The A’s are no longer in Oakland, and their permanent home won’t be ready until 2028. However, planning has begun, and when it is completed, the billion-dollar stadium will not only be the league’s newest state-of-the-art ballpark, but a Bally’s hotel and casino will also sit on the same property.
Let’s take a closer look at the project before betting on it at online sportsbooks.
New Park Expected to Be a Home Run
Earlier this month, the venerable Tropicana Club and its accompanying 22-story Paradise Club were demolished, making way for the new home of what will be the Las Vegas Athletics. In addition to the ballpark, Bally’s will also erect its newest hotel and casino on the same plot of 35 acres that once housed the Tropicana.
“The demolition of the Tropicana represents an important milestone in the process of bringing A’s baseball to the world-renowned Las Vegas Strip and the community of Southern Nevada,” said Bally’s Corporation chairman Soo Kim in an earlier press release.
The project is a collaboration between Athletics’ owner, John Fisher, and Bally’s Corporation, which is estimated to cost $1.5 billion with a fan capacity of 33,000. Fisher is expected to contribute $850 million with $300 million of A’s debt coupled with $350 million of public funding.
Las Vegas Stadium Authority Chairman Steve Hill said that the price tag could increase. “We’ll have that number, and then we’ll be able to do the math,” Hill said after a recent stadium authority meeting. “If it’s a $1.6 billion stadium and the public is going to put in $350 million, then the Fishers will have to put in the balance. It is 75 or 80 percent funded by the Fishers and 20 or 25 percent funded by public funding.”
Completion Date
The new stadium is expected to be completed in time for the As to begin the 2028 season, but until then the team will be located in a temporary ballpark at Sutter Health Park, a 14,000-seat stadium and home of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats.
Bally’s will also be building its towers, which are now positioned to be flanking the ballpark with a parking garage built for 2,500 vehicles. Included will be a 90,000-square-foot casino, 110,000 square feet of convention space, as well as several restaurants and retail outlets.
“There’s an opportunity to offer the patrons more integration, and in that way, make the rest of the remaining acreage more valuable. Great sporting experiences are shared outside the arena, whether it’s the walk, or the concourses, or the energy outside the stadium,” Bally’s Chairman Kim said earlier this year about the project’s master plan.
The new stadium is expected to take 31 months to build, but it is still too early to circle a precise date of completion. Receiving regulatory approvals before groundbreaking can begin is where the project sits at this point, but once that aspect of the project is completed, the builders will go to work.
