The landlord for the future $2.1 billion Major League Baseball stadium in Las Vegas may be willing to kick in as much as $250 million to cover a shortfall by Bally's Corp., which is building the non-gaming components for the future home of the Athletics.

During a contentious hourlong hearing with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority last week, Gaming and Leisure Properties President Brandon Moore said the company had already set aside $125 million — funds left over from the October 2024 demolition of the Tropicana Hotel & Casino — for Bally's planned $1.9 billion entertainment district that will surround the ballpark, located on a 35-acre parcel located on the Strip.

Stadium Authority Chairman Steve Hill called for the meeting ahead of a planned Dec. 3 meeting to address development of the northwest plaza entrance that will serve as the main access point from the Strip for ticketed fans when the stadium opens in April 2028. 

"We want to make sure that we can open the ballpark in time in 2028," Hill said of the planned plaza. "[It's] one of the topics that I want to work through, at least conceptually, today and get some answers pretty soon. Certainly by the meeting in December, we want to ensure there is a clear and unconditional path to make that happen." 

Moore told the authority board that Gaming and Leisure was conditionally willing to increase the $125 million loan to $250 million.

"Our funding agreement is conditioned upon a couple of business items being settled between Bally's and the A's," Moore said. "I don't think this is probably the appropriate forum to vet those, but they are two critical pieces of economic impact items that if we're going to put $250 million into the site, we just need to understand how the economics of that will work."

The A's will build the initial 1,500 spaces of a planned 2,500-space parking garage on the southeast side of the development. Bally's is expected to pay the costs to finish the facility. The A's will cover costs for the team's portion of the central utility plant that will power the air conditioning, electricity and other stadium infrastructure.

At Wednesday's meeting, A's senior adviser Sandy Dean said developers are coming up with a contingency plan for the plaza to ensure "we have a reliable and safe and comfortable way to get people into the front door of the ballpark."

Issues surrounding the plaza entrance came up in August after Bally's revised its plans for its entertainment district, which will be built in phases. A casino-resort is part of the final phase and is several years out from completion. Bally's is responsible for 27 acres of the overall development. 

Nick Tomasino, senior vice president of development with Bally's, told the stadium authority board the plaza entry would be a 12-month process that would include connecting the pedestrian bridges that cross Tropicana Avenue and the Strip.

"We would need to start by January 2027 to be able to comfortably be complete by the first quarter of 2028 and allow for the successful opening of the stadium," he said. 

The 33,000-fan capacity stadium itself is on track to open in 16 months. Three of the five roof truss arches that will support the ceiling have been completed, with the final two expected to be installed by the end of the year.

The A's and GLPI were also in agreement that whatever Bally's builds on the site won't block views of the Strip through 412-foot-wide by 96-foot-tall cable-net glass walls in the outfield.

"They're not creating the largest glass curtain wall in the world so fans can stare at the backside of something that is not attractive," Moore said. "From [Gaming and Leisure's] perspective, we've always understood that's a critical component to what the A's are doing." 

Moore told investors on Gaming and Leisure's third-quarter earnings conference call last week the company hadn't committed any additional funds for Bally's part in the stadium. 

"We're waiting to see how that [money] can best be deployed on the site," Moore told the board Wednesday. "We haven't ruled out some additional funding, but I think there's a lot that we need to see and answers that we need to have in order to understand the overall project before we're willing to commit more capital."

Bally's planning other projects 

Ongoing financial issues have surrounded Bally's over the last few months. The company used the term "going concern" in an August filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission about meeting its financing for a $4 billion casino resort in New York City. 

Auditors are required to issue a "going concern warning" when they believe a company might default on its debt within 12 months. The warning is sometimes a prelude to a bankruptcy filing. 

Also, Bally's chief financial officer resigned shortly after the filing. 

"I don't think our overall view of their credit risk has changed," Moore said on Gaming and Leisure's earnings call. "We weren't totally surprised to see that in the [filing] because we understand where Bally's sits."

Bally's is also building a $1.7 billion resort in Chicago, which stalled construction on all non-gaming amenities toward the end of summer. Bally's has already used $640 million from a $940 million loan package from Gaming and Leisure toward the Chicago development.

Moore said Gaming and Leisure remains "optimistic with Bally's as a tenant" because the company has many casinos in the U.S. "that we feel will likely be [sold] … in order to proceed with their projects across the country." Moore said Chicago and New York "will be very lucrative. Las Vegas is sort of a wait and see."

Bally's said the financing issues are connected to a standoff with the city of Chicago over the legalization of video slot machines in bars, taverns and other locations, which the company opposes.

One analyst, Colin Mansfield of CBRE Credit Research, said Gaming and Leisure is well-positioned compared to Bally's "misunderstood/misconstrued balance sheet issues." Mansfield said the issues are "stale or unrelated" to the real estate investment trust's "actual exposure to Bally's as a tenant."