LAS VEGAS (AP) — Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said he was optimistic three key documents needed to begin construction on a new stadium for the Athletics would be approved Dec. 5.
“We're rounding third and heading for home,” Hill said after Thursday's Las Vegas Stadium Authority board meeting.
Hill and the LVCVA were so hopeful the approvals would come at that December meeting that three others were canceled. The board will next meet Oct. 17, and a meeting has been set aside for Dec. 12 as a “safety valve.”
The three documents that need to be approved for the planned $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat domed stadium on the Las Vegas Strip are the lease, non-relocation and development agreements. The lease agreement was presented Thursday without a vote.
That agreement provides an initial 30-year lease that ultimately can be extended up to 99 years. The agreement for the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders is 30 years without language beyond that time frame.
Allegiant Stadium, which is home to the Raiders, opened in 2020. The A's hope to open their ballpark in time for the 2028 season.
“I think mostly it wasn’t contemplated in 2016 when we passed the law,” Hill said. “You don't necessarily need that information in the law. It gives us optionality. We talked about it during the process that we’re going to get to 15 or 20 years and the parties involved will probably reopen the lease and renegotiate it.”
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.
The A's have said they expected to spend $350 million in public money rather than the $380 million allocated by the Nevada Legislature.
The club has said it plans to finance $300 million of the stadium cost and the other $850 million would come from private equity. Hill said it's possible the A's could present their financing plan at the October meeting.
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Oakland Athletics' JJ Bleday (33) and Zack Gelof (20) celebrate with teammates after a baseball game against the New York Mets, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, in New York. The Athletics won 7-6. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
FILE - The Oakland Athletics and their design teams released renderings, March 5, 2024 of the club's planned stadium in Las Vegas. (Negativ via AP, File)
HONOLULU (AP) — A 3-year-old boy who died Monday was the fourth person to succumb to injuries from a massive explosion of fireworks on New Year's Eve at a Honolulu home, and a doctor said six others faced long recoveries in Arizona where they were sent to be treated for severe burns.
The blast killed three women and injured more than 20 people, many of whom have burns over most of their bodies.
The U.S. military flew six of the injured to Phoenix for treatment on Saturday because Hawaii’s lone burn center doesn’t have enough capacity to care for all the victims.
After the disaster, Hawaii's leaders intensified their oft-repeated calls to crack down on the state's vast illegal fireworks trade with stepped-up enforcement and greater penalties.
The six taken to Arizona are all in their 20s or 30s and have extensive burns, Dr. Kevin Foster, the director of the Arizona Burn Center, said at a news conference streamed online.
The person with the least has burns over 45% of their body while the most has burns over nearly 80% of their body. Each of the six is using a breathing tube and most are in medically induced comas.
Foster said they are all doing “very well” and have good vital signs. But it will be six months to a year before any are able to return to anything resembling a normal life, Foster said. Four patients will likely have to remain intubated and in a coma for months, he said.
The patients will likely suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, Foster said, adding the burn center has two full-time psychologists and a psychiatrist hospital on staff to help them.
“There’s something uniquely and particularly horrifying about being burned, especially from this type of injury,” Foster said. “And we anticipate that all of these patients are going to have some adjustment issues.”
Many required emergency surgery before leaving Hawaii and a number had traumatic injuries in addition to burns, because of the explosions and resulting projectiles, he said.
The Arizona Burn Center operated on all six on Sunday, performed three other surgeries Monday and plan three others Tuesday. By then, doctors should be done with removing burns and will progress to closing wounds and grafting skin, Foster said. Infections are the most dangerous and feared complication for burn patients, he said while also predicting all would likely get them at some point.
“It’s just the way burn injury works, especially when you have large percent-of-total-body-surface-area burns like this,” Foster said.
The scars, and the physical limitations that come with them, will likely be the biggest thing that the patients have to deal with and are what will make these wounds lifelong injuries, he said.
Foundations affiliated with the burn center and the hospital it is a part of, Valleywise Health, are providing housing for patient relatives. Some burn center employees have even volunteered their homes, Foster said.
Hawaii’s diverse population has long celebrated New Year’s with fireworks but in recent years professional grade aerial explosives have been growing in popularity even though they are illegal for amateurs. Neighborhoods across Oahu light up for hours as residents launch aerial fireworks into the sky from the narrow streets in front of their homes.
Honolulu authorities say a person attending a party lit a bundle of aerial fireworks, which fell on its side and shot explosives into two crates that contained additional aerials. Video of the resulting explosion shows a rapid series of blasts shooting fireworks in the air and around the front of a house.
People walk past the home where a New Year's Eve fireworks explosion killed and injured people, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
A woman sweeps debris from a driveway across the street from the home where a New Year's Eve fireworks explosion killed and injured people, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
Evelyn Paguirigan points to broken windows at her home across the street from where a New Year's Eve fireworks explosion killed and injured people in Honolulu, on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
A woman walks in front of the home where a New Year's Eve fireworks explosion killed and injured people, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
A view of the home where a New Year's Eve fireworks explosion killed and injured people, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
A woman stands in front of the home where a New Year's Eve fireworks explosion killed and injured people, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
A damaged vehicle is seen near the home where a New Year's Eve fireworks explosion killed and injured people, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
Fireworks debris is seen outside the home where a New Year's Eve fireworks explosion killed and injured people, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
A view of the home where a New Year's Eve fireworks explosion killed and injured people, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
