The not-yet-Las Vegas Athletics held a groundbreaking for their proposed new $1.75 billion Las Vegas stadium yesterday, and let’s skip right past all the pomp and circumstance and get to the good bit:
You know, groundbreakings are always just media events: Get a bunch of shovels and hard hats, hand them to local dignitaries, snap some photos, and move on. Anybody can have a groundbreaking — former UNLV basketball star Jackie Robinson, for example, staged one in 2014 for his planned $1.4 billion retractable-roof arena project in Las Vegas, and that was the last time any dirt was shoveled on that project, which finally expired quietly in 2023. And I did predict on Friday that Monday’s event would be a Potemkin village of fake construction work, so this wasn’t entirely unforeseen.
And yet! Even I could not have dreamed up John Fisher standing alone on a podium in front of a collection of backhoes that were just props rented for the occasion — plus the actual ground being broken being just some dirt on a table, which made for a super-weird visual. Props (the other kind) to Doug Puppel of the Engineering News-Record for asking about the Bob the Builder cosplay, and to that nameless PR person for answering honestly.
Of course, Fisher holding the world’s most awkward media event is nothing new — the man specializes in awkward — and doesn’t in itself mean that the A’s will follow in Robinson’s footsteps and never do any real construction work. Builders McCarthy Building Companies and Mortensen told KTNV that drilling was set to begin Monday night, and there is a construction schedule of sorts, though it’s just a list of “milestones” to be achieved in each calendar year. So, you know, maybe?
Except there’s still that nagging question of where Fisher will get the money to pay for it. He has produced a letter vowing that he and his family are committed to spending “up to $1.1 billion” on the stadium project while at the same time trying to sell minority shares in the A’s at inflated prices and reportedly trying to sell the San Jose Earthquakes to raise additional cash. That KTNV article was headlined “How will the Athletics pay for their new ballpark? We break down the money,” and this was as far as the breakdown went:
$380 million in already approved state taxpayer funds can be used.
The Fishers have a $300 million loan.
$1.1 billion is expected to be covered by the Fishers.
So we’re still right where we were all along: Fisher has a nine-acre plot of land, dreams of a spherical armadillo, and a $1.1 billion budget hole to fill. And now, a one-day backhoe rental bill to pay.
Dignitaries and near-dignitaries at the groundbreaking mostly insisted on seeing the glass as half full. Nevada assemblymember Steve Yeager told the San Francisco Chronicle, “You always want to see what happens with the economy. But I don’t think we would be having this groundbreaking if this wasn’t going to be a go.” Former Nevada state Sen. Scott Hammond noted that people were initially skeptical that Raiders owner Mark Davis would get his stadium built as well, and predicted that Fisher would find money for his project, though he admitted that funding is “still a work in progress.”
And what did Fisher himself have to say about coming up with the missing money?
“We’ve got a number of people who have committed so far, and we’re continuing to raise capital,” Fisher said. “But this will probably help because people all want to see: is this real? … As the structure comes up, I think people are going to be able to look at it and, you know, sort of say, ‘Wow.’”
Stabbing dirt in an indoor sandbox is the new “Official Groundbreaking”
They had this pregame show interviewing dignitaries. They talked to Dave Stewart and asked about the team retiring his number and he led with “Well I’d rather it be in Oakland”
My cat treats her litter box with more dignity
That’s totally going to be the new euphemism around my house: “Where’s the cat?” “She went to ‘conduct a groundbreaking.\'”
A lot of people-including ME-would rather it bevin Oakland.
Wow, indeed.
ESPN reported on this, and it’s sad how they make it sound like it’s going to be a routine construction project that is organized and ready to go.
Ryugyong Hotel, baseball edition?
There’s actually sporting precedent for this with the Nou Mestalla in Spain.
Valencia claims they’re going to get started on that again — I’ll believe it when I see it.
C’mon, he must have spent a good few $K on those gold plated baseball bat shovels and that large cat litter box with center turf. At least that can be used as a construction urinal.
The stadium will be built in my opinion. MLB wants it in Vegas. Vegas wants it. People will travel to see their team in Vegas and it will not be cheap.
I predict (I’m no Notradomus) that MLB will force Fisher out or he will be a minority owner.
I think it will happen and be an albatross for the league like the Coyotes were for the NHL.
It doesn’t matter what anyone wants. He’s over $1B short and that’s the only thing that matters.
Contractors aren’t accepting IOUs.
A ballpark will be built there or somewhere else eventually, because the team has no legitimate MLB ballpark at all presently, and at some point MLB will lose patience with that fact.
Maybe Fisher will sell the team within the next year to someone with the financial wherewithal to get a ballpark built in Vegas. Or someplace else will put up enough taxpayer money to get a ballpark built in that someplace. Or, MLB will loan the money for the construction in Vegas, with the franchise as collateral, and then force Fisher to sell in order to get MLB’s loan paid back.
If MLB wanted a team in Vegas, they would help them get over the financing hump one way or another, but the longer this goes on and it’s doesn’t happen the more one has to wonder what do the other owners think of Fischer? Are they embarrassed he hasn’t been able to make an town pay like everyone else does? Especially when he had, if I recall correctly, a decent option to rebuild on the Coliseum site…I hope that one gnaws at him every day.
Agreed. A much easier and more profitable way for MLB to be in Vegas (if that was what they wanted) would be to issue an expansion franchise for the city and get all the hoopla that surrounds that rather than a moribund and appallingly badly managed franchise owned by a clown to relocate there.
MLB execs themselves (who voted to allow Fisher to explore the move after he claimed he could not get a deal in Oakland – despite having one on the table at the time) have called the market “iffy”.
Add to that the poor ownership and 20 years of failure and complaints in/about Oakland… it’s not exactly the Golden Knights coming to town amid a blizzard of positive press, is it?
It is a failure that MLB has helped create and must own.
Gee, when you look back on it, Selig-the-used-car-salesman’s record of directing his personal friends and college buddies into the ownership group hasn’t turned out all that well for MLB as a whole, has it?
That’s baseball Hall of Famer Selig-the-used-car-salesman
They’re not forcing Fisher out. He was just added to the Executive Committee.
As messed up as the A’s situation is, the ownership situations in Chicago (WS), Tampa (en route to bring remedied) and Miami are worse.
I don’t think any ownership situation is possibly worse than the A’s.
“Vegas wants it. People will travel to see their team in Vegas…”
People use this exact line with Orlando when it comes to the MLB “efforts” here, and I’m not seeing it at all. The supposed impact of this feels greatly overstated.
This isn’t the NFL where you only have to sell up to nine regular season home dates spread out over four months. Selling 30,000+ seats 81 times over a six month span is a whole different challenge, regardless of whether the ballpark has a roof (and it absolutely will in both scenarios) or how much of a draw the road team is.
The citizens in Vegas doesn’t want it. The politicians who are on the grift wants it. That’s a big difference. It will not get built because Fisher doesn’t have the money. The $380 million will not be released until Fisher secures total funding, which he isn’t close of doing.
Today’s A’s cast show, there was no finer apologist for the Fisher family than good ol’ Chris Townsend. He claimed 40 million visitors to Vegas every year will certainly go to the A’s too. T’was nice to see Dave Kaval at the ground breaking ceremony in Vegas. oh wait a minute, Dave did not get the invite.
And those visitation numbers have plummeted. It’s down by almost 10%. Furthermore, who in their right mind would want to watch a lowly relocated baseball team in the dead of summer in Las Vegas. It was only 106 degrees today and we’re not even in July yet.
A’s can’t even mock up a baseball field. Foul lines do not go through the middle of a base.
He’s on the exec committee or something now… so maybe we should say that foul lines do not CURRENTLY go through the middle of the bases…
Ohhhh, I finally figured out how they’re going to fit a stadium on that site: That table is the new home of the A’s, and all games starting in 2028 will be played by Strat-o-Matic.
The article in the Mercury News was notable mostly for this hilarious picture of Fisher trying to interact with some very bored children (who were no doubt there against their will). https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Athletics_Groundbreaking_Baseball_00135.jpg?w=1860
That red-haired girl’s face is shooting daggers at him.
Saddam Hussein’s human shields looked more upbeat
I guess they didn’t let the third graders wearing “$ell” tee shirts in?
Apart from school kids, it looks to me like everyone else there was either part of the gov’t funding crew or team employees…
Plus Scoop from Bob the Builder hanging out in the background.
As the structure comes up, I think people are going to be able to look at it and, you know, sort of say, ‘Wow.’”
He really showed up prepared to speak. He sounds like an 8th grader who forgot the homework assignment.
Sounds like a whole lot of hate from an Oakland A’s fan boy. Get over it, A’s WILL be built in Vegas, no doubt…
The local fan base will be about as anemic as the Dbacks, except Vegas is half the size of Phoenix, so expect half of anemic ticket sales. Schedule the Giants and Dodgers on weekends and you’ve got 6 sellouts. That leaves 75 games, 72 if you schedule the Cubbies in early April. That leaves dozens of weeknight games all summer long with 25,000 fans dressed as empty seats. By the way, casinos on every corner from coast to coast and a sports book in everyone’s pocket is finally catching up with one dimensional Vegas.
I’m afraid you’re right about how one-dimensional my hometown is. There was a politician about 30 years ago who truly tried to diversify the economy here with the “Liveable Las Vegas” concept but she was shot down. Ever since then, it’s been more casinos, resorts, nightclubs, etc. Now that there is a casino within an hour of every major metro sans the State of Texas, and the sheer greed of the Vegas casino operators, business is hurting. Visitation is down almost 10%. Revenue is down. Machines have gotten tighter, comps are being taken away and more fees are popping up. From a macro-perspective, my hometown is in trouble.
You must be one of the few local residents who wants this abomination. It will not be built unless Fisher is either bought out or somehow his family changes their minds and float him the $1 billion. I’m born and bred in Vegas and nearly everyone I know believes it’s a complete waste of money. What Vegas residents really want is a NBA expansion franchise and we will get one awarded as soon as next year.
BOOM…thanks Steve! Reality….every situation is different but everyone wants to be the nay sayers. Look at the three examples given. They are not overbuilding this stadium and it is in a great town. It does not have to be the Raiders level of success. It will get built and it will be a success of its own…possibly with a different ownership mix but not-the-less. I personally wish it had been an expansion team as well but it is done. The pylons have been drilled this week.