John Fisher pledges $1 billion to build A’s stadium in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS – Athletics owner John Fisher and his family are investing $1 billion in construction stadium in Las Vegas and U.S. Bank and Goldman Sachs will offer a $300 million loan, club chief Sandy Dean said Thursday.

Dean made his remarks at a special meeting of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board.

Dean said four letters will be presented at the authority’s Dec. 5 meeting detailing construction and financing. That meeting is expected to receive final approvals for the $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat domed baseball stadium that can seat up to 33,000 fans.

“We feel we are on the right track and that will become clearer in the coming months,” Dean told the board.

Construction is expected to begin in the spring with a planned opening for the 2028 season. As far as $380 million in government funding will go to the construction of the stadium, which will be on the Las Vegas Strip in a place where the recently demolished Tropicana stood

Dean said Fisher is still looking for partners in the Las Vegas area who could buy a stake in the franchise, which in turn would go toward paying for the stadium.

“We kept saying it would be good to come to Las Vegas to have outside partners from Las Vegas,” Dean said after the meeting. “This process has just begun. The ability to finance the stadium does not depend on this.”

As for the funding, the four letters that will be presented at the December meeting will better cover that.

First, these are credit obligations from US Bank and Goldman Sachs. Dean said it would likely be a five-year term “to be replaced by a permanent loan once construction is complete.”

Another letter, Dean said, asserted that Fisher and his family could meet their financial obligations. Dean said a third letter from U.S. Bank would show that through an analysis of the owner’s finances, it “has concluded that the Fisher family has more than sufficient resources to finance the equity capital required to build the stadium.”

A fourth outlined the obligations to Athletics StadCo LLC, an entity created to handle private investments.

Also, the draft contract and lease deed were presented to the panel.

“We feel these documents are in line with the schedule we’ve been talking about for several months,” said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We feel there is a real possibility that we will be able to reach a conclusion on all of them on December 5.”

Dean said an updated construction budget will be presented at today’s meeting, and he acknowledged the final cost will likely increase “somewhat.”

Hill said the documents will be released a few days before the December meeting, and he doesn’t expect any approval issues.

“There are a few places where we need to get the word out, but we’ve had enough conversations to understand that everyone understands what the outcome is going to be,” Hill said.

As an example of how to get all the wording right, he cited providing parking details.

The A’s will play at least the next three seasons in West Sacramento, California. The club announced that it would play 60 of its 81 home matches at night next season, equaling the A’s tally of 1968 for the most in its history. That includes 25 of 28 games played at night in June and July, when temperatures are often 100 degrees (37.8 Celsius) or higher.

Their first game in Sacramento is March 31 against the Chicago Cubs.

And they played their own the last of 57 seasons in Oakland, California.