Work on a new Vegas Athletics ballpark quietly moves forward after the team applies for a land use permit from Clark County covering a facility to built at the former Tropicana Resort location on the Strip.
We’re now at the final design and permitting steps of the process for the $1.75 billion, 33,000-capacity Vegas Athletics ballpark. These aren’t necessarily the most glamorous of steps, to be sure, and the Athletics have been pretty quiet during the process. In December team owner John Fisher presented a letter from U.S. Bank as proof that the team had arranged financing for the project. On Friday Bally’s announced it combined with The Queen Casino & Entertainment, yielding a $4.6-billion buyout.
The buyout was not a surprise: it was announced last summer when the Tropicana was imploded.
The land use permit also contains information about the height of the ballpark as submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration–320 feet. Given that several towers are envisioned for the site–as evidenced by the above rendering–the ballpark height is not a major concern. However, there are other aspects to the land use permit that will surely attract the attention of Clark County officials. From KTNV:
The team plans to provide 2,470 on-site parking spaces—2,370 for the stadium and 100 for office staff. That’s 5,180 spaces less than what county requirements would make the A’s to have.
The Clark County Code requires the new stadium to provide 7,500 parking spaces based on a standard of 1 space per 4 seats. 150 spaces are required for 60,000 square feet of office space, leading to a total requirement of 7,650 spaces.
The team argues that the parking requirement by the county is excessive, given the ballpark’s location in the Resort Corridor, where attendees are more likely to use other forms of transportation.
The Athletics are set to play in Sacramento for the next three seasons. The filing of the land use permit indicates that a 2028 opening is still envisioned by the Athletics and ballpark architect BIG.
Renderings courtesy Clark County.