The A's Have Apparently Failed To Secure Any Investors For Their Vegas Stadium + There's A Rumored Gag Order In Place On Bay Area Investment Groups Interested In Keeping Baseball in Oakland

Las Vegas Review-Journal. Getty Images.

We've got a little update from the Oakland/Sacramento/Vegas A's. Last week they detailed their financing plan for how their new stadium will be built in Sin City. That plan is: up to $380M in public funding (they claim they only need $350M) + $300M in debt financing + $850M in family equity. Seems straight forward, but nothing is actually that simple when it comes to this move. The $850M from the family would involve investors because obviously the cheap fucks that the Fisher family are wouldn't dare spend that out of their own pocket. The A's claim they have not reached out to any investors yet. 

(LV Review Journal) The team will still pursue potential local investors to fund a portion of the project, which would reduce the equity contribution required from the Fisher family. Those potential investors would be given a minority ownership stake in the team, Dean said. The A’s were waiting for the draft development agreement to be introduced and for the stadium design process to be further along before gauging interest from potential investors.

The other side of the spinzone is that they've reached out to investors and found nothing, which Vital Vegas is telling us. 

(Vital Vegas) At a presentation to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority on July 18, 2024, the Oakland A’s confirmed there is currently no financing in place for a proposed $1.5 billion ballpark in Las Vegas.

Confirmed: The A’s don’t have investors investing. They hope to, but if they had investors, we’d have heard about them. No smart investor is going to contribute $850 million (or any portion thereof) based upon some magical future projected value of the team. That value is a complete fabrication (just like projections of 28,000 fans attending every game), as is the assertion there are a number of interested investors. The A’s even hired a high-powered firm (Galatioto Sports Partners) to find investors, but none have surfaced. Not one.

So the A's claim they haven't reached out to anyone, while this Vegas report claims they've gone fishing and come back with zip. 

There's another angle to this as well. According to the SF Chronicle, multiple interested investment groups in the Bay Area who are interested in keeping baseball in Oakland have been told to stay away and not interfere or risk being considered as a potential buyer in the future by MLB. That doesn't sound like a Rob Manfred move to protect his buddy from losing everything. Rob? He'd never!

On the surface MLB wants everyone to believe that the A's transition to Vegas is going along swimmingly, but once you read just a little into it you discover it's far from it. There already had been rumors that the Kings owner Vivek was interested in swooping in if the Fisher family botched this. The A's already have plans to play there for three years while their stadium gets built. I wouldn't be shocked if that stay gets extended for a bit. If this all falls apart it couldn't happen to a better guy in John Fisher. 

P.S. The renderings still look sick. We can all admit that. I've yet to see stadium renderings that don't catch my eye. If they ever built this thing it'll be awesome, but that remains a big if.