A's exec tells Las Vegas officials the club plans to leave $30 million in public money on the table

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Oakland Athletics executive Sandy Dean told the Las Vegas Stadium Authority on Thursday that the club does not expect to spend the entire $380 million in public money allocated to build a new stadium in Las Vegas.

Dean said the A’s plan to spend $350 million of those funds, leaving $30 million on the table. He also told the authority that the club plans to finance $300 million of the stadium cost, but no lenders have been secured.

“We’ve had strong interest from a number of companies that want to participate in that portion of the project,” Dean said.

The other $850 million needed to build the $1.5 billion stadium would come from private equity.

The A’s have hired New York-based Galatioto Sports Partners to help find investors.

A 30-year non-relocation agreement was discussed but not acted upon at Thursday’s board meeting. A’s officials have asked for up to seven games over two years that otherwise would be played in Las Vegas to possibly be played internationally or at special U.S. sites such as the Field of Dreams in Iowa. No more than four of those games in a year would be played outside Las Vegas.

The A’s hope to open the 33,000-seat ballpark for the 2028 season.

They addressed the financing to supplement the public funding approved by the Democratic-controlled Nevada Legislature in a special session last June and signed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo. Dean and Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said during after the meeting that the financing will be in place for the John Fisher-owned ballclub.

“The Fisher family could do all of the required equity for the project,” Dean said.

Hill said the lease agreement will be discussed at the Aug. 15 stadium authority meeting, but he said he didn't expect votes to occur on the documents required for construction until Dec. 19. Hill said he expected the ballpark to be completed on schedule.

“This town knows how to build major projects and knows how to build them fast,” Hill said. “This is a relatively conservative pace. Allegiant Stadium was built in less time than the A's have budgeted to build this baseball stadium. That’s different construction, but there’s plenty of time to do that. Everything's on track.”

The stadium authority is using the template that led to the 2020 opening of Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL's Raiders.

That template included personal seat licenses, which also allow fans to secure seats for other events, such as concerts. The Raiders raised nearly $550 million through PSLs.

Dean said though the A's have PSLs at their disposal, the club hasn't decided where to offer them for purchase.

“The Raiders had amazing success with PSLs,” Dean said. “Football and baseball are really different because there are so many more games in baseball and that makes an individual season ticket for baseball (more) meaningfully compared to football for the same price.”

Those who buy tickets will have an outward-facing view of Strip resorts MGM Grand and New York-New York. The exact location had been somewhat of a mystery.

“It’s a step that needs to happen in order to move forward with the development,” Hill said.

This is the A’s final season in Oakland. They agreed to play the following three seasons, with an option for a fourth, in a Triple-A stadium in West Sacramento, California. The A’s will share that facility with the River Cats, the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A club.

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FILE - The Oakland Athletics and their design teams released renderings Tuesday, March 5, 2024 of the club's planned $1.5 billion stadium in Las Vegas that show five overlapping layers with a similar look to the famous Sydney Opera House. The Athletics revealed financing details for their planned stadium in Las Vegas that is scheduled to open in 2028. (Negativ via AP, File)

FILE - The Oakland Athletics and their design teams released renderings Tuesday, March 5, 2024 of the club's planned $1.5 billion stadium in Las Vegas that show five overlapping layers with a similar look to the famous Sydney Opera House. The Athletics revealed financing details for their planned stadium in Las Vegas that is scheduled to open in 2028. (Negativ via AP, File)

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — An attempted jailbreak in Congo’s main prison left 129 people dead, including some who were shot and others who died in a stampede at the overcrowded facility, authorities said Tuesday. Activists alleged the death toll was higher but did not provide a figure.

A provisional assessment showed that 24 inmates were fatally shot by “warning” shots fired by guards as they tried to escape from the Makala Central Prison in the capital of Kinshasa early on Monday, Congolese Interior Minister Jacquemin Shabani said on the social platform X.

"There are also 59 injured people taken into care by the government, as well as some cases of women raped," he said, adding that order has now been restored at the prison, part of which was burned in the attempted jailbreak.

He did not elaborate on the incidents of rape. The prison holds both male and female inmates.

It was not known if all 129 fatalities were inmates. Also, it wasn't immediately clear how the stampede occurred as details of the jailbreak remained sparse.

Makala, Congo’s largest penitentiary with a capacity for 1,500 people, holds over 12,000 inmates, most of whom are awaiting trial, Amnesty International said in its latest country report.

The facility has recorded previous jailbreaks, including in 2017 when members of a religious sect stormed the prison and freed dozens of inmates.

Gunfire inside the prison started around midnight on Sunday and lasted into Monday morning, local residents in the area said.

“Shots were ringing out everywhere,” said Stéphane Matondo, who lives nearby, adding that military vehicles arrived shortly after and that the main road to the prison was blocked.

Videos posted online show bodies lying on the ground inside the prison, many of them with visible injuries. Another video shows inmates carrying bodies that appeared to be lifeless onto a vehicle.

There were no signs of forced entry into the prison, which is located in the city center, 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the presidential palace.

The attempted escape was plotted from inside the prison by inmates in one of the wings, Mbemba Kabuya, the deputy justice minister, told the local Top Congo FM radio.

In the hours following the attack, officials visited the prison as authorities convened a panel to investigate the incident. Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, who is in China on an official visit, has not publicly commented on the incident.

Calling for an independent investigation, rights groups and the opposition accused the government of using excessive force and covering up the true death toll. An earlier statement from a senior government official on Monday said that only two people died.

Martin Fayulu, an opposition leader, compared the death toll to “summary executions” and said it was an “unacceptable crime that cannot go unpunished.”

Makala — among other prisons in Congo — is so overcrowded that inmates often starve to death, activists say. Scores of prisoners have been released in recent months as part of efforts to reduce the number of inmates.

Justice Minister Constant Mutamba called the attempted jailbreak a “premeditated act of sabotage" and promised a “stern response.” His deputy, Samuel Mbemba Kabuya, blamed the country's magistrates and judges for the overcrowding in prisons, saying people are quickly jailed at the early stage of their trials.

Mutamba announced a ban on the transfer of inmates from Makala and pledged that authorities will build a new prison, among other efforts to reduce overcrowding.

Associated Press writer Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

This image made from video shows state security forces outside Makala prison in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, following an attempted jailbreak in Congo's main prison on Monday Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo)

This image made from video shows police officers outside Makala prison in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, following an attempted jailbreak in Congo's main prison Monday Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo)

This image made from video shows state security forces outside Makala prison in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, following an attempted jailbreak in Congo’s main prison on Sept. 2, 2024.(AP Photo)