Press release says the ballpark will be 30,000 seats in Vegas. That's easily the smallest ballpark in the league. $395 million in public financing EDIT: just read another article that says 35,000
The A's were the Rays for years in wining a lot of regular season games with minimal payroll. By the time Vegas is ready to have team play in their city my bet is the Rays will be a bad team.
I think it's a take what you can get situation. I'd love to see Vegas get a better organization, and I think they would eventually, but my guess is they'll go with the sure thing instead. But that stadium actually going ON the strip now is going to be incredible!
My guess would be a "resort fee" tax that will mostly impact tourists the way they finance the stadiums here. Can sell it that this will increase tourism with fans of visiting teams coming to see their team play and gamble while they are here. Visiting teams may have more fans in attendance the first few years than the home team, especially for weekend series.
Asking from ignorance here-- The A's strike me, despite the past five or so years, as a pretty solid organization. They don't have the funds to keep great players, but they keep generating them from the farm. Shrewd front office mgmt had them in playoffs often-ish on a shoestring budget for like 20 years. They've had hall of famers come through there. And yet they haven't sold a game out in forever. Does that community even want MLB? Doesn't seem like it.
Can those be initiated with a wave of the hand? Or do they need to put it to a vote? While its great that the have a proposal in place, normally the actual funding mechanisms are already well established (i.e. - private financing), not reliant on a public tax increase that seems to be not universally supported amongst Vegas residents. Houston built their stadiums via a hotel tax too... and that barely passed for the Astros/Texans and failed the first time for the Rockets.
Some of it is the quality of the stadium (its a dump)... other components include the fact that the A's turned the biggest reported profit of all MLB teams last year (over $60 million) and put none of it into the roster or team improvements. They were pretty well supported in 2019 when they had a decent team. Then they had their best team of this era in 2020 but that was the covid year. Then they committed to rebuilding in 2021 and based on their previous rebuilds it will take at least 3-5 years.... its a cycle their fans are well accustomed to and won't spend MLB prices to watch guys who are still developing (Astros went through a similar attendance rut during their rebuild as well... no market that rebuilds this severely is truly immune to it). The Rays have a similar attendance issue as their stadium is far away from where their actual fans are, but they've still been able to sign some guys long term despite their penny pinching. All MLB teams could likely spend more than they currently are. Even the luxury tax offenders aren't in danger of going bankrupt with unchecked spending in an uncapped league.
Since all sports are totally embracing gambling as sponsors and probably associated corruption as well, the A's will be able to win by nefarious means.
Its funny, i think of the Rays as clearly superior but you're right. They are very similar. By my count, both teams have made the playoffs 8 times in the past 20 years, plus 2 more years where they missed the playoffs but were >10 games over .500 So both have been pretty good about 50% of the time in 20 years
The A’s have their minor team there for years baseball will just bring more money to the city and gamblers and tourists this is about money
Less complicated with divisions and whatnot. Already invested in Vegas with minor league team. And they are the most available team. They can gut the whole organization and start fresh.
Paid attendance in Oakland was less than 3,000 last night. I have no idea how MLB can allow this for years until a stadium is built in Las Vegas
There’s still a sizable financial gap that the A’s want the State of Nevada or Clark County to cover: https://thenevadaindependent.com/ar...5m-price-tag-deal-dependent-on-county-funding
City of Oakland says they are close to a deal and want them back. I want a team in Vegas desperately, but an expansion team would be so much better than the A's and that horrible ownership group. I'm not super confident the relocation is going to happen. I'd say it's still a toss up at this point. Might be best for everyone if they stay in Oakland.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mauryb...as-new-ballpark-in-las-vegas/?sh=754b962e136a Nevada Legislature Complicates $395 Million Funding Of A’s New Ballpark In Las Vegas Maury Brown Senior Contributor Former Natl Sportswriter Of The Year Nominee, BBWAA, MLB, Motorsports It sounds like a broken record, but the Oakland A’s have run into snags on their nearly 20-year effort to get a new ballpark funded, this time in Las Vegas. The complications are multi-faceted, with everything from the Nevada legislature’s clock running down, concerns over meeting debt obligation, and a sizable gap in public funding that A’s owner John Fisher is seeking. Legislative Clock Running Down The Nevada legislative session ends on Friday, which depending on how you look at it, is a blessing and a curse. If the funding is rammed through there leaves little time for public debate, which is an advantage for the A’s. Should the funding bill not meet the Friday deadline it may not mean that the ballpark funding package is dead for the year. It is possible that a special session could be called to address the matter. While Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo has spearheaded the effort to lure the A’s to Las Vegas, it’s unclear based on the sizable gap how far he will go to make it happen, setting up questions of vetoing any bill that doesn’t align with his priorities. Sizable Funding Gap Jaclyn Schultz of FOX 5 in Las Vegas is reporting that there is a sizable funding gap between what the A’s are seeking and what Nevada lawmakers have verbally said they would cover. The A’s are seeking approx. $395 million but at the state level, but reports are $195 million max lawmakers are willing to go to bat over, leaving a $200 million gap. A discussion has taken place in which Clark County would bridge the $200 million, but that comes with its own complications. If Clark Co. issues $200 million in general obligation bonds, the A’s would be on the hook to service the payments. Should they not be able to meet that obligation, Clark Co. would need to dip into debt service reserves. Should those reserves tap out, the county would have to tap into the general fund or raise property taxes to bridge the obligation. The latter would assuredly raise the ire of taxpayers as property taxes were raised to cover bond payments for the Raiders’ Alligent Stadium bonds. Questionable Attendance Would Become Critical For A’s To Meet Payments When the partnership between Bally’s and the A’s was announced for the 35-acre development at the Tropicana Las Vegas property that would see the ballpark as part of it, several numbers from consultants jump out that have broad implications for Clark County taxpayers. Attendance would be a critical revenue stream to meet the debt obligation. The ballpark would have a capacity of 30,000 which would be the smallest in Major League Baseball. The press release also said that “the ballpark is expected to welcome more than 2.5 million fans and visitors annually,” a figure that seems exceptionally lofty – if not impossible — to meet. Doing the math, if the A’s sold out every game it would take 84 dates to reach 2.5 million. The A’s would host 81 regular season games, meaning every regular season game would have to sell out, plus it assumes the A’s reach the postseason each year. Yes, the facility would host other activities such as concerts, or events such as Supercross, but even then the numbers are vastly overstated given the competition for discretionary dollars at the local level when competing with the NHL’s Golden Knights and NFL’s Raiders. Major League Baseball, with it’s high number of regular season games requires more local interest than other sports. Could the A’s sell out a series with the Cubs, Yankees, Dodgers, or Red Sox? Maybe. Could they do so with the Marlins, Mariners, Rockies, or Guardians? Seems very unlikely. All of this sets up a “same as it ever was” scenario for the A’s. They backed out of talks in Oakland with a funding gap that was considerably smaller ($88 million). Even if the funding at the state and county level goes through with high risk, will the A’s bridge the gap, and not burn taxpayers? For the 2023 season, the A’s are currently averaging just 8,695 per game in paid attendance. That ranks them not only dead last of the 30 clubs in the league, but the only one averaging under 10,000. To place A’s attendance in perspective, the Miami Marlins currently rank 29th with a per-game attendance average of 12,289, or nearly 3,600 more per game than the A’s.
