Featured image credit: Athletics
The Athletics Major League Baseball franchise is reportedly seeking outside investment to help fund the team’s new ballpark development in Las Vegas.
The A’s are set to move to a 33,000-capacity ballpark in Las Vegas in 2028. The team left Oakland last year and will spend the next three seasons playing at Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park while the new stadium is built.
In December, it emerged that the team’s budget for the project had risen to $1.75bn (£1.35bn/€1.61bn), and the Las Vegas Review-Journal has now reported that the A’s are in talks with potential investors with a view to raising up to $550m.
According to the report, investors would be given an equity stake in the A’s. The new shares being offered by A’s owner John Fisher would reportedly value the team at $2bn.
The report adds that several interested investors have already been vetted by Major League Baseball. The $550m from investors would be supplemented by $350m in public funding from the State of Nevada and Clark County, a $300m construction loan from Goldman Sachs and US Bank, and at least $550m from the Fisher family.
The A’s are expecting to break ground on the stadium project in the second quarter of 2025, with June currently the target. Any outside investment could be provided after the project has commenced.
The A’s presented a fresh look at plans for the new ballpark earlier this month, as the team also hired Marc Badain as its new president.
Badain formerly played a key role in the relocation of the NFL’s Raiders to Allegiant Stadium, and joins the A’s from Oak View Group, where he oversaw the planning for a multi-billion-dollar integrated resort and arena project in Las Vegas.
The new ballpark images included features that were not shown in previous renderings, such as home and visitor bullpens stacked together just beyond the left-field wall, as well as shortened foul territory that would allow for the closest seats to the field of any MLB stadium.
The stadium has been designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and HNTB.
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