LAS VEGAS — The Oakland Athletics are negotiating with Clark County to bridge a $75 million dollar gap in public financing for the proposed $1.5 billion MLB Las Vegas ballpark.
As the A’s finalize the draft language for the bill that would be used to officially request the funds from the Legislature, state and county officials are only ready to offer the organization $320 million of their planned $395 million request, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told the Review-Journal.
The outstanding funds would come from the county, so the two sides have been working toward hashing out their differences to get to the A’s desired amount for the 30,000-seat stadium, the source said.
The A’s could not be reached for comment.
Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom said via text that he didn’t have any information on the negotiations, but said the report about the funding gap between the A’s and the county potentially holding up legislation “sounds right.”
Commissioners Michael Naft and commissioner chair Jim Gibson didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.
Tax revenue for the project would be generated by a special district encompassing the stadium. Various taxes generated within the district would repay bonds issued to fund construction. The bonds would be paid back over 30 years.
Transferable tax credits also would be used to fund some of the public contribution.
The team is looking to construct a 30,000-seat stadium on 9 acres of the 35-acre Tropicana site, located on the south Strip.
Bally’s Corp., which owns the Tropicana, and Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc., who owns the land the property sits on, said they would provide the A’s the land for free, pending legislative approval of their public funding request and MLB approving their relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas.
Soo Kim, chairman of Bally’s Corp., told the Review-Journal last week that they hoped providing the A’s with free land would push lawmakers to continue the momentum toward landing the team in Southern Nevada.
“We would love to see some type of similar commitment from the county and state,” Kim said. “That’s a collective community effort to attract all of these franchises and all of the economic activity that comes with it… We’re planting the flag and hope that everyone gets there.”
Speculation was that the A’s on Thursday would submit the draft language that would lead to their bill being filed by a state lawmaker or committee. The ongoing negotiation is the reason that the finalization has yet to occur as of Thursday afternoon.
After the bill is introduced on the floor, it would be referred to a legislative committee to be heard.
