What does Bally’s merger mean to A’s ballpark plan?
It’s “business as usual” for Bally’s Corp., according to company Chairman Soo Kim, as it relates to the Oakland Athletics’ planned Las Vegas ballpark and the development of the rest of 35-acre Tropicana site after an announced $4.6 billion merger Thursday.
Standard General LP, a hedge fund managed by Kim, bought out Bally’s in an announced $4.6 billion deal.
Bally’s owns the rights to develop the 35-acre site where the shell of the Tropicana resort now sits, as it awaits a planned October implosion.
With Standard General already Bally’s largest shareholder, Kim said the transaction shows how much the companies believe in the Las Vegas stadium and future hotel projects.
“The deal is an affirmation that the largest shareholders of the company believe that Bally’s future is bright, and that future includes the Tropicana redevelopment and ballpark,” Kim said in an email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The A’s plan to construct a $1.5 billion ballpark on 9 acres of the Tropicana site, with Bally’s planning to build a future resort on the remaining acreage.
Last week A’s executive, Sandy Dean, revealed that the team’s ballpark is planned to be built just northeast of the center of the site, with the northwest-facing portion of the ballpark featuring a massive steel-curtain glass wall with views of the Strip.
The A’s are in the midst of negotiating and finalizing a trio of agreements with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority that would make the up to $380 million in public funding available to the team to go toward financing a portion of the stadium’s costs.
Stadium Authority Chairman Steve Hill said last week he expects the work on those agreements, the development, lease and nonrelocation, to go until about December, when they will be up for approval. The A’s also have to enter into a separate development agreement with Clark County.
Once those agreements are approved, the A’s must also spend the first $100 million on the ballpark project, before the public money is made available. Dean noted last week that the A’s will likely use just $350 million of the available $380 million in public funds.
Plans call for construction on the A’s stadium to begin in April and for it to be completed in time for the 2028 MLB season.
The A’s will play the interim year of 2025-2027 in a minor league ballpark in Sacramento, with their tenure at the Oakland Coliseum ending Sept. 26 against the Texas Rangers.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.