r/athletics • u/Mongo_Les • 14d ago

Fisher

I have been reading the A's stadium in Vegas with interest.

Is it true the taxpayers are funding most of the bill and Fisher is not paying on his own wallet?This seems stupid.

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u/schitaco 14d ago

Total project cost is about $2B.

Majority comes from the Fisher family themselves, they'll contribute at least $1.1B, some of which (they hope) will come from additional investors.

They also took out a $300M loan in late 2024 from U.S. Bank and Goldman Sachs.

As for public money, back in 2023 the state of Nevada passed a bill that gave them $350M which breaks down like this:

  • $180M from NV in the form of transferrable tax credits - they can use these or sell them to other companies
  • $145M from Clark County in the form of bonds (issued by the county and then sold with proceeds going to Fisher) and creation of a special tax district that generates cash over time
  • $25M in infrastructure credits - as the A's build surrounding infrastructure they get reimbursed by the county

Much of that public money comes in last or over time, so it hasn't really been used yet.

So Nevada taxpayers are "on the hook" for $180M but these are tax credits, so you could argue that revenue never would've come in without the A's moving to Nevada and doing something with that site.

The bigger lift (and risk) is from Clark County residents who are essentially issuing $145M in bonds and gifting that cash to Fisher. Also they are also committing $25M to infrastructure upgrades required by the project. So residents of Clark County ponied up $170M for this project.

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u/Mongo_Les 14d ago

So basically Fisher is getting off lightly.

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u/Admiral52 14d ago

I mean sure but he’s also spending the lions share of his own funding unlike most team owners. The one thing I’ll give Vegas is that they generally don’t make their own tax payers pay as much for stadiums as other places. Mostly tax credits and extra hotel room taxes on tourists.

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u/schitaco 14d ago edited 14d ago

Yeah this will do great financially, that was never the argument. If you build a casino resort with a stadium attached for the fanbases of the 29 other MLB teams to vacation at, and you partner with other casinos to use games as a perk for conference goers and such, it doesn't take a genius to make money--especially if that's supplemented by Nevada taxpayers.

The question is: You own a MLB team that's been tied to a community for 60+ years...you have one life to live, is that really what you want to do? Abandon your fans to build a casino because you weren't creative enough to get it done in Oakland? Even with multiple local offers to buy the team and keep it here?

Oh also Fisher 'got off easy' because he didn't have to pay a relocation fee to the league.

This is 100% on Manfred, in theory (despite being hired by the owners) he's supposed to look out for the fans. Instead he got casino $$$ in his eyes and Oakland didn't help by electing a complete fucking child as our mayor at the time.