Howard Terminal Dead? Oakland A's Dave Kaval Meets Las Vegas LVCVA's Mr. Hill. Hotel Tax?

Howard Terminal Dead? Oakland A's Dave Kaval Meets Las Vegas LVCVA's Mr. Hill. Hotel Tax?
Howard Terminal Dead? Oakland A's Dave Kaval Meets Las Vegas LVCVA's Mr. Steven Hill. Hotel Tax? The latest Howard Terminal Ballpark news is not kind to Oakland. There's a reason that Oakland Athletics President Dave Kaval did not do a victory lap tweet in the wake of what was called by some media outlets (not this one) a full victory. The simple fact is that Judge Brad Seligman maintained his original stance: that the EIR was both mostly done well, and yet had a problem in the area of wind generated by the proposed ballpark's existence. So, Dave Kaval's not interested in coughing up more money to edit the EIR. Meanwhile he's been in Las Vegas. ' According to a politically-connected Las Vegas source in a place to know, Dave Kaval has been meeting with Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau President and CEO Steven Hill. That's a big and previously not reported on deal. Sure, the two initially met last year when Dave made his first trip to Las Vegas after Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in late March of 2021 (and after realizing just how behind the City of Oakland was in getting its part of the Howard Terminal to-do list done) that MLB was going to look at both Las Vegas and Portland, then Portland faded out of sight - Las Vegas was left standing. And now news on a series of events leading to eventual relocation of the Oakland A's to Las Vegas have heated up. The news of three weeks ago was that Phil Ruffin, the owner of the iconic Treasure Island Hotel, and Trump International Tower (with former President Trump) first met with Kaval and A's Owner John Fisher in Las Vegas. Then, two weeks later, Ruffin was reported to have traveled to Oakland to meet again. Now, we have this news of meeting with Steven Hill. That points to one possible outcome: a stadium hotel tax like the one the Raiders got. it also points to the chance that the LVCVA would float a bond issue rather than Clark County. All the better to escape the politics that could harm Steven Sisolak's relection as Nevada Governor. But, what this means, overall, is that the Oakland A's are deep into engineering a move to Las Vegas. I have seen this movie before: play Oakland right up to the last moment but have the meetings toward development in San Francisco, Las Vegas, and then yet again Las Vegas. On top of this, let's not forget that the A's have been planning to release drawings of a new ballpark for a year now, but fearful of upsetting Oakland and killing any chance of a deal, on top of not securing a final location, backed off. Meanwhile Mayor Schaaf has done a good job of making Howard Terminal her personal show rather than an affair that puts the public front and center. She's failed to establish a stadium authority, made public news about Howard Terminal in her face rather than the City Administrator or project manager, and did not unite Oakland's business community to save then A's, leaving some to work in opposition or just sit on the sidelines. It's amazing there are A's fans who want the team to stay in Oakland even under political circumstances that seem to want to push the organization out of Oakland. Stay tuned.
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwQyDVv5iMQ