A’s appear to be down to 1 potential Las Vegas ballpark site

Bally’s President George Papanier, who oversees the company’s land-based casino operations, confirmed to the Review-Journal in an email that talks with the A’s regarding the Tropicana site remain ongoing.

All of this, of course, is contingent on the A’s deciding not to remain in Oakland. In the Bay Area, the A’s have a waterfront development at the Port of Oakland’s Howard Terminal in play. The $12 billion mixed-use development would include residential, commercial, hotel and public space centered around a $1 billion waterfront ballpark.

The process has a new twist now with newly sworn-in Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao replacing former mayor Libby Schaaf. Thao’s comments to Bay Area media seem to mimic Schaaf’s, with the desire to keep the team in Oakland, but not while putting taxpayers at risk.

Thao and her team haven’t responded to multiple requests by the Review-Journal to discuss her stance on Howard Terminal.

In Las Vegas, Ruffin’s executive assistant Alicia Crockett told the Review-Journal in an e-mail that there has been no recent contact between Ruffin’s group and the A’s. Crockett did not go into further detail or note when the last time talks with the A’s occurred.

Ruffin owns the Las Vegas Festival Grounds site located on the southwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue. The 40-acre site was looked at early on by the A’s, but their focus shifted elsewhere. That was until last summer when the two sides began to talk again.

Last year, a source told the Review-Journal that that the A’s had narrowed their stadium search in Las Vegas to the Tropicana and the festival grounds sites.

The A’s didn’t immediately respond when asked to comment regarding the negotiations in Las Vegas, but team President Dave Kaval has spoken many times over the last year about the team’s desire for a ballpark built in the Resort Corridor.