The forthcoming $1.75 billion ballpark for the A’s in Las Vegas is closer than ever to reality, with the club, city officials, and MLB staging a large-scale groundbreaking Monday morning at the stadium site. Even with that milestone, however, questions remain for the club, both in the short- and long-term.
The official event, more than four years in the making, arrives after an extended series of twists and turns including an initial stadium funding approval in Nevada, MLB’s ratification of the team relocation to Las Vegas, an emotional departure from Oakland, an initially discarded ballpark design, a revised but still unconventional vision for the facility, and demolition at the site along the famed Las Vegas Strip.
With much of that extended drama now complete, construction on the 33,000-seat ballpark is now moving full steam ahead in preparation for a spring 2028 opening.
“This is an epic moment for our 124-year-old franchise,” said A’s owner John Fisher. “Nevadans love baseball, and that’s given me tremendous confidence about what the future could be here.”
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the league remains fully committed to the Las Vegas market.
“Las Vegas has proven itself to be a great sports town and a great host to professional franchises,” he said. “The Athletics have a long and proud history. … I think about today as the beginning of a new chapter in that history.”
Final Funding?
More than a year ago, Fisher hired veteran sports finance company Galatioto Sports Partners to help raise funding for the stadium project, with that consideration including potential sales of minority stakes of the club.
Nothing has been completed in that effort, and the stadium cost has grown somewhat. More recently, Fisher also started a separate sales effort for the Earthquakes of Major League Soccer, another franchise he owns.
Goldman Sachs and U.S. Bank are providing a $300 million construction loan for the A’s stadium, and Fisher has pledged that he and his family will contribute up to $1.1 billion. The final breakdown of the funding sources for the ballpark, however, remains a work in progress.
Back in Sacramento
The current iteration of the A’s, meanwhile, is facing more issues on and off the field in Sacramento, the club’s interim home for the 2025–27 seasons. An offseason spending push designed to bring the team closer to contention and avoid union complications has not panned out as intended, as the club sits in last place in the American League West division with a 32–48 record.
A series of operational problems at Sutter Health Park, also the home of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, has grown to include fading acceptance by some star A’s players.
The club’s .357 winning percentage at home is significantly worse than its .447 mark on the road this year. Attendance, meanwhile, has also sagged as the club’s eight smallest crowds of the season have happened in the last three weeks. That’s helped drop the A’s behind the Rays, also playing this year in a minor league facility, for the worst average in the league at 9,722 per game.
Likely complicating the situation is a much-debated decision by the A’s to not use the Sacramento city name during this transition period.
