Inside The As

A's Need New Site in Las Vegas?

When the A's don't make announcements, people begin to speculate

Jason Burke

A's Need New Site in Las Vegas?
A's Need New Site in Las Vegas? /

The Oakland A's said that they would be releasing brand new renderings of their proposed ballpark in Las Vegas at the beginning of December. We're nearly two months past that date, and still have seen no new pictures. The only news from the A's that has come out in the past seven weeks has been when they toured two minor league parks last week to distract from their donations to Nevada lawmakers, and when it was reported that selections from John Fisher's art gallery would be hung at the new ballpark. 

This lack of information has many wondering what is going on with the financing of the ballpark in Las Vegas. The most we've heard is that they were working on a form of debt/equity financing with Goldman Sachs, and that was back in August. 

With the team not being upfront about what's really happening with the ballpark project, that leaves room for some to speculate. Others, like Vital Vegas, seem to think that the project is in deep trouble. Vital Vegas has been spot-on with their sources on the A's ballpark in Las Vegas every step of the way. 

Still, the following tweets haven't been confirmed, but they do add up with everything that we know about the project currently. 

The rest of that tweet reads: "but due to proximity to the airport, the planned resort can’t make up revenue (due to smaller footprint) by building higher. These obstacles in addition to Bally’s Corp. having no resources and A’s having provided no clues about its $1 billion contribution. If the A’s move happens at all, look to the Festival Grounds or Rio." 

Someone also asked where they think this project lands given the timing delays, and VV replied, "Oakland." 

That is quite the bombshell. 

Let's unpack that for a minute. We know that the A's are working on a clock, but it's unclear how much time is on it. They have already secured revenue sharing, which was their stated deadline when they pivoted from "parallel paths" to Vegas. Now they could be looking at a deadline of 2028, as in that's when this project needs to be up and ready to go. 

How many seasons in a minor league facility would MLB and the Player's Association be willing to put up with before they land at their new ballpark? What if three roaming seasons is the max? Then that would mean that any delay to groundbreaking in roughly 15 month's time would put them behind schedule, and that's not really time they can get back.

While 15 months seems like a long time, in order to begin construction on the A's ballpark, an entire hotel and casino needs to be leveled and cleared starting this summer, so we should have an idea of where the project is within about six or seven months. 

Why would it matter how long the A's are in a minor league park? Glad you asked! For one thing, those parks are not up to the standards of Major League Baseball. Then you add in the fact that they'd be displacing the Salt Lake City Bees from a ballpark that was built for them if they moved to Utah, and in Sacramento, the River Cats field would be absolutely chewed up over the course of teams playing on the field every day for years. 

What would this A's team be called? Oakland doesn't seem to fit since the A's would be leaving, but it would also be premature to name the Vegas A's since they wouldn't have played a game in Vegas. Sacramento or Utah? For three seasons? That seems unnecessary and borderline ridiculous. 

The big question here is how patient will Rob Manfred and the MLBPA be with granting John Fisher and the A's time to figure things out? 

To further make their point on the finances, VV also tweeted this out last night.

The people that John Fisher is looking to do business with for financing are getting a look at his books, and if he really lost $40 million with the A's last season, that would likely give most financiers pause before jumping in on a deal with him. 

To that point, Buster Olney of ESPN tweeted out that the industry is "wealthy, and healthy." So why not Fisher's team?

If the industry is "wealthy and healthy," then that has to mean that John Fisher is doing something wrong since he can only draw 10,000 fans per game the past two seasons. People like to paint that as the fan's fault, but if banks are unwilling to give up the cash to finance a ballpark plan that would make them money, then maybe that will help it sink in that the problem all along has been Fisher and how he operates. 

While Vital Vegas said the A's could wind up back in Oakland, there would still be a lot that would need to happen before we got to that point. For starters, the two sides would have to start talking again. Staying in Oakland would cure a lot of what ails the A's owner right now. He'd have a place for his team to play while the ballpark is built, he'd be able to continue to collect the full sum ($67 million per season) of RSN money, and there are already renderings for Howard Terminal, so people could stop asking him about those, too. 

If you're an Oakland A's fan, hope at your own risk. Yet, the longer it takes for answers to come out on anything Vegas related, the closer we may get to seeing how much patience Manfred has for Fisher and the A's. 

The A's have a planned "fireside chat" for the low price of $125 this morning, so maybe we'll finally get some answers then. 

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Jason Burke
JASON BURKE

Jason is the host of the Locked on A's podcast, and the managing editor of Inside the A's. He's a new father and can't wait to take his son to his first baseball game at the Coliseum. 

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