The Nevada bill to fund an Oakland A’s stadium in Las Vegas cleared a major-if-not-technically-related hurdle last night, as state legislators and Gov. Joe Lombardo agreed to resolve a budget standoff that had threatened to stall the passage of any bills before the session ends on Monday. The details aren’t important — well, they’re hugely important for families with kids in Nevada schools, as the compromise involved things like education funding levels and how easy it is for schools to suspend or expel students deemed disruptive, but not important in stadium terms — but this now clears the way for a vote on the governor’s proposed $500-million-ish stadium tax subsidy plan.
How much support that bill has in the legislature still isn’t entirely clear, and its advocates have been putting on the hard sell, hauling out a bunch of economic claims in hopes of winning votes. “The state general fund will make money on this deal,” said Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo’s chief of staff, Ben Kieckhefer, at Monday’s legislative hearing, while Jeremy Aguero, the consultant who has now worked for both the Raiders and the A’s, asserted that “When we run the numbers out relative to the stadium, the State of Nevada, local governments and state governments combined are over $360 million to the good.” (Neither provided sources for these numbers that I’ve been able to identify.)
Aguero also touted the 5,400 jobs the stadium would allegedly create, which led to this priceless exchange with Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times:
The A’s have about 200 full-time employees. Perhaps that number would double with the ticket sales and marketing that would surround a move.
The Angels have about 200 concession workers on an average game day, union spokeswoman Maria Hernandez said. Security, parking, ticket operations and other positions outside that union account for more game-day jobs — but not thousands more.
Aguero told me Tuesday that his projection showed the A’s ballpark would result in 5,400 jobs per year in team and stadium operations.
“I don’t know that I necessarily agree with your numbers,” he said.
The A’s have 200 employees in Oakland, say facts; they would create 27 times that many jobs in Vegas, says the team’s paid consultant. Too bad there’s no way to guess who’s right! (Aguero also, according to Shaikin, said “he did not consult with other major league teams about job numbers.” So very, very priceless.)
Las Vegas stadium authority chief Steve Hill threw in another economics-adjacent argument on Monday, asserting that an A’s stadium will benefit Las Vegas because the baseball season is largely during the summer, when tourism to Las Vegas declines. Only one problem, discovered Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com:
The average monthly number of Las Vegas visitors for the four-month period of June, July, August and September in both 2019 and 2022 was actually slightly higher than the average monthly number for the entire year.
The goal of assertions like these — which can charitably be called misstatements, or less charitably “making crap up” — is less whether they’re true or not, and more about flooding the zone with so many claims that legislators are provided with cover for an eventual “yes” vote. Sure, there may be no possible way for taxpayers to recoup their costs from a stadium that will pay no income or sales or property taxes, and a team that only has a couple of hundred employees total is not going to create thousands in Vegas no matter how many multipliers you throw around, but opinions differ, don’t you see? Once all that is solid has melted into air, all that is left is horse trading, and that’s something the A’s cadre of lobbyists no doubt figure they can manage.
Nevada doesn’t have a state income tax. So what would X number of new jobs do since most of the higher paid ones will be people moving in from out of state and not currently unemployed Nevadans filling them
Amend the bill and deal such that Athletics make up any shortfall under their projections. Call their f——n bluff. That’s what you’re supposed to do in Las Vegas.
It is unlikely there would be 5400 workers on site during the peak of stadium construction. I have worked on many large industrial and commercial developments… it takes a LOT to get more than 1500 or so workers on a site at the peak of construction.
And yet… the A’s, on a 9 acre site, will have almost four times this many?
Not a chance. Not if you count every family member of all the workers who build the stadium and count 5 hr a day temp jobs (for 90 days a year tops) during the stadium’s operating phase will you get to 5400 jobs.
Aguero is either stupid or dishonest. There is no other explanation for such idiotic numbers.
Another taxpayer stadium scam. The A’s lobbying group must have a lot of money to donate to our politicians campaign funds, to make them so anxious to build another stadium for another billionaire. It doesn’t cost 1.5 billion to build a stadium, an entire resort costs less to build. If John Fisher actually put in a billion dollars, the stadium would be built, with money left over, but the only money he is paying is going to our highest ranking officials to sign the bill to have the taxpayers completely pay for the stadium while the owner only rakes in the profits, should be illegal. Not only is it legal, but the A’s can even write the “donation” (let’s call it) as a tax write off. There should be a cap put on public funding, anything over 1 million should go to a vote, so our politicians can not keep making these shady back door deals. Soon, Nevada will be over 1 billion dollars in the hole for the 2 stadiums. SAD!
Bobby M is correct. If public funding for professional sports stadiums in other cities, you quickly see that taxpayers ended up footing the bill. Even 5400 service sector jobs are not worth the future debt burden. I used to love baseball, but this deal is not worth the expense to residents of Las Vegas, or of the state of Nevada. Let MLB build their own venues, not pass the expense onto residents and the state budget.
Lombardo vetoed part of the budget, special session seems likely
5400 jobs? Are they sure they were not talking about attendance figures? What about traffic issues? Parking issues? What street upgrades will he needed for this? Has anyone thought about this? How much more money will the residents of Las Vegas have to pay for that?
I’m not opposed to major league baseball coming to Las Vegas. I’m opposed to the A’s and their crappy ownership coming to Vegas. They’re a bad organization and why would the county or state want to get in bed with a bad company? There’s a stadium deal to be had in Oakland, they just don’t want to be there which is shame for the fans. This whole thing is make-believe and an exercise in futility. Please make it stop. Vote NO.
Same owners for sj quakes BEFORE fisher san jose earthquakes had 2 or 3 msl titles and made playoffs almost every year retained homegrown talent and even signed top free agents and san jose lead msl in attendance since FISHER no titles homegrown talent walks, no free agents coming to earthquakes no titles no sellouts and no playoff appearances FISHER IS ONE OF THE RICHEST MEN IN AMERICA and he didnt get that way paying pro athletes FISHER POCKETS THE PROFITS AND WILL NOT INVEST IN TEAM OR COMMUNITY.
Figures lie and liars figure.
Las Vegas is so screwed of they approve this . John Fisher is a horrible owner who doesn’t care about the teams he owns. He puts zero money and effort for his teams. Heck he lives 20 minutes away from colesiun and he owned the teams and only shoelws up about five times a year.
The numbers they are showing to th politicians are so wrong, I can’t believe how dishonest they are
being with what they are telling the state officials. If the politicians approve this, there are going to considered the dumbest state politicians in the USA