A's Las Vegas Relocation Coming Down to Trust

Jason Burke | May 30, 2024

Nov 26, 2023; Paradise, Nevada, USA; The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign on the Las Vegas strip. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Look, we've had a lot of fun poking holes in the Oakland A's plans to relocate to Las Vegas over the past year, but the President of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), Steve Hill, wants us all to know that the A's can totally make this pipe dream happen. "They’re coming and they’ve said they can finance this stadium."

The Las Vegas Review-Journal ran a piece a couple of days ago giving a full run down of what the people involved in the A's relocation process have been saying over the past couple of weeks, from Hill to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, to the Managing partner of the B Global consulting firm.

In the piece, Hill's comments from the LVCVA meeting earlier this month were everywhere, but what really stands out is that his comments are his opinion, and his opinion can be shown to be false in certain regards.

The most glaring instance of this is this piece of the article by the LVRJ: "Hill, however, pushed back on the notion the club wasn’t properly communicating its plans. He said there haven’t been as many public meetings as when the then-Oakland Raiders went through the process of building Allegiant Stadium, which was completed in 2020, because that was all new for Las Vegas officials."

The reasoning may make sense, but the beginning of that quote, the whole "they're communicating plenty" part is just a lie. Don't believe it? Here is another quote from the article in question, which is being run in the paper of record in Las Vegas. A paper which has been a big cheerleader for the A's relocation.

"Attempts to reach A’s officials for comment were unsuccessful."

But everything is fine. Nothing to see here. They're communicating plenty. The media in the Bay Area are used to this, but now the Review-Journal is having a hard time getting a simple quote from the club?

Could be something, could be nothing.

Couple this with the fact that Hill has also said of Fisher's ability to fund the ballpark project without investors, "He has the ability to do that, yeah."

Oh, Steve. First time? Fisher has the ability to build that ballpark wherever the heck he wants without public funding. The question is whether or not he will. That question is going to be answered by what kind of a deal he can strike, wherever he can strike it.

Maybe they'll even tell someone about it, too.

The perfect metaphor doesn’t exi…. Wait a minute. https://t.co/rKC7APMjku

— Casey Pratt (@CaseyPrattABC7) May 29, 2024