The group says public money should be spent on education, not a baseball stadium.
The Nevada State Education Association does not want to see Las Vegas Athletics baseball played in a Las Vegas stadium that will receive taxpayers’ money to help pay for the venue’s construction. The group has put together a Political Action Committee called Schools Over Stadiums that has been registered with the Nevada Secretary of State’s office. The Nevada statewide teachers union plans to pursue “every possible path” to stop the use of public financing. That would include litigation or trying to place the question of whether that proposed Las Vegas ballpark should be built with public funding before voters.
In June, the Nevada legislature went into special session to consider putting up state money for the Las Vegas stadium proposal. Nevada legislators passed the stadium bill that Governor Joe Lombardo signed that will provide up to $380 million in various methods of public financing to help fund the project. The stadium cost is supposed to be $1.5 billion with about a quarter of that money coming from the public. The building will seat 30,000 people per game. The Athletics ownership believes that 30% of fans would be tourists, including 16 percent who would not have to come to Las Vegas if not for the opportunity to see a major league baseball game. Athletics’ ownership also claims that it will create 5,400 jobs per year in team and stadium operations. The Oakland Athletics franchise has about 200 full-time employees. The teachers’ group put out a statement that allowing public dollars to flow into the construction of the Las Vegas stadium is “giveaway of hundreds of millions in tax dollars to a California billionaire for a stadium at a time when Nevada schools are ranked as among the worst in the country.” The teachers’ union is going to push for a referendum very soon. The stadium game continues in Las Vegas.
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