Athletics Set Groundbreaking Date for Vegas Stadium — With Most Financing Still Not in Place
Posted on: June 10, 2025, 05:55h.
Last updated on: June 12, 2025, 02:20h.
- The Athletics have set a groundbreaking ceremony date for their new Las Vegas Strip stadium
- The project may not get built because the large majority of its funding is still not in place after nearly two years of soliciting shares in the team
The Athletics, the MLB team formerly of Oakland fame, have set a groundbreaking ceremony for their new Las Vegas stadium.
Shovels will dig into the site of the imploded Tropicana casino hotel at 8 am on June 23 — though it’s basically a formality for photo ops to show investors since foundation work on the 33K-seat ballpark began back in April.
If You Build It…
The question remains whether the $1.75 billion ballpark will get built at all since the large majority of its financing still isn’t in place. This is far from the minor detail that the A’s organization would have you believe.
So far, only $350 million in bonds issued by Clark County and the state, and a $300 million construction loan from US Bank and Goldman Sachs, have been secured. That leaves $1.1 billion unaccounted for, which the A’s need to foot themselves.
The true number is probably more like $1.35 billion because the cost estimate hasn’t been updated for at least a year, and stadium construction materials aren’t getting any less expensive. Especially not steel and aluminum.
The photo ops are necessary because A’s owner John Fisher has hired Galatioto Sports Partners to find minority investors in the team and, after nearly two years, not a single one has materialized. Most experts think that’s because those investments are based on a $2 billion team valuation, which is a stretch at best.
If no major investors are found, Fisher claims he and his wealthy family will foot the bill, which means that the entire project hinges on one man’s word.
This seems like an appropriate place to inject the viewpoint of Casino.org’s own Vital Vegas blogger Scott Roeben, the most independent and entertaining authority on this and other Las Vegas tourism subjects.
“John Fisher isn’t contributing a billion dollars to building a ballpark in Las Vegas,” Roeben editorialized in his most recent A’s dispatch. “Ignore all the stupidity: Watch the money. Gap stock, where the bulk of John Fisher’s wealth resides, has tanked. Fisher’s stock is estimated to be worth about $697 million, so he couldn’t contribute $1 billion to a ballpark even if he wanted to.
“He doesn’t want to, and he’s not going to.”
Between 31 and 33 months of construction would be necessary to transform nine of the 35 acres of leveled Tropicana into a stadium ready to host the team’s opening home game of the 2028 season.
Until then, the A’s will play in a minor ballpark in Sacramento, where they began this season in March.
Last month, the team agreed to submit a security bond of $3.7 million as part of a performance agreement with Clark County. That bond would cover potential decommissioning costs (such as materials removal and structure stabilization) if the project ceases construction for any reason.
A security bond is required for all large-scale developments in Clark County so this not evidence that this project won’t see completion.
But the fact that the foundation work is already completed — which includes grading and the drilling of holes to be filled with enough steel and concrete to provide a stable base to hold the structure’s 100K-150K ton weight — is not evidence that the project will see completion.
Nor is a groundbreaking ceremony.
Last Comments ( 2 )
Hogwash. John Fisher and his cronies make me embarrassed to live in the great Clark County!
I just want to say this is a masterclass of an article on how to cover these pro sports stadium boondoggles. Pointing out the plot holes that are big enough to fit the Hoover Dam in is such a refreshing breath of fresh air after reading about The Cleveland Browns scam, or Kansas City, or Chicago.