Steve Hill: A's in a good place for Las Vegas ballpark funding

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The chairman of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board doesn't seem worried about the Oakland A's finding funding for their planned new ballpark on the Strip.

Following a board meeting Thursday, Steve Hill said A's majority owner John Fisher could fund the team's portion of the estimated $1.5 billion cost for the new stadium, which would go at the site of the now-closed Tropicana resort along the tourist corridor on the Strip.

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Last year, Nevada lawmakers approved $380 million in public funds for the ballpark, though the A's still need to present a plan to fund the remainder of the bill.

"I think John's looking at options," Hill said. "I don't think it's necessarily out of need. I think it's so that the funding is the most efficient for the A's."

When Hill was asked if he thought Fisher would be willing to fund remainder of the stadium bill on his own, he said that would be conceivable.

"He has the ability to do that, yeah," Hill said.

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According to Forbes, Fisher's net worth is somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 billion. The A's aren't among the most valuable franchises in Major League Baseball, largely due to their aging ballpark in Oakland. However, any MLB team is still quite valuable.

Earlier this year, an agreement was reached for the sale of the Baltimore Orioles for a price of just over $1.7 billion.

During its meeting Thursday, members of the Stadium Authority Board were presented with a non-relocation agreement for the A's, which would lock the team into at least a 30-year stay at the new Las Vegas ballpark. If all goes according to plan, the venue is expected to open in 2028.

It's possible the board could vote on the non-relocation agreement during its meeting in July. Officials say there will not be a June board meeting. Hill said it's "pretty likely" that the A's ballpark development agreement will be presented during that July meeting.

When asked about the timeline for building the ballpark — work can't start until the Tropicana complex is razed and the site cleared, which is expected to be sometime in 2025 — Hill pointed out that Allegiant Stadium was built in about 31 months.

"I think you could probably get the ballpark built in a very similar amount of time," Hill said. "It's obviously a little bit smaller structure [than Allegiant Stadium], though the design could add some time."

While speculation has continued on social media and in other places that the A's could run into issues that could hinder their planned move to Las Vegas, Hill seems to be unconcerned.

"I think [the A's] have been pretty darn clear about what they're doing — they're coming," Hill said. "They said they can finance the stadium and they are going to play baseball here in 2028. Frankly, I think it's just fun for some to create some drama around it and that's happening. It keeps our lives a little bit more interesting."

Since the Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers in 1972, the only other MLB team to relocate to a new city was the Montreal Expos, who became the Washington Nationals for the 2005 season.