Vegas A’s consultant may lack an economics degree, but he did study economics with a non-economist

Also this weekend, the Nevada Independent ran a long feature on Jeremy Aguero, the Las Vegas Stadium Authority/Oakland A’s lobbyist/economic consultant who found fame with his evasive testimony before the state legislature during June’s special session to approve $600 million in stadium subsidies. It’s a largely softball profile — the vast majority of quotes are from Aguero or his political allies, and about the most biting it gets is saying, “Aguero has faced more scrutiny over whether he has blurred the lines between lobbyist and analyst” — but there’s still plenty of LOLAguero for the seasoned Aguerologist:

• Despite being paid by A’s owner John Fisher to advocate for his stadium project, Aguero insists that “I view myself as being, view our firm as being, analysts, not advocates.”
• Since he’s avoided registering as a lobbyist, Aguero doesn’t have to make his client list public, but his website lists a dizzying array of clients on both sides of the public-private table, including Clark County, the cities of Henderson and Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, two different casinos, and Ultimate Fighting Championship.
• Though Aguero’s college degree from UNLV is in hotel management, not economics, he did complete “a special course of study focused on economics and finance under longtime gaming regulator and executive Shannon Bybee,” according to the Independent. Bybee, in turn, got his economics knowhow by working as a deputy sheriff, a law clerk, and a casino executive before heading to UNLV’s hotel administration school to train budding gaming execs.
• Aguero founded his consulting firm Applied Analysis as a recent college graduate out of his basement apartment in 1997 with the credo “If we could help other people do the things that they were trying to accomplish, they would continue to hire us,” presumably because straight-up naming it Applied Conflict of Interest would have been too on the nose.

There’s more, but Alan Snel’s LVSportsBiz profile of Aguero from back in May is a better and more informative read, so maybe just head there instead. Meanwhile, the Independent hasn’t reported anything for weeks on what the actual deal is with the Vegas A’s stadium deal — for example, maybe it’d be worth devoting some reporting resources to investigating what ever happened with those fresh Las Vegas stadium renderings that were supposed to be announced two weeks ago until the announcement was abruptly canceled on the excuse that two Nevada state troopers had been killed four days earlier. It’s been 18 days now, and there’s still been no announcement, unless you count leaking word that the stadium may display items from Fisher’s private art collection, which will surely be a great success, that always goes well.