Athletics say nothing stands in way of Strip ballpark opening in time for 2028 season

Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.

The hundreds of invited guests and media members gathered Monday morning in a luxury tent at the future site of the Athletics’ planned new stadium on the Strip could have gotten easily distracted if not careful.

Flashes of orange construction vests and white helmets were visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows positioned right behind where Major League Baseball figures and elected officials spoke in a news conference. Preliminary work has already been underway for more than a month at the home of the budgeted $1.75 billion venue even though the driving forces of the project just now got around to staging an official groundbreaking event.    

“This is an iconic location, this is going to be an epic ballpark, and there’s going to be no better place in the United States to watch Major League Baseball,” promised Steve Hill, chief executive officer and president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Las Vegas has seen many major ceremonial groundbreakings, but few have been as extravagant and unique as the A’s version on Monday on the parcel where Tropicana stood for 67 years until the resort was imploded last October.     

The obligatory final step of putting shovels in dirt came a few yards away from the park’s future home plate on a makeshift diamond with an A’s logo adorning the midfield.  

There’s no time to spare outside among the real equipment with an aggressive schedule of having the 33,000-seat ballpark ready by March 2028 in time for opening day of the season.

“There’s absolutely no reason that we can’t get it done by then,” A's owner John Fisher told a small group of reporters before the news conference. “We have, in (contractor) Mortensen-McCarthy, one of the great builders in the country that’s built a ton of these stadiums. They built Allegiant (Stadium). They know what it takes to get the stadium built and the timeline to make it happen.”   

Fisher and others involved are keenly aware that a vocal group of outsiders is more doubtful.

The protracted amount of time that has passed since the A’s first began exploring relocation in 2021 while also pursuing a new stadium in Oakland is the cause of some of the skepticism. It also hasn’t helped that it’s been two years since Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed the SB1 stadium bill earmarking $380 million in transferable state tax credits before the franchise settled on the Tropicana spot as its location.         

Lombardo criticized the “naysayers” and “the people from their couch, and their mother’s basement” on a couple occasions during a brief speech at the groundbreaking.  

That group is still unconvinced on the A’s move to Las Vegas despite the team having now sealed all necessary approval both with the rest of the league and the government. Rumors of the A’s staying in Sacramento, Calif., where they’re playing at minor-league Sutter Health Park for this season and the following two years, or looking elsewhere have flooded social media.  

All that talk is unfounded, according to Fisher and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.

“I remain confident (the Las Vegas stadium) gets built and gets built on time,” Manfred told reporters before the event. “Budgetary issues, some of that is beyond our control, but I think the most important thing to say about that is John Fisher’s committed to getting this stadium built and it will be built.”

Funding is the main source of current questions. Fisher and his family have agreed to personally commit $1.1 billion but, even added to the near half-billion dollars in public money, the total is still short of the current projected cost of the ballpark.

Construction price tags tend to rise more than they fall, especially in the current climate with increasing tariffs, a slumping economy and rising inflation.   

“We have regular budget meetings as you could expect on a project like this, and the impact of tariffs has been something we’ve been talking about for the last six-plus months,” Fisher said. “We’re prepared for whatever may happen with regard to material costs. We’ve planned for that.”

A major knock to the conspiracy theorists questioning the A’s commitment to Nevada is how active they’ve been in the community. Fisher said the franchise helped fund every Little League Baseball team in the state this year and also allocated resources to youth girls’ softball leagues.

Several young baseball and softball players were invited to the groundbreaking with a group of them throwing out commemorative soft baseballs during the event’s “seventh inning stretch,” breaking up the parade of 13 total speakers.  

Manfred and Fisher have expressed excitement about appealing to Las Vegas’ tourist base during baseball season but said Monday that local fans will be the team’s backbone.  

“The pitch is going to be, ‘We are Vegas’ team,’” Fisher said. “We are a local team. We want to start from the youngest of fans because if you get the kids, you can get their parents.”

The ceremony was scheduled during an A’s off day in between series hosting Cleveland and at Detroit to allow key franchise personnel to attend. A’s broadcaster/former pitcher Dallas Braden served as the master of ceremonies while current manager/former outfielder Mark Kotsay sat in attendance.

Fisher gave Kotsay, who’s gone only 211-355 in four seasons on the bench, a vow of confidence by saying Las Vegas should be excited to get to know, “an incredible leader.” He said Kotsay had already bought a house in Henderson anticipating the 2028 move.

The A’s home is next. Their message on Monday was that they’re eager to move in, and they’re not going to be late.   

“I’ll tell you one thing, absolutely for certain: I will be here Opening Day 2028 to celebrate with John Fisher, his entire team and I hope the entire state of Nevada,” Manfred said.