Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024 | 2 a.m.
The Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board will determine today if Athletics owner John Fisher and his family have the funds for their share of building a $1.75 billion baseball stadium on the Strip.
While the public can only view the letters from major banks attesting to Fisher’s ability to finance the stadium, board members have access to financial statements behind that analysis. However, none of the 15 board members have looked at the statements, a spokesperson for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) told the Sun.
“Individual briefings were offered to each board member by Stadium Authority staff who ran them through the macros and how the funding and financing will work,” the spokesperson, Molly Castano, LVCVA’s vice president of public relations and communications, wrote to the Sun. “No supplemental information or documentation has been requested.”
Castano emphasized that the briefings gave board members “the opportunity to delve into the financial specifics and receive context from the Stadium Authority.”
In one letter, U.S. Bank officials wrote that it reviewed independent appraisals, brokerage statements and other financial reports. Some information the bank looked at, such as filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is already public information.
Castano called U.S. Bank’s attestation “significant in the evaluation of the assets.”
“Each of the Stadium Authority Board members will have the opportunity to review third-party information,” said Steve Hill, the CEO of the LVCVA and chairman of the stadium board, at the authority’s last meeting. “The summary is coming from the Fishers, but the individual items are coming from auditors or statements from banks.”
Athletics StadCo, the limited liability company representing the Athletics, has “provided adequate financial security (for) … development and construction,” according to a joint letter from U.S. Bank and Goldman Sachs sent to the Stadium Authority. The two banks are loaning $300 million for the stadium project.
The stadium’s latest budget projection is $250 million more than the previous $1.5 billion price tag, according to documents for today’s meeting. It’s planned for a 30,000-seat domed stadium.
Nevada and Clark County are putting $350 million toward the stadium, with any necessary additional funding falling on the A’s. Those monies were approved in Senate Bill 1 during a special session of the Nevada Legislature in 2023.
In an October letter to the authority, Fisher wrote that his family was committing up to $1.1 billion for the stadium. He inherited a fortune from his parents, Donald and Doris Fisher, who were the founders of the clothing company Gap.
“The relocation of the Athletics to Las Vegas is the culmination of a sustained effort by our organization to develop a new state-of-the-art stadium,” Fisher wrote. “We have expended many millions of dollars and years of hard work to make this happen.”
The board is expected to approve a 30-year lease with the franchise and enter into a nonrelocation agreement. The stadium is projected to open ahead of the 2028 season, with the team temporarily setting up shop in Sacramento, Calif.
A backup meeting is on the books for Dec. 12 if an agreement can’t be reached today.
“Obviously, our board still has an opportunity to review everything and ask questions,” Hill told The Associated Press. “But we have been through drafts of all the outstanding documents at this point a number of times over a long period of time, and so I think the questions have been answered. I think we’re ready to approve.”
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