The development of a $1.75 billion Major League Baseball stadium on the Strip entered the ninth inning and the former Oakland Athletics didn’t need to bring in the closer.

Members of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority on Thursday said they were comfortable that John Fisher, owner of the A’s, has the financing in place to complete the $1.75 billion enclosed stadium that will have 30,000 seats and standing areas for another 3,000 fans. Fisher has committed at least $1.1 billion toward the stadium development.

“This is a very significant day for Las Vegas. We're gonna have a groundbreaking and we’re going to have a baseball team,” Stadium Authority Chairman Steve Hill said following an hourlong process that saw board members vote unanimously to approve eight action items covering the A’s planned move to Las Vegas. The board will continue to have oversight over the ballpark’s finances and uses.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming a premier, world-class ballpark to this city,” Hill said.

The Stadium Authority’s action allows the Athletics to seek entitlement approvals from Clark County that permit the construction and development activity to build the stadium on 9 acres that formerly housed the Tropicana Las Vegas. The A’s plan to begin construction on the stadium between April and June and the ballpark is expected to be completed in time for the start of the 2028 Major League Baseball season.

The stadium was originally budgeted at $1.5 billion. However, A’s officials said the price increased by $250 million to cover additional construction costs and 70,000 square feet of upgrades to what A’s representative Sandy Dean referred to as “increased programming for fans.” The changes cover general admission spaces, improved player amenities and additional club and suite space.

Dean said the budget increase had long been anticipated by the team but any additional costs are the responsibility of the A’s.

“Could [the cost] go up again? It could,” Dean said. “We're going to do our best to produce a great ballpark and manage the cost the best we can.”

Hill said he and outside financial experts looked over the Fisher family’s finances.

“It is clear the Fishers have the ability to be working with this project,” Hill said, adding that financial experts agreed with that assessment.

The vote by the Stadium Authority’s board covered four agreements totaling some 250 pages detailing stadium operations and came nearly 18 months after state lawmakers approved the public financing piece to construct the ballpark to house the former Oakland Athletics. The Stadium Authority discussed the project during eight public meetings.

“We have spent about $40 million to date on our Las Vegas ballpark effort, and we assembled a team of more than 30 distinct firms,” Dean said. “I feel like we have an army working on the project.”

Hill said the process with the A’s ballpark was more complex than the approval process for Allegiant Stadium, which also grew in price — from $1.4 billion to $1.9 billion.

“That may be the headline. They're committed to the premier world-class stadium that is outlined in the [legislation]. They know that is what Las Vegas needs,” Hill said of the $250 million cost increase. “They're committed to making that happen.” 

The Athletics, which vacated Oakland in October after their final game in the city’s Coliseum, dropping the team’s home city designation, will spend the next three seasons playing at a 14,000-seat minor league ballpark in Sacramento. The team explored dozens of sites throughout Las Vegas before settling on the site that housed the Tropicana Las Vegas. The Rat Pack-era hotel-casino was closed in April and imploded in October.

Dean, in an interview with The Nevada Independent ahead of the hearing, said two factors increased the stadium’s cost — pressure on construction pricing and additions to public areas that would make the ballpark “a premier facility for Major League Baseball and Las Vegas.”

Dean said the stadium’s lower bowl “would be split into two levels to bring fans closer to the field” and enhancements were being made to the audiovisual equipment and scoreboard. All seats in the stadium would include under-seat cooling equipment. 

“The ballpark will have the second least amount of foul territory of any ballpark in the country,” Dean said.

Earlier this week, the Stadium Authority, which is responsible for the ownership and oversight of Allegiant Stadium and the A’s ballpark, posted several documents on its website outlining how the stadium would be funded along with three lengthy documents — a lease agreement for the stadium, a non-relocation agreement and a stadium development agreement — that needed to be in place before construction begins next year. A community benefits agreement was approved last summer. 

All were approved by the board.

Fisher commits to the financing

The piece that drew the most attention was a letter from Fisher, outlining that he and his family would contribute the $1.1 billion figure.

“We have expended many millions of dollars and years of hard work to make this happen and are excited to begin a new chapter in Las Vegas,” Fisher wrote, noting the new stadium and relocation of the team is the culmination of a multiyear, sustained effort. 

In addition to Fisher’s letter, the authority released an Oct. 11 letter from U.S. Bank and Goldman Sachs confirming plans to loan the team $300 million for the stadium’s construction.

“We conclude that the Fisher family and their related entities have financial assets (excluding their interest in the Athletics Major League Baseball franchise) more than sufficient to fund the equity portion of the proposed capital structure for the Athletics’ Las Vegas Stadium,” U.S. Bank Senior Vice President Stephen Vogel wrote in the letter.

He added that the bank reviewed the Fisher family assets as of June 30 and the bank’s letter was based on documents and other written information provided by the family.

“Our review of the financial holdings of the Fisher family is strictly [for] our own determination [and] for our own purposes and use, and is not an assurance or guarantee of their performance,” Vogel wrote.

Fisher has said he still intends to seek investors from Las Vegas to purchase shares of the ballclub.

“The Fisher family can get the stadium built regardless of any possible investors,” Dean said. “We’ve always thought it would be good for us to become more enmeshed in the Las Vegas market by having some local folks invest in the team.”

Next steps

The A’s will now begin discussion with Clark County to gain entitlement approval for $350 million of the $380 million in public financing provided through the passage of SB1 by the Legislature in 2023. The figure includes $145 million in bond and tax proceeds, $180 million in transferable tax credits and $25 million in county credit.

A’s representatives said the team has had preliminary talks with county officials about the initial steps in the entitlement process.

“Those [meetings] have been really constructive, and Clark County has been really receptive to wanting to work with us to meet the timelines that are necessary for us [to break ground in the second quarter],” Dean said.

Dean said team executives first started exploring Las Vegas as a new home for the Athletics in 2021.

“It's almost three and a half years on the dot, and now we’re just a few months away from breaking ground,” Dean said.

In October, Bally’s Corp., which operated the Tropicana, submitted plans to Clark County showing how a proposed 3,000-room integrated resort would be situated on the site in conjunction with the ballpark.

Dean said the hotel-casino project would most likely begin after stadium construction is underway. He said the development wouldn’t obstruct views of the Strip that are planned through a large glass outfield wall.