New Documents Confirm A’s Ballpark Financing is 110% Done Deal

By Scott Roeben, on December 02 2024
3 min read 14 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas WTF

We hate being wrong, but new documents submitted to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board make it clear $1.75 billion (previously $1.5 billion, please keep up) in financing for the A’s ballpark on the former Tropicana site is completely in place, an iron-clad, guaranteed 110% done deal.

The documents will be presented to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board on Dec. 5, 2024.

The board meeting agenda, however, is 706 pages long. We took the liberty of extracting the relevant pages for you, including a document that has not been seen yet by the public.

If you’re one of those misguided people who says, “Letters are the new bounced checks,” we can’t help you.

If you’re unfamiliar with what’s happened with the A’s potential move to Las Vegas, here’s an overview: The A’s are presumably moving to Las Vegas, but they need a place to play. To-date, details of the financing of the ballpark have been fuzzy, and some (mainly us) have been very skeptical of the ballpark being built in Las Vegas at all.

The Dec. 5, 2024 Las Vegas Stadium Authority meeting will put any lingering doubts about the ballpark financing to rest!

They’re looking out for all of us, and by that we mean people who could purchase Kuwait with what they find under their couch cushions.

Included in the 706-page board meeting agenda are four key documents: 1) A letter from Goldman Sachs and U.S. Bank committing to a $300 million loan to the A’s and its owner, John Fisher. 2) A letter from John Fisher committing up to $1 billion to the project. 3) A letter from Athletics StadCo confirming funding is sufficient to move forward with the ballpark. 4) A letter from U.S. Bank stating the Fisher family has the resources to contribute $1 billion to the project.

Here are the documents from the agenda so you can see for yourself the rock solid foundation upon which the A’s move to Las Vegas is built.

Letter 1 is from Goldman Sachs and U.S. Bank.

The A’s have to spend $100 to get approximately $350 million in public funding for the project. This is multiples of that!

Letter 2 is from A’s owner John Fisher.

Nothing says “Trust me” like Comic Sans.

Letter 3 is from Athletics StadCo, an entity created to handle the private capital investment. Basically, it’s the A’s, but with a deeper voice and fake mustache.

No, Athletics StadCo doesn’t have a logo. Don’t spoil it.

Letter 4 comes from U.S. Bank. Yes, the first letter also came from U.S. Bank, but this presentation needs to be bulletproof to fend off haters, so this letter further seals the deal.

Someone asked if the public or media would be able to see any of the supporting documents, and Steve Hill of the LVCVA said they’re confidential. Translation: Nothing to see here.

So, there you have it.

The A’s ballpark is fully funded and anyone who questions that absolutely indisputable fact is clearly hopped up on the devil’s cabbage.

Because we are known for providing scoop, we also dug up another document that was omitted from the agenda for some reason.

Could this be a hint of whether the Stadium Authority will sign off on the A’s proof of financing?

While the documents on the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board meeting agenda answer any and all possible questions about funding of the ballpark, there are still some teensy questions remaining related to the project. Like how much the cost of the ballpark will go up if the A’s have to pay for infrastructure when Bally’s Corp. bails on its planned resort on the site. Teensy. Also, what does “subject to customary conditions” mean? It’s attached to literally every financial commitment for this ballpark. If something goes awry, which it definitely won’t, is that intended to be a catch-all phrase meaning “Oopsie”?

But questions are for another time.

For now, we can all rest easy that the financing is in place for the A’s ballpark and John Fisher is fully committed to pouring a third of his wealth (while handing over at least $200 million to the IRS when he cashes in his GAP stock) into a questionable enterprise with fantastical estimates of attendance and revenue, as opposed to the ludicrous idea he could sell the team so Las Vegas could start dealing with an owner who’s serious about an MLB team in Las Vegas.

It’s just that kind of forward-looking financial genius and commitment that is the hallmark of John Fisher, a major league baseball team owner who won over the hearts of A’s fans in Oakland. Fans, we should mention, who inspire us to continue to cover this story despite our sort of being over it, already.

We can’t wait to see what the Sacramento A’s have in store next, and shame on us for ever doubting this stellar organization and its owner, billionaire John Fisher, who, we assume, enjoys satire (protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution) as much as the next person.