Groundbreaking Scheduled for June on A’s New Ballpark in Vegas

According to reports, the team known for decades as the Oakland Athletics will see a groundbreaking ceremony for their new Las Vegas, Nevada, ballpark in June after getting their land-use permits approved.

Play Ball…in 2028

The only team listed in the MLB standings without a location before their name is the Athletics. It says neither Oakland, Las Vegas, nor Sacramento, where they are spending the first of three seasons at a Triple-A ballpark in West Sacramento, California.

The A’s are a Major League ballclub without a permanent home, but that will all change, assuming everything goes according to plan, beginning in 2028 when they step inside a $1.75 billion, 33,000-person capacity ballpark. The stadium will be located on the site of the recently demolished Tropicana Hotel, and like everything in Las Vegas, it is expected to be a state-of-the-art wonder replete with a sparkling new Bally’s casino adjacent to it.

The team recently received the news they had been hoping for after the Clark County Commission approved its land-use permits for the new facility.

A’s President Marc Badain said, “Locally, everybody knows this project’s going to happen. 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.:”

Experience Matters

Badain has navigated these waters before. He was brought on board after former club president Dave Kaval left his post several months ago and has experience with bringing the NFL’s Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas and overseeing the construction of its home, Allegiant Stadium, in time for the 2020 season.

Familiar Faces on the Ballpark Project

“The team of people the A’s put together before I even got on site is phenomenal,” Badain said. “A lot of the same people that were involved with Allegiant are on the ballpark project. So that

familiarity and that knowledge and that experience has served the A’s organization well both before I got there and just in the last month I’ve been there.”

The project is financed with $380 million in public funding, something the city of Oakland was unwilling to do, which caused the team to pack up and seek greener pastures. The project has the full support of union workers who wore A’s jerseys to the public comments portion of the Clark County Commissioners meeting with the words, “Approve it and they will come.”

Las Vegas Expands Its Sports Portfolio

The A’s will be the fourth professional team to call Las Vegas home, joining the Raiders, NHL’s Golden Knights, and WNBA’s Aces. Rumors have been swirling that Las Vegas is a preferred destination for an expansion NBA franchise when that league adds another club or two.

“The community has obviously seen the impact that the sports facilities and the sports teams have had on the diversification of the economy as well as the enhancement of the Las Vegas brand and what the city can offer,” Badain said. “It used to be the entertainment capital of the world. Now, everybody refers to it as the sports and entertainment capital of the world.”