oakland Athletics’ Stadium Saga

           A’s want $500M in Public Money for Las Vegas Ballpark.
           Dean Martin Drive and Tropicana.
           The Oakland Athletics are seeking up to $500 million in Public Money to build a new Ballpark in Las Vegas.
           The money would be generated by a special tax district around the planned ballpark site, located at Tropicana Avenue and Dean Martin Drive, according to economist Jeremy Aguero of Applied Analysis, who is working with the team on its funding plan.
           The Major League Baseball club announced that it has a purchase agreement to buy the 49-acre site from Red Rock Resorts, should the stadium financing win the support of lawmakers.If that happens and the A’s relocation to Las Vegas is approved, they would become the valley’s fourth major professional sports franchise and the first MLB team to move since the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals starting with the 2005 season.
          “The A’s have essentially said that they’re willing to put $1 billion in … and in order to make the project work, they’re looking for that amount of public support,” Aguero, of Applied Analysis, said. “This deal has to work for the county. It has to work for the state — inclusive of the governor and legislative leadership — and it has to work for the A’s. And right now what I’m seeing is a bunch of people trying to find a way to make it work for everyone. So, we’re close.”
          The tax district, which would be created only if the A’s end up constructing the $1.5 billion, 30,000- to 35,000-seat stadium, would generate taxes including sales, property, live entertainment and modified business levies.
          “Any taxes that are generated by the district could be reinvested back into the project,” Aguero said. “The idea is that the construction of a $1.5 billion stadium is going to create value. That value is what we are going to reinvest back into the project. The stadium is not the only thing that’s in the district.”
          That money would be paid back in a variety of ways, including the issuance of bonds that would be paid back over a period of 30 years. Tied to that, the A’s would be required to sign a 30-year Non relocation agreement as part of any public financing deal.
         “It actually uses a couple of mechanisms, one is bonds, which is very similar to what we did at Allegiant Stadium,” Aguero said. “It also uses things like transferable tax credits, which is what we used for the Tesla deal and for the film taxes that we do in the state of Nevada. These are things that the state of Nevada has used as a tool historically and they would also be used here.”
         Of the 49 acres the A’s could acquire when the land deal with Red Rock Resorts is finalized, the ballpark would take up 9 to 13 acres, before parking is added to the equation, Aguero said. The remaining acreage would be used to add other features of the A’s planned stadium district.  The A's want to utilize that surrounding property for additional investment.
The examples Aguero listed are ballparks or arenas that have entertainment districts built around the facilities.
         An A’s stadium in Las Vegas is projected to draw 2.6 million fans annually for major league games and other events. Of those, 1.8 million are expected to be locals and 762,000 are expected to be visitors, Aguero said. That works out to about a 70/30 split between locals and visitors. I think this is a little overly optimistic and a more realistic number might be 1.6 million fans. Of the projected annual out-of-town visitors to the stadium, about 405,000 of those would be incremental visitors, or people who would travel to Las Vegas primarily for a game or event at the ballpark.
        “I think I’m probably conservative in terms of that number,” Aguero said. ??
        When Aguero,   of Applied Analysis, was working with the Raiders to make Allegiant Stadium become a reality, projections had about 27 percent of fans coming from outside the market. The stadium has far surpassed that, with up to 50 percent of crowds coming from out of town, Aguero said.
      “That means that Allegiant Stadium has been a tremendous economic and fiscal benefit to our community by driving tourism,” Aguero said.
       With the projections Aguero laid out and the large investment it would take to construct a ballpark, A’s President Dave Kaval is hoping those numbers are enough to help sway lawmakers to approve their ask of up to $500 million.
       “To hopefully achieve a public-private partnership that’s a win for everyone and create economic value to the community, jobs and fiscal benefits,” Kaval said. “And also bring an MLB team and a big infusion of private capital, because we’re going to be investing well over a $1 billion, plus the land costs making this happen.”
       This all sounds nice but is it realistic? Aguero compares the Raiders to the A's and that is apples and oranges.
       I believe that wherever the A's land in Las Vegas 1.6 million fans might be achieved.  

            The Oakland Athletics' Ballpark Saga is far from over.
            Just three weeks after they signed a binding agreement to purchase a 49-acre plot of land for a new ballpark near the Las Vegas Strip, the A's are reportedly enacting their backup plan. The team has been making calls to owners of other southern Nevada stadium sites that had been on their list at some point but were not their first choice.
            The Independent reported that the A's have reached back out to the owners of the Rio Hotel & Casino, a site that would have "greatly reduced" the overall price of the project. The owners reportedly offered to sell 22 of their 90-acre site to the A's for just $1, but the site was rejected due to concerns about traffic access.
            The A's are also reportedly considering the Tropicana Las Vegas, a 34-acre site that is currently home to one of the original Rat Pack-era hotels.
            Why do the A's need a backup plan?
            IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY the A's don't want to pay.  The Nevada Legislature is running out of time to pass a tax bill that would give the A's $500 million in tax credits to build a $1.5 billion, 35,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof.  The legislative session ends June 5.
            WHAT'S THE HOLD-UP?   JEFF FISHER and the A's are actually the obstacle here.

            The Oakland A’s Soap Opera Continues………..
            The Oakland Athletics have a new site for their potential Las Vegas Athletics Baseball Team.
            The A’s and Bally's Corp have an agreement in place for the MLB team to construct a $1.5 billion stadium on a portion of the Tropicana Las Vegas site. This new location will require about $395 million in “Public” Funding to build.
            The A's will reduce “Public” Funding being sought from $500 million to $395 million by pursuing this deal instead of their previous agreement. Although that prior pact was said to be binding, it was later revealed to be contingent on the A's securing the public financing needed to proceed. The A's have yet to present Las Vegas lawmakers with a "concrete" proposal, thus delaying their clearing of that hurdle.
            Bally's will demolish the Tropicana and permit the A's to build a 35,000-seat ballpark with a retractable roof on nine acres of the Tropicana Avenue site on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip, while a new 1,500-room hotel-casino would be placed across from the stadium once it's completed.
            The news comes almost three weeks after the A's signed a binding purchase agreement with Red Rock Resorts to construct a new stadium on a 49-acre site. They initially sought $500 million in public funding for the project. But amid uncertainty regarding the deal, for which the involved parties had yet to submit a tax package to state lawmakers, the A's revisited other possible sites.
            The deal would undo Oakland's previous binding agreement with Red Rock Resorts, and, because real estate investment trust Gaming and Leisure Properties owns the land that is leased to Bally’s, the A’s would no longer have to pay land acquisition costs.
            Negotiating with Jeff Fisher is never over. Fisher never negotiated in Oakland in Good Faith and don't expect Las Vegas to be any different. He has already demonstrated that. What he agrees to today will be different tomorrow. The delay in submitting a proposal to the Nevada State Assembly is a tactic he has used in past negotiations hoping for a mistake he will be able to take advantage of.