Las Vegas A’s new stadium already in trouble

According to OutKick, the former Oakland Athletics are moving to Las Vegas and are set to play in Sacramento for the duration of the 2025-27 seasons.

The expectation is that the team will officially move to Las Vegas for the 2028 season. The new stadium would be built right on the Las Vegas Strip.

In support of the move, Nevada agreed to give hundreds of millions of dollars to the organization and team owner John Fisher to build on the site of the former Tropicana Hotel, across from the MGM Grand.

As recently as late 2024, it seemed like the Athletics, Vegas and Fisher had cleared the remaining hurdles required for construction.

It turns out that there might be a few things still standing in the way of the Athletics’ new stadium.

In late June, the Athletics held a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the first steps in building their new stadium.

Cat’s out of the bag, the construction equipment that was behind Fisher was rented props that will not be used in the building of the stadium.

In a new report from The Guardian, the report goes into detail about the financial challenges that Fisher faces with the new stadium.

In the report, an economist spoke with JC Bradbury, whose main focus is sports venues. Bradbury has no idea what the next step is for the stadium.

“It’s unclear what the endgame of John Fisher is,” Bradbury said. “Whether he miscalculated, doesn’t understand, doesn’t care about money, or there’s something I’m just totally missing in all of this.”

Initially, building the new stadium was estimated to cost $1.5 billion. The number then rose to $1.75 billion by the end of 2024. Considering inflation, the ballooning cost of materials and supplies could push the cost to an even $2 billion to complete the project.

If Fisher cannot get the financial situation under control, the Athletics could be looking for a new owner and a new city.