What if I told you that a chief reason the A’s got this Vegas ballpark deal done had little to do with baseball or MLB?
Let’s step back almost a month. Major League Soccer (not baseball) announced its 30th franchise, awarded to San Diego. A coalition of a Saudi billionaire, a local Native American tribe, and the new Snapdragon Stadium (SDSU-owned) made it possible, along with a whopping $500 million franchise fee. And with that, MLS is set for now. Bids for MLS expansion teams came from Sacramento, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, with Sacramento awarded at one time and then rescinded when it get a permanent soccer-specific stadium built at the Railyards. The same fates befell Las Vegas, whose Lights FC are stuck at Cashman Field, and Phoenix Rising FC, a team that keeps bouncing around Maricopa County in search of a permanent home. They’re currently playing in a temporary stadium at the old dog track by PHX airport.
Okay, so Vegas can’t get a MLS team for now. They’ve got plenty of other things to do there, right? Vegas is feeling its oats with the recent NHL and WNBA champions, so why not attract more? The A’s launched their Nevada lobbying efforts in earnest in May 2021, one day after they celebrated 510 Day in the Bay Area.
Where was I? Oh right, attracting more teams. Two separate efforts were started recently to attract a NBA expansion team. All Net Arena has been gestating for a decade on the north Strip. Today, Tod Leiweke presented Oak View Group’s arena/resort proposal for some undeveloped land three miles south of the Strip’s famous “Welcome” sign. Vegas is on the short list for a new team, along with Seattle. I’m still unclear at how Vegas can support five arenas of similar size (T-Mobile, MSG Sphere, MGM Grand Garden Arena, Thomas and Mack Center, the proposed NBA venue) and maintain full schedules for all of them. The name of the game is having event nights while limiting conflict by maintaining flexibility. This means not having multiple teams sharing a single arena if it can be avoided.
Neither proposal is at as prime a location as the A’s ballpark site on the Tropicana lot. When the A’s were navigating Clark County and talking with various casino interests, it became clear that the A’s weren’t interested in building the same kind of mixed development they were planning at Howard Terminal. In Vegas, the desire was to build as close to the heart of the Strip as possible. In inking the deal at the Trop, Fisher/Kaval have somehow done something I would’ve considered impossible two years ago:
- Prime high-traffic location (Tropicana SE corner)
- Leased for $1 per year
- Anchoring a resort development to be built by Bally’s and likely baseball-themed
- $380 million in public funding through #SB1
- $175 million from the land owner, GLPI for ballpark improvements (retractable dome)
The Tropicana, which is due for major redevelopment, has been an undervalued gem for at least a decade. The nine-acre ballpark site, in which people keep wondering how a retractable dome can fit, is more the proper size for another arena or even a soccer stadium. In securing the site, Fisher and Kaval have made sure that no other sport can claim this location for themselves, which at least one Nevada politician noticed a couple days ago.
No, the A’s won’t be able to build a $12 Billion development on Oakland’s waterfront. But they managed to pull off something of a real estate coup which I imagine was highly encouraged by Rob Manfred, who is thinking beyond a single team’s economics. Once the A’s build the $1.5 Billion ballpark, it should be relatively cheap to operate with the small footprint and low operating costs. The flexibility therein will allow them to fill a small venue gap between large arenas and big football stadia, though it’s unclear how many such events occur regularly. LVCVA’s Steve Hill talked about the ballpark being used for large convention gatherings that can’t be done in a single space at the convention center to the north. The fact that the ballpark will be a relatively short distance away via a drive on the surface, Tesla tunnel, or the monorail, doesn’t hurt.
The ballpark renderings showed off a single domed ballpark with little else surrounding it. The casinos and conventioneers saw something else: another opportunity. With the kind of mortgage the ballpark will command, Fisher and Kaval will be happy to rent it out. They intentionally undersold the number of events the ballpark will hold, a clever way to pitch a product in need of $380 million in public money. As for that amount, I’m sure the main reason for that specific ask is that it’s roughly halfway between the $0 public funds for T-Mobile Arena and the $750 million request for Allegiant Stadium. They did it because they have a baseball team and a willing partner. In the process, they put the NBA and MLS on the Strip’s fringes, which is how I imagine Manfred prefers it.
So yeah, this Vegas endeavor is definitely a winner for the A’s ownership, MLB owners, and Rob Manfred. Just about everyone else including Oakland and A’s fans lose. But you already knew that.
newballpark.org 
Sell the team Scrooge. ML, what donyou put the odds of this at now that Fischer has the stepped up valuation due to the Nevada bill?
The nature of this much-diminished Vegas plan made it clear to me that Fisher’s not in it to flip the team in the near-term. He’s going to continue operating it as a cashflow asset rather than a growth asset, especially if the size of the Vegas market means he can stay on revenue sharing going forward.
I can concur that the Vegas deal is a win, but not nearly as big a win as he was going for with Howard Terminal + Coliseum redevelopment. He’s been under increasingly serious pressure to diversify away from at-risk or already impaired assets like Gap shares and wildfire-zone timberland, and HT was a grab to grow his real-estate portfolio to accomplish that. At no time have any of these plans ever made sense with the team as the core business asset to be grown; the team has always just been an anchor for a broader real-estate play.
So it’s darkly hilarious that he’s now an anchor tenant and, at best, junior partner in somebody else’s real-estate scheme, but the win is that he can continue to implement the same profit-harvesting strategies he has in Oakland (and, MLS fans tell me, in San Jose). I don’t think we’ll see him try to sell for at least 10 years, probably after having his name attached to a couple more boom/bust Vegas real-estate deals. None of it seems to me to be particularly intelligent wealth management, closer to anxious if not outright desperate. What’s the old saw about a big family fortune only lasting three generations? Well, Fisher money is on generation 2…
I’m grateful that I’m a relatively casual fan who can just drop his baseball fandom entirely after this, although I empathize greatly with everyone who’s more strongly attached. I also feel like I’m the kind of marginal fan MLB says they don’t want to let get away, but that’s clearly not what they’re thinking about here.
Thanks for following this topic from beginning to end (when the new Las Vegas ballpark opens in about 2027). The biggest losers appear to be the Oakland A’s fans and the Las Vegas taxpayers. (I imagine that the ramifications will soon be felt in Tampa Bay, Milwaukee, and Kansas City.) I still have a few questions about Las Vegas:
1. Why do the A’s want a retractable roof? (Why not follow the example of Allegiant Stadium and have a translucent roof and operable walls that can open. Air conditioning is necessary for both day and night games and a retractable roof seems only to add to both the construction and operating expenses of the ballpark.)
2. Will the acquisition of the A’s be detrimental to the acquisition of an NBA team? (I get the feeling Nevada would rather have an NBA team than an MLB team and most definitely an NBA team more than the A’s.)
3. When will the A’s move to Vegas? (I imagine the A’s will continue to play in Oakland in 2024 and honor the lease. Will the A’s try to extend the lease in Oakland in tandem with unloading their stake in the Coliseum and placating the legislation proposed by Rep. Barbara Lee?)
You will cover that in a future post.
LAS VEGAS A’S: ??????????????????????????????
Looks like the A’s made a financially sound decision, except there is no fan base. But who needs fans, when you can make money from leasing the venue and selling the signal. Looks like MLB is going the route of horse racing tracks. Plus it looks like the A’s ballpark adds value to Vegas, while HT just generated costs resulting in the need for a public benefit agreement. As I have said before, it’s a crappy site for a ballpark. Limited freeway and transit access, limited parking assets, toxic souls, sea level rise, port interference and railroad adjacency problems, run away crime and a race war, and collapse of the local commercial real estate market.
I think you can add those in $an Jose (like myself) who wanted MLB in our town as losers as well. For the dream that started in the late 80’s (with the $#@! giants, then A’s) is about to die a painful death.
I’m not gonna lie R.M.: HT’s demise meant that $J was still alive in my eyes. I harbored hopes that back channels were somehow still open between A’s brass and $J politicos/business leaders. For when HT (and Oakland) failed to get the deal across home plate, we’d b there to strike a deal with the A’s and MLB. Well, looks like my local pols and business folks kept their tales between their legs and went into their small-town shell instead. Nothing!.. and now the A’s are headed to the desert, leaving the entire Bay to the $#@! selfish, greedy giants!
Making this even more gut wrenching is the fact that Diridon South is now completely cleared thanks to Google… and it will now be this way for a very long time due to the new “remote work” reality of big tech. I’m sure Google would’ve loved to incorporate a ballpark into their Downtown West development, especially since they won’t be needing nearly as much office space as envisioned in 2019. Below market rate lease for the A’s for the 13 acres? %$#@!, it’s now time to finally wake up!
The A’s are leaving Oakland AND The Bay…
Tony D.
(p.s. Considering where we’re at today, makes me wish Wolff would’ve went full tilt at Pac Commons Fremont instead of being fooled by his boy Selig that $an Jose was a real possibility. See you in the desert R.M.)
I was born in San Jose myself and I had always hoped the A’s Diridon project would be the new home for the A’s. I used to be a dual Giants/A’s fan but after the bastard Giants owners kept that project from happening I lost any loyalty to the Giants.
One possible thing that could happen is Congress could act to remove MLB’s antitrust exemption. Some congressmen from California want it done because of this move, not sure how that would accomplish their goals but it’s a punitive move meant to try to make a political point or something. Also some Republicans in the Senate want the exemption repealed because of Pride nights and the All Star game being relocated a few years ago.
If the antitrust exemption is removed then there is nothing to stop John Fisher from taking another look at San Jose as a possible option again.
As far as local fans are concerned in Vegas, it’s tough to gauge right now. One thing that I can say and that not many in the media have brought up, is that the Aviators get pretty good attendance considering it’s minor league stature and that’s for an outdoor stadium in the Vegas summer. I have to think there is a market for a brand new Major League level stadium with climate control. Throw in the fact that a lot of players that Aviator fans followed will eventually be A’s so there is that connection as well
Had Manfred and Baer not blocked tge A’s from SJ we would still have 2 Bay Area teams and not even be having this conversation. San Jose was locked and loaded including naming rights- Cisco Field- design was very cool also- and no where near the public dollars required in Vegas. Bottom line is Manfred and Baer have been working this angle for many many years. Given that only 75% of teams need to approve I suspect the giants will vote against relocation to avoid any backlash.
I thought both the NBA and MLS preferred the South Las Vegas Blvd. and Blue Diamond site to begin with (south of the airport and where the proposed HSR station will be built – who knows when). That site is a million times better for local fans, especially regarding traffic, and has space for ancillary development.