July 13, 2026 - 10:40 am

Bally’s Corp. chairman Soo Kim says the gaming entity is close to obtaining the funds needed to build an important aspect of the land surrounding the Athletics’ Las Vegas ballpark.

Kim said the money would be used to build the northwest podium of the gaming company’s multi-phase mixed-use project that is planned on the 24 acres that will accompany the $2 billion stadium being built on a separate 9 acres of the 35-acre site on the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue.

The multilevel podium is expected to feature beverage, dining and entertainment options before and after A’s games and attract visitors to the site on non-event days. Bally’s is keeping the A’s and the landowner of the site, Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc., informed of the progress of its Las Vegas plans.

“Still a few details to be worked out,” Kim told the Las Vegas Review-Journal Sunday via email. “The good news is that we are close. We understand that it’s important that the podium be built in time for a spring 2028 opener and we are in close dialogue with the A’s and the landlord GLPI to make sure that we will all be ready for it.”

GLPI owns the land, which Bally’s leases, with the ownership of the 9-acre stadium site to be transferred to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, the public entity that will own the ballpark.

The first phase of the Bally’s project was set to include a central utility plant to serve the A’s ballpark and Bally’s project, a 2,500-stall parking garage and the multilevel plaza for the opening of the stadium in 2028. Future phases of Bally’s project include a hotel and casino, more retail and dining space, and a 2,500-seat theater. In total, Bally’s project was estimated to carry a cost of $1.1 billion.

In May, A’s vice chairman Sandy Dean said the team was tentatively planning for the possibility of opening the ballpark without any phase of Bally’s project being completed. Then it was noted that the central utility plant would be built in two phases, one mainly serving the A’s stadium and a future phase to be used by Bally’s. Dean also said the A’s would build a scaled-down version of the parking garage planned for the southeast corner of the site, which could be expanded once the Bally’s project was ready to come online and required extra parking.

The main entrance to the ballpark will be 38 feet above ground level, and the A’s had plans to create a temporary plaza from which fans would take escalators to enter the stadium, should Bally’s not build the multilevel podium in time.

To get the elevated plaza built in unison with the ballpark, permits for the work would need to be submitted by September, with groundbreaking in November, Dean said in May.

As Bally’s works to secure the necessary funding for the first phase of their project, construction of the A’s ballpark is moving steadily along.

The A’s have spent well over $400 million on the project already, with construction surpassing the one-year mark in June. The framing of the seating areas for all four levels now stretches around the entirety of the stadium. Concrete has been poured on the majority of the second level deck, with concrete also being poured on portions of the third and fourth levels.

Installation of the stadia, or precast concrete seating risers, began at the ballpark last month. Crews had added the stadia to portions of two levels of seating as of Monday morning.

The first steel roof truss arch was completed last month, with the next arch set to be installed starting next week. The largest of the massive steel arches, which will support the stadium’s roof, will be 700 feet long and rise 290 feet above the field.

The next update on the stadium project and the status of Bally’s funding will be heard at the Aug. 20 Las Vegas Stadium Authority meeting.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.