LVSportsBiz News Summary: Stadium Board Returns To Action Thursday On A's Ballpark On Strip

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Shop at Jay’s Market at 190 East Flamingo Road at the Koval Lane intersection east of the Strip.

By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The public stadium board that has been approving the A’s stadium project agreements returns to action Thursday at 3 PM.

Officially called the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board, the panel of local business boosters is chaired by the biggest booster of them all — none other than Steve “Man of Many Hats” Hill.

Hill is the LVCVA public tourism agency head who teamed up with his buddy, Las Vegas consultant Jeremy Aguero, to make the case for a publicly-subsidized A’s stadium before the Nevada Legislature in 2023. The A’s stadium project details are reviewed and routinely approved by the board that Hill chairs.

That’s how Las Vegas rolls, conflicts of interest be damned.

Steve Hill, stadium board chairman and LVCVA head

Take a look at Thursday’s meeting agenda. Included in the stadium board items is an “activity report” to be submitted by the Raiders, the NFL team that runs Allegiant Stadium and makes quite a bit of money by doing it. Thanks to the stadium’s revenue-generating powers, the Raiders’ team value has soared to $7.8 billion, according to CNBC. Ten years ago the Raiders played at the Coliseum in Oakland and were valued at $1.4 billion.

A 2016 Nevada state bill earmarked $750 million in public dollars to help the Raiders pay for their stadium in Las Vegas (opened in 2020). The 2023 A’s stadium bill designated $380 million in public resources for the Athletics’ $1.75 billion, 30,000-seat domed stadium at the old Tropicana hotel-casino site. The A’s want to open their stadium on the Strip in 2028 and will play in a Triple-A ballpark in West Sacramento in 2025, 2026 and 2027.

The Las Vegas Aces will play the Dallas Wings in a preseason game at Notre Dame at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, Indiana May 2 to showcase Notre Dame homecomings for Aces stars Jewell Loyd and Jackie Young and Dallas’ Arike Ogunbowale. Tickets start at $20 and will be available March 11.

This follows Aces superstar A’ja Wilson’s return to South Carolina in an Aces preseason game last year.

The Vegas Golden Knights will celebrate “Women’s History Knight” Friday, March 7 when the team hosts the Pittsburgh Penguins at T-Mobile Arena. Faceoff is set for 7 PM.

It’s no secret that Circa hotel-casino owner Derek Stevens loves sports. Circa has a new sponsorship deal to be the founding partner and official host hotel for the basketball referees of the new College Basketball Crown tournament that is set for Las Vegas at MGM Grand Garden Arena and T-Mobile Arena March 31 to April 6. The postseason college hoops tourney was launched by FOX Sports and Las Angeles-based AEG. (AEG partnered with MGM Resorts International to build T-Mobile Arena, which opened in 2016.)

Las Vegas-based UFC, which is owned by TKO Group Holdings, Inc., is teaming up with fellow TKO Group properties WWE and PBR (Professional Bull Riders) to “take over” the main arena in Kansas City April 24-28.

The arena hosting the PBR, UFC and WWE events is the T-Mobile Center, not to be confused with T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. PBR gets things going April 24, then it’s UFC Fight Night April 26 and WWE’s flagship weekly program Raw on April 28.

Thanks to a deal with the Kansas City Sports Commission, T-Mobile Center in downtown Kansas City will become the first venue to host a TKO Takeover Presented by VeChain, showcasing consecutive PBR, UFC, and WWE events over a single weekend in the same city.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MARCH 05: (L-R) Rafael Dos Anjos of Brazil takes down Renato Moicano of Brazil in their 160-pound catchweight fight during the UFC 272 event on March 05, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley is an old hand at creating consumer deals that combine his various properties like restaurants and wineries.

The Foley Entertainment Group, his corporate banner organization, is hawking a wine country deal where consumers can get 30 percent off the best available rate and a $50 food & beverage credit at any Foley Entertainment Group U.S. property from March 1 – April 30.

Foley’s participating properties are Hotel Californian in Santa Barbara, California; Hotel Les Mars in Healdsburg, California; Farmhouse Inn in Forestville, California; MacArthur Place Hotel & Spa in Sonoma, California; and Black Walnut Inn and Vineyard in Dundee, Oregon.

A very underplayed sportsbiz story was the divorce between ESPN and Major League Baseball. And Bay area sportscaster Brodie Brazil provided this excellent summary of the breakup:

PROMO