There is no groundbreaking ceremony planned.
Are there some nervous people in Las Vegas where a nearly two-year dance is taking place? The dance where Major League Baseball’s Athletics franchise owner John Fisher continues to look for a partner to help finance his planned baseball stadium in town. The trade war has suddenly made building a stadium much more costly and Fisher’s two companies’ stocks, The Gap and Levi’s, have been hit hard. Because of that wealth, Fisher has claimed that he and his family have the wherewithal to fund the stadium that is projected to cost about $1.75 billion. Nevada politicians have put aside $380 million to help Fisher fund the project.
The saga of the Las Vegas stadium has been going on since April 2023 when Fisher decided to leave Oakland and a stadium proposal on the Oakland waterfront behind. 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. The ballpark’s estimated cost has gone up and figures to rise. It is now $1.75 billion. The park will seat about 33,000 people and 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. Fisher could not or would not make a deal with city of Oakland officials to build a ballpark village at Howard Terminal overlooking the San Francisco Bay and just ended talks with the city and decided there was gold to be found in Las Vegas. Fisher’s team is temporarily in Sacramento and this is supposed to be a three-year run with Las Vegas getting the team when the new stadium opens in 2028. Fisher still has to put up money.
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