Oakland A’s Reach Tentative Deal on Las Vegas Stadium

Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo announced Wednesday that his state, Clark County, and the Oakland Athletics agreed on funding for construction of a $1.5 billion baseball stadium on the Las Vegas Strip.

Lombardo’s office said the agreement will be forwarded to the Nevada Legislature for consideration, the Las Vegas Sun reported.

“This agreement follows months of negotiations between the state, the county, and the A’s, and I believe it gives us a tremendous opportunity to continue building on the professional sports infrastructure of southern Nevada,” Lombardo said in a statement. “Las Vegas is clearly a sports town, and Major League Baseball should be a part of it.”

The deal calls for the creation of a Sports and Entertainment Improvement District that would include a 30,000-seat, publicly owned, retractable roof stadium.

The Nevada Independent reported that approximately $325 million in public funding will be made available for the project in the form of $180 million in transferable tax credits from the state.

Clark County would issue $120 million in bonds and an $25 million in additional tax credits that may be allocated toward infrastructure costs with the development, the Sun reported.

The proposed public-private partnership includes public financing constituting less than 25% of the cost, making it the third-lowest public share of cost for the 14 Major League Baseball stadiums built this century, Lombardo’s office said.

Nevada lawmakers have until June 5, the end of the legislative session, to approve the funding package. Lombardo also could extend the session or call for for a special legislative session.

Lombardo’s announcement came more than a month after the A’s announced it was focused solely on relocating to Las Vegas from Oakland, California, where the team has called home since 1968.

The A’s have until January to have a redevelopment plan approved by MLB.

Team officials and California lawmakers were unable to agree on details of a proposed $12 billion entertainment district that would have overlooked San Francisco Bay.

The A’s reached a binding agreement with Bally’s Corp to build a 30,000-seat ballpark on nine acres of land at the current site of the Tropicana, just off the Las Vegas Strip.

Gaming & Leisure Properties, Inc., which owns the land for the proposed stadium, has agreed to pay up to $175 million toward certain “shared improvements” within the future development in exchange for a commensurate rent increase.

Bally’s, which operates the Tropicana, said it intends to continue to run the casino for the foreseeable future as it evaluates options for a broader redevelopment of the remainder of the site.

In April, the A’s had entered into a binding agreement with Red Rock Resorts Inc., to acquire 49 acres a few miles of the proposed Tropicana site. However, that location required the team ask the state for approximately $500 million in taxpayer dollars.