Marc Badain said a Las Vegas venue will be built.
Major League Baseball will be played in Las Vegas in 2028 and beyond according to the President of Major League Baseball’s Athletics franchise. Marc Badain has said so and he is ready to shut up the naysayers who think Athletics owner John Fisher cannot come up with his financial commitment for a stadium that before tariffs on such items like steel were announced was going to cost $1.75 billion. Fisher needs to come up with more than a billion dollars to pay for construction costs. Nevada is giving Fisher $380 million in seed money for the construction. That is in the bank but none of that cash becomes available until Fisher spends $100 million on the planned ballpark. “Locally, everybody knows this project’s going to happen,” Badain said. “Nationally, there are a lot of skeptics. There will always be a lot of skeptics. There’s a lot of people that make a living out of questioning the success of sports venues and what they actually do for a community. You’re never going to eradicate that negativity. It’s just out there.” Badain has been on the job since March but he did help get the National Football League’s Raiders’ venue built in Las Vegas.
The saga of the Las Vegas stadium has been ongoing since April 2023 when Fisher decided to leave Oakland and a stadium proposal on the Oakland waterfront behind. The ballpark’s estimated cost has gone up and figures to rise. The original plan was for Las Vegas tourists to stop by and see a game and not count on local fans as much as other franchise owners do in their home markets. Right now, there is a tourism slump in Las Vegas and in Nevada and that cannot be helpful to Fisher. Badain claims the ballpark groundbreaking ceremony will take place in June. It’s just a matter of time.
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