Baseball fans get a glimpse of what the future of MLB stadiums could look like with the Athletics’ newest project in Las Vegas, which has seen its cost rise from $1.5 billion to reportedly $2 billionThis article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
The Athletics’ quest to build a stadium in Las Vegas could be more difficult than originally planned(Image: Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
The Athletics are set to play in Las Vegas in the coming years, though the stadium being built in Sin City has been fraught with issues, specifically regarding funding.
The A’s, formerly known as the Oakland Athletics since 1968, currently are playing in Sacramento at Sutter Health Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A affiliate. Before Sacramento, the Athletics played at the Oakland Coliseum from 1968 to 2024.
As the team, owned by John Fisher, awaits the completion of their new multibillion-dollar stadium in Las Vegas, the Athletics will simply be called as such, with no city name, a departure from traditional naming conventions. The stadium is set to be completed in 2028, on a nine-acre plot at the site where the Tropicana used to stand.
The new stadium is set to feature 33,000 seats, with a climate-controlled design – to help navigate the immense heat in the city – and developers promise that the project will be a striking new fixture on the Strip. The roof will also feature five overlapping layers, which will help limit direct sunlight, per MLB.com.
The project is expected to include an 18,000-square-foot Jumbotron, the largest in MLB. Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director of BIG, explained the design of the Athletics’ newest stadium.
“Our design for the new Vegas home for the A’s is conceived in response to the unique culture and climate of the city,” Ingels said, per MLB.com. “Five pennant arches enclose the ballpark – shading from the Nevada sun while opening to the soft daylight from the north.
An aerial view of the construction site of New Las Vegas Stadium, the future home of the Athletics baseball team, on the site of the former Tropicana Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, on July 24, 2025 in Paradise, Nevada
“A giant window frames a majestic view of the life of the Strip and the iconic New York New York hotel skyline. All direct sunlight is blocked, while all the soft daylight is allowed to wash the field in natural light.
“The resultant architecture is like a spherical armadillo – shaped by the local climate – while opening and inviting the life of the Strip to enter and explore. In the city of spectacle, the A’s ‘armadillo’ is designed for passive shading and natural light – the architectural response to the Nevada climate, generating a new kind of vernacular icon in Vegas.”
Despite the excitement some might have regarding the A’s newest project and the fact that roughly half of the concrete foundation is in place, monetary concerns have arisen.
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Originally estimated to cost $1.5 billion, the cost of construction has ballooned to more than $2 billion. In spite of this development, the A’s stand firm that financing remains intact on the project.
Public support is capped at $380 million, with the Fisher family committed to paying all costs beyond that point. Economist JC Bradbury spoke to The Guardian and shared that he found the Las Vegas stadium’s financial situation baffling.
“It’s unclear what the endgame of John Fisher is,” Bradbury said to the outlet. “Whether he miscalculated, doesn’t understand, doesn’t care about money, or there’s something I’m just totally missing in all of this.
“Fisher has to realize he’s a dead man walking. And he is sort of trying to play out the string to save as much face as he can. What’s eventually going to happen is someone will come in and be the savior. And that may involve not being in Las Vegas.”