The A’s will move to Las Vegas. Well, let’s back up. The A’s move to Las Vegas has been approved by Major League Baseball’s 29 other owners. That’s not the same thing as the A’s actually doing the deed and moving there, despite the implied finality of that vote. It’s still likely that this will all play out as A’s owner John Fisher hopes, in the sense that the team will relocate to Vegas. But there are more unanswered than answered questions at this stage, which means… well, “likely” isn’t the same thing as “definite,” you know?
Let’s talk about those unanswered questions. They aren’t small ones! The biggest is where the rest of the money to pay for the new stadium in Las Vegas is actually going to come from. The state of Nevada has agreed to chip in a not-inconsiderable sum, one reported at $380 million in public funds that will more likely end up looking like $600 million when everything is said and done. Even if the A’s end up swiping $600 million from the state, though, the ballpark is supposed to cost $1.5 billion to build: where’s the other $900 million coming from?
Supposedly from Fisher, but it’s not like that money is going to come out of the bank account his parents opened up for him. Someone is going to have to help finance this thing, but who? How much is Fisher going to actually put up of that $900 million? How much will he be able to borrow? At what interest rate? How easily will it be paid back? Doing so with a stadium that seats a maximum of 30,000 and is going to rely on tourists to fill it—that’s the A’s plan, not mine—will make it more difficult to do so.
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