The Tropicana Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip was blowed up real good last night, to clear the land for an eventual Las Vegas A’s stadium along with other redevelopment by the site’s owner, the Bally’s Corporation:
And speaking of that planned A’s stadium, how’s the financing for that going?
In July, the Athletic’s’ executives said the stadium would be financed in three parts. Nevada taxpayers would pay about $350 million, debt financing would contribute another $300 million, and Fisher would pay the remaining $850 million.
That’s true as far as it goes, but A’s board member Sandy Dean’s testimony at the time was incredibly nonspecific about where Fisher’s $850 million would come from, beyond saying that A’s owner John Fisher was in “good shape” raising money and that “it would be a positive to have outside investors” — a positive for Fisher, sure, though it’s still unclear what Fisher would have left over to offer to investors after paying off $300 million in loans plus whatever ROI his family will want for their cut of the stadium costs. The team still hasn’t submitted a detailed financial plan to the Vegas stadium authority and may not until December; stadium authority chair Steve Hill, who moonlights as an unregistered A’s lobbyist, said yesterday that after something between “an audit and a look” at the Fisher family’s finances, “it is clear that the Fishers have the ability to provide the financing for the stadium, period,” which isn’t the same thing as saying that the Fishers can pay for the stadium and earn their money back, which would seem to be the point of the whole exercise.
Until Fisher presents an “irrevocable” financing plan, Nevada won’t release its $380 million in stadium funding approved last summer — along with an additional $180 million in property tax breaks and $100 million in ticket tax exemptions — so right now the whole thing still remains on hold. Except for the site being cleared, but Bally’s is free to use that for something other than a stadium if Fisher’s financing falls through. In the meantime, enjoy the sardonic laughter of the Bay Area’s KGO-TV news anchors as their reporter notes, “If the A’s can get it together, they hope to start playing in Las Vegas in 2028.”
Fisher rambled on and on, making a weird joke about the pyramid (the Luxor across the street), and congratulated the Henderson Little League team for their trip to the LLWS. He went over his time and the local news had to cut away for the drone show.
He should take a lesson from another billionaire who came to Vegas, Howard Hughes, and never appear in public.
Detroit Pistons owner just bought 1/4 of the chargers maybe he will buy 1/4 of the A’s
How would that help? Unless there’s some revenue stream to pay off the stadium costs, he would just be buying 25% of $1.15 billion in debt.
The problem here isn’t coming up with *cash* — Fisher can do that. The problem is finding a way for a $1.15 billion investment in a 30,000-seat stadium in MLB’s smallest market to produce a return on investment. Unless Fisher can find some people who just want to get to sit in an owner’s box in Vegas and never see their money again, which I suppose is possible, but it doesn’t seem to be going so well.
Exactly- the only ROI that any potential investor can see is whatever MLB is giving the A’s in revenue sharing and national tv rights. Everything else is just wildly speculative.
We deal with this with the white Sox. At the end of the day it will be paid by taxpayers.
If they do present a complete financing plan in December, I expect substantially more than $300 million in debt. If there were somebody willing to step in as a minority equity partner given Fisher’s thoroughly mediocre track record as a sports operator, why haven’t they done so before now?
The rumors that he has been equity fundraising at a wildly optimistic, post-stadium valuation don’t help, either, though I haven’t seen them corroborated outside of Twitter. I would love it if that slide deck leaked, that would be some of the most entertaining sports content all year.
If they can actually build a stadium and resort for $1.5B then I doubt they will have any issues making a profit on that. Most of the casinos on the strip cost way more than that. Heck, just remodeling the Mirage is going to cost that much, after they already spent a billion to buy it. So, if they actually can make it happen I have no doubts it will turn out well for them. My guess though is that it will end up costing at least double that estimate.
$1.5 billion is just for the stadium. Whatever kind of resort or other development Bally’s builds on the site won’t involve Fisher or the A’s.
Ballys Chicago resort was budgeted at $1.6 billion. It’s fallen behind and will probably cost more. That’s only a 400 room hotel.
Something in Vegas worthy of the site would be 1500 rooms. (although the Ballys ceo says they’re trying for 3000 rooms, good luck) Probably be closer to $4 billion. For the resorts
If the stadium doesn’t get built, could the Tropicana owners or employees have a breach of contract or other legal claim against Fisher? If so, would that make it more likely he gets forced to sell?
No. They will just enlarge the footprint of their hotel and casino. The A’s are taking up 9 acres of the available 36. If the stadium doesn’t happen, Bally’s will just use up the entire 36 acres. Larger parking structure, pool;etc.
Loved the fireworks/drone show that built up to the actual demolition. Hated having to reboot to avoid the auto-playing right-wing political ad that couldn’t be deleted.