A's Approach to Parking in Las Vegas Sounds Familiar

Nov 24, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign on the strip. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Athletics have filed for a land use permit with Clark County, Nevada with the hopes that their ballpark problems will be a thing of the past. But there is one issue that KNTV Channel 13 in Las Vegas found with their filing, and it could be a pretty big one.

Traffic has always been a concern for locals with the location of the A's proposed ballpark, given that the part of the Strip it'll be on at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. The A's fix to that is to just offer fewer parking spots than the Clark County Code demands.

From the article on KNTV's site, they mention that the A's have allotted for 2,470 parking spaces, with 100 of those being for office staff, while the county says they need 7,500, based on the number of seats the ballpark will have. Their math is one parking spot for every four seats. The A's think that's "excessive."

It should also be noted that the A's ballpark is supposed to seat 33,000, which would actually work out to 8,250 parking spots, while the 7,500 spot figure applies to a 30,000 seat venue.

In doing some quick math, the A's are proposing that they provide 32.9% of the parking spots that Clark County wants, with fans taking other modes of transportation to get to the ballpark because of the prime location. Given how the ballpark was pitched to the legislature in the first place, this information is brought to you by vibes, not data. Hey, it worked the first time!

But that 32.9% figure really sticks out.

The A's current projected payroll is a little over $106 million, and it's believed that they are getting right around $70 million in revenue sharing dollars for 2025. So the amount that A's owner John Fisher is actually having to pay himself is closer to $36 million. If you divide that $36 million by the team's projected number, Fisher is on the hook for 33.9% of the team's projected payroll.

Weird.

If only revenue sharing could add more parking spaces!

The A's may have a good argument in that they may not need quite as many parking spots due to the congestion that already exists at that exact spot, but one-third of the spots? What about half of them? Maybe two-thirds?

Fisher is known for his stall tactics (at least in Oakland) as a negotiating ploy. Depending on how much those spots mean to the county, this one could drag on.

If this in fact is a delay tactic, the simple reason could be that Fisher is waiting for interest rates to come down, or for a break in the market that would allow him to save a bit of money on the project, given how uncertain the costs of goods is from day-to-day. He's going to need a lot of steel, and China produces more than half of the world's supply.

Then again, delaying this project could also just end up making it cost more and more, potentially making in untenable. Or maybe the parking spots will be an easy negotiation and the A's and Clark County will be able to move on quickly.

It all depends on whether Fisher is looking to move forward, or is trying to by himself some time.