Well that escalated quickly! Just weeks after announcing Las Vegas baseball was a done deal, and that a new stadium would be built off the Strip near Interstate 15, things have turned once again. And it all pivots around public funding.
Don’t worry, the A’s still plan to move to Sin City. However, in order to meet the fast approaching deadline of June 5th (which is the end of the Nevada Legislative session), some things needed to be moved around… like the location of that new stadium.
Originally, the location of the new Las Vegas baseball stadium was west of Las Vegas Boulevard, across the freeway from the New York New York casino. But in order to build there, the team needed to secure $500 million in public funding. That’s a very short time to raise a lot of money.
Fast forward to today and an alternative plan: Enter Bally’s Corporation. They have an agreement to build a $1.5 billion stadium on a portion of land now occupied by the Tropicana Casino. And by doing so, the amount of public financing needed falls to under $400 million.
Howard Stutz of The Nevada Independent reported that “Bally’s plans to demolish the Tropicana and allow the A’s to construct a 35,000-seat retractable roof stadium on 9 acres of the 34-acre site on Tropicana Avenue near the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip.”
So, after rumors that the Rio Casino would be demolished to make way for Las Vegas baseball, it seems that it will actually be the Tropicana to go under the wrecking ball. And an even older rumor is that the plans to re-build the Tropicana near the ballpark may actually see the resurrect of Bally’s Las Vegas! How interesting!