John Fisher pledges $1 billion to construction of A's stadium in Las Vegas

News

John Fisher pledges $1 billion to construction of A's stadium in Las Vegas

2024-11-01 06:04 Last Updated At：06:10

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Athletics owner John Fisher and his family will invest $1 billion into the construction of a stadium in Las Vegas and U.S. Bank and Goldman Sachs will offer a $300 million loan, club executive Sandy Dean said Thursday.

Dean made his remarks to a special meeting of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority board.

Dean said four letters will be presented at the Dec. 5 authority meeting asserting construction details and financing will be in place. Final approvals are expected to be made at that meeting to allow construction of the $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat domed ballpark with a capacity for up to 33,000 fans.

“We feel like we're on the right path and it will become clearer in the months ahead,” Dean told the board.

Construction is expected to begin in the spring with a targeted opening before the 2028 season. As much as $380 million in public funding will go into building the stadium, which will be on the Las Vegas Strip on the site of where the recently demolished Tropicana stood.

Dean said Fisher is still pursuing partners in the Las Vegas area who can purchase stakes in the franchise, which in turn goes toward paying for the stadium.

“We've been consistent in saying it would be good coming to Las Vegas to have outside partners from Las Vegas,” Dean said after the meeting. “That process has just begun. The ability to finance the stadium is independent of that.”

As for the financing, the four letters that will be presented at the December meeting will better address that.

The first is the loan commitment from U.S. Bank and Goldman Sachs. Dean said it probably would be a five-year term “that would be replaced by a permanent loan once construction is done.”

Another letter, Dean said, asserts the Fisher and his family have the ability to meet their financial commitment. Dean said the third letter from U.S. Bank will show that through a review of the owner's finances that it “concludes the Fisher family has more than sufficient resources to fund the equity investment that's required to build the stadium.”

The fourth laid out the commitments to Athletics StadCo LLC, an entity created to handle the private capital investment.

Also, the draft lease agreement and deed were presented to the board.

“We feel like these documents are on track for the schedule that we have been talking about for a number of months,” said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “We feel like there's a real possibility we'll be able to reach a conclusion on all of them on Dec. 5.”

Dean said an updated construction budget will be presented at that day's meeting, and he acknowledged the final cost likely will rise “by something.”

Hill said documents would be made public several days before the December meeting and he didn't anticipate any issues regarding approval.

“There are a couple of places where we need to get the language right, but we've had enough of a conversation to understand that everybody understands what the outcome is intended to be," Hill said.

He cited ensuring details regarding parking as an example of getting all the proper wording in place.

The A's will play at least the next three seasons in West Sacramento, California. The club announced it will play 60 of its 81 home games next season at night, tying the 1968 A's for the most in their history. That includes 25 of 28 games at night in June and July when temperatures are often 100 degrees (37.8 Celsius) or hotter.

Their first game in Sacramento is March 31 against the Chicago Cubs.

The A's played their last of 57 seasons in Oakland, California.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Middle East latest: 3 Israelis fatally shot in West Bank attack on a bus

2025-01-07 03:19 Last Updated At：03:21

Gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank on Monday, killing two 70-year-old women and a 35-year-old policeman, Israel's military said. Israeli soldiers have launched widespread operations in the northern West Bank looking for the attackers.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians seek all three territories for their future state.

Meanwhile, the war in Gaza is raging with no end in sight, although there has reportedly been recent progress in long-running talks aimed at a ceasefire and release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

Israel's war in Gaza has killed over 45,800 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who say women and children make up more than half of those killed. They do not say how many of the dead were militants.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border in a massive surprise attack nearly 15 months ago, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Here's the latest:

JERUSALEM - Militants in Gaza fired three projectiles into Israel on Monday, one of which was intercepted, the Israeli military said.

There were no reports of casualties, but the rockets damaged a home in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, which is located near Gaza.

Israeli media reported it was the third time the same home had sustained damage from rockets from Gaza.

After a long pause, militants in northern Gaza have launched near-daily rockets in recent weeks despite the ongoing Israeli military operations in the area. The launches highlighted that although Hamas has suffered major losses, they seem to repeatedly regroup after Israeli operations.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets and missiles towards Israel since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel’s military offensive has turned vast swathes of Gaza into an uninhabitable wasteland, erasing whole neighborhoods.

CAIRO — Israeli soldiers opened fire on a United Nations aid convoy in central Gaza, according to a World Food Program, which provides desperately needed food and aid. None of the eight staff members were injured, the WFP said Monday.

The WFP said the Israeli military shot at least 16 bullets toward their convoy of three vehicles on Sunday, despite receiving necessary clearance from the military.

The WFP said shooting at a clearly-marked U.N. aid convoy was “unacceptable” and called on all sides to allow the safe passage of humanitarian aid.

The Israeli military did not have an immediate comment on the episode.

In November, the military struck a car belonging to the charity World Central Kitchen, killing five employees, after claiming that one of the employees had ties to the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war in Gaza.

The strike highlighted the dangerous work of delivering aid in Gaza, where the war has displaced much of the 2.3 million population and caused widespread hunger.

BEIRUT — The Lebanese army began deploying to the southern coastal city of Naqoura as the Israeli army withdrew, the U.S. and Lebanon said Monday.

Israel has already pulled out of two other southern towns, Khiam and Shamaa, since the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel went into effect over a month ago. Both Israel and Hezbollah agreed to pull their forces out of southern Lebanon before the end of January, which will be secured by the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers.

The phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon is “going according to the plan,” said U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, but he did not confirm whether the pullout would be completed within the 60-day limit under the ceasefire conditions.

“We have 20 days left to reach the 60 days. We are going to continue the same work that has led to the successful withdrawal and deployment that we saw today,” Hochstein said.

The Israeli military said it “is committed to the understanding in regards to the ceasefire conditions.”

The deployment coincided with a meeting of the committee overseeing the ceasefire agreement in Ras al-Naqoura, which is home to the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping mission. The meeting was attended by Hochstein, who arrived in Beirut on Monday. Hochstein helped broker the ceasefire that ended the 14-month war.

After the deployment is completed in Naqoura, the Lebanese army said specialized units will survey the area to remove unexploded ordnance, and urged residents to avoid the area.

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. special envoy for Yemen has arrived in the Houthi rebel-held capital of Sanaa.

Hans Grundberg's “visit is part of the ongoing efforts to de-escalate the current tensions that have engulfed the region and Yemen,” U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said Monday. "In addition, his efforts will focus on advancing the peace process.”

The Iran-backed Houthis have stepped up their missile attacks against Israel, and have been targeting shipping in the Red Sea corridor for over a year — attacks they say won't stop until there's a ceasefire in Gaza. Israel has repeatedly bombarded Yemen's ports, oil infrastructure and the airport in Sanaa, some 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away.

“We’ll also be pushing for the release of the arbitrarily detained U.N. personnel and also from other NGOs and civil society,” the U.N. spokesman said.

The Houthis claim the detainees, most of them held since June, are part of an “American-Israeli spy network,” an allegation vehemently denied by the U.N., NGO organizations, governments and others.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s rescue service said gunmen attacked a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank, killing at least three people and wounding eight others.

The attack occurred Monday in the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq, on one of the main east-west roads crossing the territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “settle accounts” with the attackers “and with everyone who assisted them.” Hamas praised the attack in a statement, but did not claim responsibility for it.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October 2023.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 838 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza. Most appear to have been militants killed in battles with Israeli troops, but the dead also include participants in violent protests — and civilian bystanders.

At least 46 Israelis, including 19 soldiers, have been killed in violent attacks by Palestinian militants, according to the U.N.