According to reports out of Nevada, the Las Vegas Stadium Authority has approved lease, non-relocation and development documents Thursday. I doing so, they’ve essentially cleared the last major hurdles for the Athletics to being construction on their proposed $1.75 billion stadium on the Strip and bring Major League Baseball to the desert.
“It’s a really significant day in Las Vegas,” Steve Hill, CEO and president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said in his closing remarks. “Today’s a real milestone. I think we should recognize that and celebrate that.”
“It’s really an exciting day for the A’s,” team board member Sandy Dean said. “We’re grateful to everybody that helped us be here today.”
The proposed documents each span 30 years after which time the club will being to discuss renovation/expansion plans with the city regarding the ball park. Nevada and Clark County are proving $380M in public funds for help construct the 33,000 seat domed stadium.
While they await construction of their home, Oakland will play the next 3 seasons at a minor league ballpark in West Sacramento. However, with all the talk of construction floating around, it hadn’t meant that the A’s front office has been sitting on their hands during free agency.
Earlier this week, the club announced they had signed free agent Luis Severino to a 3 year, $67M contact. A deal which raised more than a few eyebrows around the league when it was announced.
Severino logged 182 innings, with 161 Ks, while posting a 3.91 ERA (39th amongst qualified starters). But with news that they would play their home games out of a minor league ballpark, there wasn’t exactly a lineup of high profile names waiting to put pen to paper to join the A’s out west.
However, Oakland clearly felt as though they needed a veteran arm to help anchor their rotation, and went out and overspent to get it across the line. The deal landed higher than most industry expectations for Severino’s services, and will be the largest in Athletics team history, eclipsing the total previously held by Eric Chavez back in 2004.
Between the good news about the stadium, and some immediate help to the front of their rotation, those brave few fans who have elected to stick with the team despite all off field ownership turmoil the last couple of years have to be feeling slightly better about their fandom Friday morning.
Photo: Quintin Soloviev. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.