The Nevada state teachers’ union had its day in court yesterday, making oral arguments asking the Nevada Supreme Court to approve language for a referendum on repealing last summer’s $380 million (plus about another $220 million in future capital improvements, property tax exemptions, and exemption from the state’s entertainment tax) allocation of state funds to a new Oakland A’s stadium on the Las Vegas Strip. And the verdict is … ha ha, don’t be silly, there’s no ruling yet, what kind of jurisprudence do you think we have in this country?
Which is all well and good: Judges, like legislators, should get time to think about things. But Schools Over Stadiums, the project of the Nevada State Education Association that is pushing for the referendum, is also on the clock here, because there are only 77 days left — 76, now — to collect 102,000 signatures and get a referendum on the ballot this fall. A poll last week found that voters in the city of Las Vegas oppose the stadium funding plan by a 52-32% margin, and while this would be a statewide vote, that certainly bodes well for both the petition-gathering effort and the ultimate repeal campaign — assuming there’s time to conduct them.
The question being raised before the court is whether the referendum language has to include the entire text of the bill that would be modified by the ballot measure, as a lower court ruled, or if it can just describe the sections it wants removed, as the union would prefer. But either way, the more important question is whether the court can settle on some language soon, or else any referendum may have to wait until 2026 — which would throw A’s owner John Fisher’s stadium plans into even more disarray than they are now, since he’d be trying to raise money for a project that could have $600 million in funding pulled out from under it while it was under construction.
Meanwhile, there’s still a separate court case underway about whether the stadium funding vote was constitutional in the first place, with the teachers’ union arguing that it technically required a two-thirds majority, which it didn’t get. It’s not clear when that will be heard, or how long it will take for a verdict, and then for appeals. So all of which is to say: It could be a while before anyone knows whether Fisher really has $600 million in public money in his pocket or not, which could mean a long stay for the A’s in limbo, or whatever we’re calling Sacramento these days.
If they ever move to Las Vegas, leave the A’s name in Oakland. Las Vegas Coyotes has an appropriate ring to it.
Coyotes is a great name and the hockey team does have good branding. It’s a shame that it’s going to waste.
Vegas Beholden Knights
I never thought about the ballot question potentially pushing out to 2026. For construction purposes, that’s almost as bad as losing the argument outright. Better advise (the non-redundant) team employees to find condos, not apartments.
This all comes across as though the governor of Nevada, Joe Lombardo, promised nothing but smooth sailing to Fisher and Kaval and they took his word at face value with no research. I don’t think A’s leadership ever grasped how unpopular the funding deal for Allegiant Stadium was to locals. Also, for all of the glitz and glam it presents to tourists, Vegas is very much a blue-collar town. Spurning schools for taxpayer funded sports palaces just doesn’t play well there – especially since so many voters go to work every day in luxury casinos and developments that were entirely privately financed.
The only way the A’s win this ballot fight is if they somehow prevent a vote from ever happening. In a Presidential election year with peak turnout, there is not a chance in hell that Fisher and Kaval will win a campaign against the state teacher’s union. The irony that they ditched Oakland because they didn’t think they could work with the politicians there, only to get their asses handed to them in a state they thought they could roll over, will be too rich.