Athletics’ Las Vegas ballpark groundbreaking ceremony date set

The Athletics will celebrate the groundbreaking of their $1.75 billion, 33,000-fan capacity ballpark later this month.

The ceremony is scheduled to occur at 8 a.m. on June 23, on a portion of the 35-acre former Tropicana hotel site where the stadium will be located, a person with knowledge of the situation told the Las Vegas Review Journal on Monday. The stadium will be built on 9 acres, with Bally’s Corp. planning to construct an integrated resort on the remaining 26 acres of the land located on the southeast corner of the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue.

Crews already began early work on the stadium site in late April, so the event is more of a celebration for the A’s and state and local politicians to celebrate the work they put into the project leading up to construction beginning. Attendees will include A’s owners and executives, Gov. Joe Lombardo, members of the Legislature and members of the Clark County Commission.

Up to $380 million in public funding is earmarked for the project, which was approved during a special session of the Legislature in 2023.

The funding is a combination of tax credits from the state and money being generated by a special tax district approved by Clark County for the 9-acre site. Clark County will take out bonds to pay its $120 million share of the public money, which will be paid back over 30 years with the revenue generated from the tax district. The county will also issue $25 million for needed infrastructure improvements around the ballpark site.

The A’s would be responsible for the remainder of the project’s cost. The team is also actively looking to bring in investors into the ballpark project for minority shares in the MLB club.

The A’s first began looking into the Las Vegas Valley as a potential relocation site in 2021, after the MLB gave them the green light following years of efforts to get a new stadium built in their former home city of Oakland never came to fruition. The MLB team looked at multiple potential stadium sites over the years, ultimately landing on the Tropicana site in April of 2023.

Plans call for a 32-month work schedule, to have the ballpark ready for Opening Day in 2028. The A’s are playing at Triple-A ballpark Sutter Health Park in Sacramento between this year and the 2027 MLB seasons, while the team’s Las Vegas ballpark is being built.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.