It will take some time now to get a funding package approved for a stadium.
What is next for Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher and Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred now that the Nevada Legislature has adjourned until 2025 and there is no public Las Vegas baseball park funding available. Will Fisher go ahead and build a Las Vegas stadium and put up the estimated $1.5 billion dollars needed to build the structure? Will the Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo call a special session of the legislature to discuss giving Fisher money? Will Nevada taxpayers appreciate paying for a special session where lawmakers will discuss handing out hundreds of millions of dollars so that a Major League Baseball business, with few employees that won’t add much to the local economy, can set up shop on the Las Vegas strip? Of course, in the stadium game, things like stadium or arena funding not approved by a certain date is meaningless. It is just a setback usually.
Senate Bill 509 or the Southern Nevada Tourism Innovation Act could have given Fisher up to $380 million in public funds for the construction of a Las Vegas ballpark. The bill has been written so that if for some reason Fisher stays in Oakland, it would be available for a potential owner who seeks an MLB expansion franchise. Some of the elements of the ballpark proposal include that Clark County commissioners would be required to establish a tax entertainment district which meant that all tax revenues generated by the stadium, including sales and payroll taxes, would be used to pay back the public funds. Also, the stadium would not be on the tax roll meaning it would be exempt from property taxes. Fisher has 11 lobbyists listed as active for the Athletics Investment Group to talk to Nevada state lawmakers in an effort to get the money. The effort has stalled.
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