Candidate for Nevada State Treasurer Points Out Flaws of A's Las Vegas Plan

While it's tough to have full faith in what someone running for office posts on social media, Johnson does seem to side with the voting public on this one. When these events happen in Las Vegas, there are numerous cheers, but they're also all somewhat invested in the project. By the sound of things, the taxpayers haven't been terribly excited about the move and would prefer an expansion team.

Let's take his points one by one. First up, "it's wrong to force taxpayers to subsidize a stadium for a billionaire." That seems to be the growing consensus around the country, though there are pockets that likely wouldn't agree.

While it's nice that he's saying this now, the A's have locked up some funding already through SB1, and the NBA arena they're likely to build is to be privately financed, so this one doesn't necessarily mean much in the grand scheme of the immediate future. If the A's make it to town, Vegas would have teams in all four major sports, along with the Las Vegas Aces. They'd be good on stadiums for a minute.

The second point was, "It has no chance of being ready for opening day 2028." This is one that isn't talked about as much, but David Samson of Nothing Personal has mentioned it a couple of times. Without around-the-clock construction (which adds to the construction costs), there is no way to have this built in time.

There was a lot of emphasis on Opening Day 2028 at the groundbreaking on Monday. Perhaps there is an underlying message that if the construction isn't completed by then, the A's owner could have to face some consequences. From Major League Baseball's perspective, they can't continue to run the A's out of Sacramento indefinitely, so they'll need to see progress immediately.

The third point, "I'll be shocked if it's actually built at this location," has also been discussed by those in the know in Las Vegas a decent amount as well. Vital Vegas on Twitter/X has been the most adamant about this location not working, while others have been curious how a domed ballpark would fit on nine acres in the first place.

The problem is, the funding from the Nevada Legislature is explicitly tied to the Tropicana site, so if the A's delayed construction and chose a different site, then the $380 million granted to them in SB1 would go out the window.

This point would also seem to tie into Johnson's fourth and final argument, "The A's will ask for more tax dollars." If the A's were to switch locations, they would undoubtedly head back to the legislature with a new plan. The problem there is that they may have burned their goodwill with the politicians if they pull out of the Tropicana site, and MLB isn't going to have infinite patience for Fisher to keep dragging his feet.

He already did that all over the Bay Area for 20 years.

Even if Fisher comes up with the funding for this ballpark, the success of the project once it's built is still very much an open-ended question. In order to make the money work, the A's and their representatives were projecting sellout crowds for the 33,000 seat venue for every game for 30 years.

For someone that offered hometown hero Marcus Semien a one-year, $12.5 million contract with $10 million deferred just a few years ago to be able to pull off not just the funding for the project, but to collect 33,000 fans per game for 81 home games in the middle of summer in Las Vegas for 30 consecutive seasons--that would sure be something.