Bally's Corporation, along with Gaming & Leisure Properties (GLPI) has reached a binding agreement with Major League Baseball team, the Oakland A’s, for the new Tropicana Las Vegas property ballpark site. The three will partner in building the team’s new stadium, located on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip.
Gaming and Leisure Properties (GLPI) currently owns the land that is leased to Bally’s, which could mean the A’s would not have to pay acquisition costs. Under the current lease agreement, Bally’s pays GLPI $10.5m in annual rent under a 50-year lease.
Bally's President George Papanier commented: "We are honored to have been selected to partner with the Oakland Athletics on this monumental step in helping to bring Major League Baseball to the great city of Las Vegas, and to be a part of the once-in-a-generation opportunity of having a professional baseball team located within a short walk of the Las Vegas Strip.
“The Tropicana has been a landmark of Las Vegas for generations, and this development will enhance this iconic site for generations to come. We are committed to ensuring that the development and ballpark built in its place will become a new landmark, paying homage to the iconic history and global appeal of Las Vegas and its nearly 50 million visitors a year."
Under the terms of the deal, GLPI will fund up to $175m to be used toward “certain shared improvements within the future development in exchange for a commensurate rent increase.”
GLPI Chairman and CEO Peter Carlino said: "We have enjoyed getting to know the Oakland Athletics' leadership through our dialogue over the past couple years.
"We are pleased to help facilitate their exciting vision for a new ballpark through our contribution of nine acres of the Tropicana site and look forward to the prominent place that the overall project will occupy in the Las Vegas skyline.
“As the project moves forward, we also expect that GLPI will have opportunities to further invest in the various aspects of the overall project to the extent we deem that doing so will generate an attractive risk-adjusted return on our shareholders' capital."
