‘A great celebration’: A’s make 1st mark on Strip at ballpark ceremony
The Athletics staked their claim to Las Vegas on Monday, celebrating the groundbreaking for their $1.75 billion Strip ballpark.
Work on the 33,000-fan capacity ballpark had kicked off in late April, so the event was more of a celebration of over four years of work to get from exploration and negotiation to construction.
“These things take so long to actually make happen,” A’s owner John Fisher said. “I think today was a great celebration of all the people it takes just to bring (us) just to this spot. Then the next celebration is going to be Opening Day (2028), when we can celebrate the thousands of workers who are putting all of their time and effort and everything behind actually building the stadium itself.”
The morning event, held on the site of the former Tropicana Las Vegas, on the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue, featured A’s ownership and executives, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, Gov. Joe Lombardo, Clark County commissioners, legislators, members of the Las Vegas Stadium and Las Vegas Convention and Visitors authorities, and representatives from Bally’s Corp., as well as youth baseball and softball players.
A’s owner John Fisher meeting with local Little Leaguers. #vegas #athletics #mlb pic.twitter.com/zYNVJV4YRu
— Mick Akers (@mickakers) June 23, 2025
Las Vegas has proved it’s a great professional sports town, so adding Major League Baseball to the mix is an exciting aspect for the league and for a team with a storied history, including nine World Series titles, Manfred said.
“All of us at Major League Baseball, all the owners, are excited to be adding Major League Baseball to the entertainment alternatives that are available here in Southern Nevada,” Manfred said. “The Athletics have a long and proud history. … I think about today as the beginning of new chapter in that great history.”
When the A’s begin play in Las Vegas in 2028, they will add to the economic impact of the growing sports-entertainment scene, Lombardo said.
“This is an economic driver for the state,” Lombardo told the Review-Journal. “You’re always trying to reinvent yourself to be the new best thing in entertainment. Can you think of anything better than Major League Baseball?”
Fisher noted that working with state and local elected officials has been easier than working with officials in the Bay Area, where the team previously tried to get a new stadium built to replace Oakland Coliseum. The A’s left that crumbling stadium after last season, and will play home games in a Triple-A ballpark in Sacramento through the 2027 season before moving to Las Vegas.
“They’re used to big projects here in Nevada. You look at the Strip, and it’s filled with massive buildings. They just got through opening the Sphere, which is a monumental piece of design and infrastructure,” Fisher said. “So, just the process was easier because they’ve gone through a lot more (major projects).”
Crews won’t waste any time moving to the next step. Once the tent where the ceremony took place is removed from the site, crews were to begin early foundation work Monday night, A’s President Marc Badain said.
How the A’s got here
In May 2021, the A’s announced MLB had given them the green light to explore relocation. The team zeroed in on Las Vegas.
The A’s looked at more than a dozen sites around the Las Vegas Valley over a couple of years, eventually leading them to the Tropicana site, announced in May 2023.
In June 2023, during a special session of the Nevada Legislature, up to $380 million in public funding was approved for the project. Then, in November 2023, MLB owners unanimously approved the A’s plan to relocate to Las Vegas.
A’s groundbreaking ceremony setup. #vegas #athletics #mlb pic.twitter.com/krnkQvoZnY
— Mick Akers (@mickakers) June 23, 2025
The A’s $1.75 billion ballpark will be paid for with a mix of public and private funding and debt. The Fisher family is responsible for $1.4 billion of the project’s cost.
A portion of that will be paid by taking on a $300 million construction loan from U.S. Bank and Goldman Sachs. The remaining $1.1 billion will be paid with Fisher family equity.
A process is underway to raise more than $500 million by bringing in project investors in exchange for a minority stake in the team. Any funding raised via that process would reduce the Fisher family’s equity contribution to the construction of the Las Vegas ballpark.
“We have a number of people who have committed so far, and we’re continuing to raise capital. But like I said, this will probably help, because people all want to see, is this real,” Fisher said. “I think when you’ve got machines behind us, you’ve got a site that has the hotel down and replaced by the holes we have (dug around the site). … So, as the structure comes up, I think people are going to be able to look at it and say, ‘Wow.’ So, I think we’re in a really good place.”
The final portion of the stadium’s funding will come from the team using $350 million of the $380 million earmarked for the project in 2023 by Senate Bill 1.
Fisher is selling his Major League Soccer franchise, the San Jose Earthquakes, which he has owned since 2008. He said that deal will allow him to fully focus on Las Vegas, while allowing a new ownership group to give the Earthquakes the full attention they deserve.
“This is such a monumental task that we’re building with our stadium here, that it was important to me. I bought a house in Vegas, I’m planning on spending a lot of time here, and it was important to me that I’d be able to give 100 percent of my effort toward the A’s,” Fisher said.
Stadium details
The 945,000-square-foot, eight-level facility will feature 30,000 fixed seats and areas to host 3,000 standing-room ticket holders. To provide the luxury experience many expect when attending games and events in Las Vegas, the A’s plan to build 81 suites, including field-level options, and six club spaces in the stadium.
Plans call for 23 public concession stands, 18 public bars and six retail spaces in the ballpark.
Work on the stadium is being led by joint venture contractor Mortenson-McCarthy. The project is expected to take 32 months and be complete for Opening Day in 2028.
When that day occurs in three years, Las Vegas Stadium Authority Chairman Steve Hill said, he believes it will continue the legacy of the site that once was home to the Rat Pack-era Tropicana.
“This has been a place that has welcomed dreamers and entrepreneurs and made people stars,” Hill said. “We are going to do that again on this site. This is an iconic location. This is going to be an epic ballpark, and there is going to be no better place in the United States to watch Major League Baseball.”
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.
