Oakland A’s owner John Fisher and team president Dave Kaval are in Southern Nevada this week to further examine locations for a potential new stadium.
Following up their visit to the Las Vegas area last month when they say they met with a handful of local government officials, Fisher and Kaval on Monday continued their exploration of sites for a possible new stadium that would cost, by team estimates, approximately $1 billion and have 30,000 to 35,000 fixed seats.
“I think seeing as many of the sites and talking to folks who either own or control the properties and also just talking to people who are knowledgeable about Las Vegas and the mix of tourists and locals is really the focus of this trip,” Kaval told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Last month, A’s officials looked at areas near Las Vegas Boulevard, in the city suburbs of Henderson and Summerlin, and at Cashman Field near downtown. The Las Vegas Aviators, the A’s Triple-A team, plays in a new ballpark in affluent Summerlin, which is located roughly 12 miles west of the Strip.
“Downtown and in the city of Las Vegas and some of the options there, I think those are kind of intriguing,” Kaval said. “There’s a ton of people that go there, and that could have more of an urban feel to it. We also are really intrigued by some of the options in Henderson and the business-friendly nature of the elected leaders and city administration there.”
The visit by A’s executives comes days after the Alameda County Board of Supervisors said it wasn’t ready to accept a funding plan the team feels is key to building a waterfront ballpark, with surrounding development, at Oakland’s Howard Terminal.
Oakland City Council is scheduled to discuss the team’s plans on July 20. But county supervisors said last week that a vote on the city’s request to form a tax district to finance the infrastructure needed to construct a new ballpark will not occur until September.
Last month, Major League Baseball gave the A’s permission to explore a look for a new home outside of the East Bay, saying that the Coliseum will no longer up to big-league standards. Kaval told KTVU earlier this month that the team was on “parallel paths” with Oakland and Las Vegas, saying the A’s still wanted to make an Oakland waterfront ballpark a reality while also exploring the Southern Nevada market.
Kaval wants to keep up the momentum from last month’s trip to Southern Nevada, telling the Review-Journal he’ll meet with more local resort owners and operators. As of late last week, though, no official meeting with Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman or officials in Henderson had been scheduled. He recently told this news organization that discussions with Las Vegas were “still in a very early stage.”
Kaval said he’ll travel to Arlington, Texas after his stay in Southern Nevada. The A’s are playing the Texas Rangers in a four-game series at Globe Life Field that concludes Thursday. The Rangers’ stadium, which features a retractable roof due to the area’s searing summertime weather, opened last year.
“I’m actually going to check out their retractable dome stadium because I want to see how they did that, because obviously in Las Vegas that is probably the most likely way you would have to build a facility,” Kaval said. “I want to learn from the latest that’s been built and meet with the folks there that made that happen.”
