Athletics owner John Fisher says the higher than anticipated cost of constructing his field of dreams in the Mojave isn’t anything to worry about. 

Considering the confused and chaotic nature of the team’s migration from Oakland to (eventually) Las Vegas, it would seem at least a little room for worry is probably warranted. 

From the beginning, Fisher’s attempt to find a new home for his baseball franchise hasn’t exactly been an example of a well-orchestrated business venture. In fact, it’s been a sloppy, disorganized ad hoc affair laden with public relations mishaps and general uncertainty. 

Prior to securing public funding from Nevada lawmakers in 2023, the A’s lurched from one seemingly improvised step to the next. For roughly two years, Fisher and former A’s President Dave Kaval pursued “parallel paths” in California and Nevada for public handouts to build a new stadium — a strategy that ultimately left Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao “blindsided” when news broke that the team was going “all in” on Nevada in 2023. 

Even as Nevada lawmakers were drafting legislation to give $380 million in public financing to the team’s future stadium, it was evident that the A’s management didn’t exactly have a detailed strategy for what going “all in” would entail. From backing out of “binding” agreements to using completely unrepresentative renderings of a potential stadium to sell their vision to lawmakers, the team seemed to be desperately scrambling for a plan rather than faithfully executing one that had already been meticulously assembled. 

It generated a feeling of disorganized improvisation that was only underscored when the team took nearly a year to figure out where it would play ball while a new armadillo-shaped home was built in Vegas. And the ultimate decision to share a minor league stadium in Sacramento before the move to Vegas didn’t exactly help. 

With such a history, it’s easy to see why some observers might need a bit more than a few reassuring words to assuage concerns about the project’s funding.  

Initially estimated to cost about $1.5 billion, the revised estimate of roughly $2 billion is an eyewatering price tag under any circumstances. With a capacity of 33,000 fans, the fact that it will also be one of the smallest stadiums in all of baseball only makes the price even more astonishing.  

In addition to government subsidies, the A’s have already pegged down a few sources of funding to help their efforts get off the ground. Goldman Sachs has committed to a $300 million loan, and the stadium vending group Aramark Sports + Entertainment has purchased an equity stake and concessions contract worth roughly $175 million. 

That still leaves over $1.1 billion for Fisher’s “intimate” baseball stadium on the Strip to become a reality — a sum that quite reasonably has raised basic questions about how he intends to raise such a hefty sum. 

Certainly, being a billionaire, Fisher could cover at least a portion of that amount from his own financial portfolio — but that would also be the most expensive option for him due to taxes and other costs associated with liquidating assets. Seeking more loans, similar to the one promised by Goldman Sachs, could also help make things more manageable for him, however that comes with its own costs and potential lenders might not be even willing to extend credit on such a project. 

The most reasonable (or expected) path for Fisher to raise the funds he will need would be to sell some equity in his team to willing investors — allowing other wealthy individuals to buy minority shares of the franchise. 

The problem, however, is that it’s unclear if there are any investors willing to accept such a deal. 

Since last year, Fisher has seemingly been shopping around for just such an opportunity. In October 2024, it was reported that Fisher was looking to sell a 25 percent share of the team for roughly $500 million — a dollar amount that suggested the team’s total valuation was $2 billion. Considering Forbes estimated the value of the team to be closer to $1.2 billion at the time (it has since increased to $1.8 billion), it looked as if Fisher was trying to sell shares based on what he imagined his team to be worth in the near future, rather than what it was actually worth. 

Apparently, few investors were interested in such a deal. Earlier this year, before stadium cost estimates ballooned to $2 billion, Fisher was reportedly still looking for would-be investors — and there has been no public announcement that such partnerships have yet been formed. 

As cost estimates continue to rise, the likelihood of someone coming to Fisher’s rescue doesn’t get better. Anyone looking to purchase shares of the franchise are going to expect serious growth in the brand — and, as time goes by, that’s something that looks increasingly difficult with economic headwinds on the horizon and an alienated fan base in the present. 

As an investor, none of this really screams out “good deal.” Paying inflated prices for equity in a team that will be playing in the smallest stadium in the league (in a relatively small-market town that’s highly susceptible to economic disruption) isn’t exactly a bargain — and that’s to say nothing of the organization’s history of backtracking on “binding” agreements, blindsiding past government partners and virtually abandoning its entire fanbase. 

Apologists for the hapless leadership of the A’s organization — as well as cheerleaders for publicly subsidized sports stadiums — will say none of this should be cause for alarm. After all, Fisher has bought a massively expensive home in the Las Vegas area, and a showy “groundbreaking” ceremony for the stadium was held in late June with local and state officials. 

Clearly, the project is moving forward splendidly, right?

Well, it might be moving forward, but that doesn’t mean everything’s “fine.” From the beginning, Fisher and his organization have eschewed the sort of meticulous preplanning one would normally expect from a serious effort to build a $2 billion venue. 

And while that, in and of itself might not be reason to worry, it’s certainly not providing anyone with profound confidence that all is well on the southeast corner of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard. 

Michael Schaus is a communications and branding expert based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and founder of Schaus Creative LLC — an agency dedicated to helping organizations, businesses and activists tell their story and motivate change. He has more than a decade of experience in public affairs commentary, having worked as a news director, columnist, political humorist, and most recently as the director of communications for a public policy think tank. Follow him on Twitter @schausmichael or on Substack @creativediscourse.