A's Las Vegas Funding Facing Court Challenge

Jason Burke | Aug 9, 2024

Mar 6, 2023; Sacramento, California, USA; Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher claps after the game between the Sacramento Kings and New Orleans Pelicans at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports / Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

With the announcement that the Oakland A's likely final game at the Oakland Coliseum is sold out, of course there had to be news coming out of Las Vegas on the same day. That's just how this entire relocation saga has worked.

On Thursday evening, the Nevada Independent filed a report about the legal challenge the A's are facing over their public money in Las Vegas being deemed unconstitutional. This challenge was filed at the beginning of the year, and is just now being heard in the Carson City District Court. The sides reportedly argued for 90 minutes on Thursday, but a decision was not handed down by Judge Kristin Luis.

"Luis told attorneys that she would issue a written decision on the case, giving each side 10 days to file their proposed ruling. Once she receives the proposed rulings and reviews them, Luis will issue her decision."

So we have ten days to wait until we find out if the A's will still have their public money in Las Vegas. One of the attorneys arguing in favor of the A's, Kevin Powers, said that they are still a long ways off from touching the money set aside for the A's, since they have to spend a certain amount to gain access to the public funds. His argument essentially boils down to "well they're not even doing anything yet. Wait until ground is broken and the project is underway before involving the courts," but in legalese.

What Powers actually said may be even worse. When speaking of the private financing for the ballpark, he said "If, at any juncture, those agreements can't provide that, then this legislation for financing doesn't become operational,” Powers said. “In this case, there’s no injury at all. There’s no issuance of bonds … and there may never be."

In July, A's representative Sandy Dean said during a presentation to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority that the team is in "good shape" lining up financing for the project. Powers even suggesting that the day may never come when the A's touch those bonds isn't exactly a glowing endorsement of how the project is going. He could also be trying to win his case by understating how things are going.

The argument made by the NSEA is that SB1, the bill that was passed last year that provides the A's with $380 million in bonds and transferrable tax credits, is unconstitutional in five ways, including a claim made that this project would increase public revenue. That claim, they believe, means that SB1 would have had to pass by the two-thirds vote, which it did not.

The ruling that the judge hands down will either keep the A's plans in Las Vegas moving forward, leaving them to continue their search for equity investors, or it will stop it completely.