BIG and HNTB Design New Vegas Ballpark

This week's announcement comes just three weeks after the Super Bowl was held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the home of the Las Vegas Raiders, the NFL team that coincidentally moved from Oakland, California, in 2020. The efforts of the desert metropolis to diversify itself from a place for gambling and bachelor parties to a place also for families and recreation — from “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” to “What happens here, only happens here” — finds its most dramatic, and expensive, expressions in these most recent professional-sports venues in the city. While the Raiders new home cost $1.9 billion, making it the second most expensive stadium in the world, the new Athletics stadium will cost around $1.5 billion, with about a quarter of the bill covered by state taxes. (For reference, the Sphere music venue cost $2.3 billion, but without any public financing.)

The A's covered ballpark will sit on nine acres at Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue, on a site currently occupied by Tropicana Las Vegas, the landmark resort that dates back to 1957. The site is part of a larger property owned by Bally's, who will also build a hotel, casino, and parking. At 33,000 seats, the ballpark will be, by some counts, the smallest in the MLB. 

The stadium is enclosed by a dramatic arching dome made up of “five overlapping shells resembling baseball pennants,” per a statement from BIG and HNTB, “paying homage to the sport.” Clerestories will fill the gaps between the shells, with the glass facing north to reduce direct sunlight on the diamond. A glass wall oriented toward left field will be the world’s largest cable net glass wall, per the architects, and frame views of the Strip, particularly the “skyline” of the New York New York Hotel and Casino on the opposite side of Las Vegas Boulevard. 

Although BIG founder Bjarke Ingels says the design of the stadium “is like a spherical armadillo,” many news outlets are pointing out its similarities to the Sydney Opera House. The A's should hope the similarities end with its form and don't extend to that icon's lengthy construction and cost overruns. If all goes well, the A's are hoping for an opening date in spring 2028.