A’s ballpark on Strip: Contracts ‘rounding third and heading home’

The Oakland Athletics could exercise the right to extend their lease at their planned Las Vegas ballpark to as long as 99 years.

In a revised draft lease agreement presented Thursday by the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, the A’s would have an initial lease of 30 years, with four 15-year options and a final nine-year option thereafter. All together, it would be a 99-year lease with all available options involved.

To obtain a lease extension, the A’s must follow various stipulations to meet the authority’s approval conditions. If they don’t, the authority will give the team a set time to execute a plan to meet the conditions. During that time, the lease will be month to month.

The A’s could also opt to buy the ballpark for its appraised market value at the end of each lease period. The first opportunity will come at the end of the initial 30-year lease.

The lease agreement is one of four that must be approved by the stadium authority, in addition to an agreement with Clark County and financial stipulations that need to be met ahead of public money being made available for the project.

The A’s will transfer ownership of the ballpark and the land it sits on to the stadium authority before the team starts playing at the facility, which is why a lease agreement needs to be struck.

Stadium Authority Chairman Steve Hill announced the planned Sept. 19, Nov. 21 and Dec. 12 stadium authority meetings would be canceled. Work on the three outstanding agreements between the A’s and stadium authority could be done at the authority’s Oct. 17 or Dec. 5 meetings.

“We’re rounding third and heading home,” Hill said.

A potential Dec. 12 meeting is also possible, if all three agreements aren’t approved at the Dec. 5 meeting, Hill noted.

The A’s are responsible for financing all but up to $380 million of the $1.5 billion project. The A’s plan to use $300 million in debt financing and up to $850 million in equity from team owner John Fisher’s family, on top of around $350 million of the available $380 million in public funding.

The A’s are also open to bringing in local investors to help offset the equity the Fishers would contribute to the stadium’s construction, in return for a minority stake in the A’s.

The A’s could have their detailed stadium financing in place to present to the stadium authority at the October meeting, Hill said.

The 30-year lease is tied to a nonrelocation agreement that commits the A’s to remaining in Las Vegas for the length of the lease agreement, or face various penalties. The draft nonrelocation agreement was introduced in May and is being revised. If the A’s played at the ballpark past the initial 30-year lease agreement, the terms for the use of the stadium would change from the nonrelocation agreement.

The development agreement,which lays out construction and financial details of the ballpark, was introduced last month, along with the community benefits agreement. The community benefits agreement, which lays out minimum community involvement aspects by the A’s, was approved earlier this year.

The three outstanding agreements will be fine-tuned over the next few months, with the goal of having all of them ready for approval in December, authority chairman Steve Hill said last month.

The A’s are playing their final home games at the Oakland Coliseum through the end of September. The team will then play three seasons at a minor league ballpark in Sacramento.

Plans call for construction on the A’s Strip ballpark on 9 acres of the 35-acre Tropicana site to begin in April and to be ready in time for the 2028 MLB season.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.