Got ‘parking angst’ for A’s Strip ballpark? This CEO has a relief plan
Las Vegas’ major-league sports identity continues to take shape, and a top executive continues to make that point.
Three points, actually.
“If you think about what’s happened with T-Mobile Arena, Allegiant Stadium and now here, it’s all within walking distance of what we call the Golden Triangle of sports activity,” MGM Resorts International President and CEO Bill Hornbuckle said just before Monday’s groundbreaking at the A’s stadium site on the Strip. “There are over 6 million tickets available for events, sports and otherwise, in the Golden Triangle.”
The six million figure draws in the full, annual ticket availability at the MGM Grand Garden and Michelob Ultra Arena. Those venues also sit within Golden Triangle’s imaginary, yet importantly recognized, boundaries.
“That’s a large amount of visitation, a large amount of local activities, a large amount of economic activities, right here,” Hornbuckle said.
It’s also a large amount of vehicular traffic. The stadium site takes up just nine acres, comparatively tiny for a Major League Baseball facility (the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex, with the stadium and arena as occupants, is more than 100 acres larger).
The site has beautiful site lines, but potentially unsightly traffic and parking concerns. If you want to see a local wince, mention the concept of 33,000 baseball fans descending on that corner 81 times a year.
But Hornbuckle takes a bat to that issue.
“We’ve helped the A’s study traffic. We don’t think it’s a real consideration here,” Hornbuckle said. “It’s going to be tight, but it will be at a point where it’s very manageable. We’re going to help provide parking as we have with both Allegiant Stadium and obviously with T-Mobile.”
The famed structure to the immediate north, conveniently a near-match for the team’s green-gold color scheme, will be home to A’s stadium’s unofficial casino hang and parking garage.
“I think the focus with the stadium and our relationship with the A’s center on MGM,” Hornbuckle said. “Obviously, we have an 8,000-space parking garage over there that often doesn’t get utilized to the full capacity. I think it’ll help relieve a lot of the parking angst between the community, and ultimately this location.”
Hornbuckle says the company can also utilize 11 acres of land it owns on the west side of the Strip, adjacent to Excalibur and Luxor that is “developable in some way, shape or form.”
Speculation has percolated about the future of Excalibur in the Golden Triangle neighborhood. Will it be demolished in favor of something more contemporary, and complementary to the new look the stadium will provide?
“Excalibur just celebrated its 35th anniversary. It’s been a spectacular resort for us. We hope to continue in that vein,” Hornbuckle said. “Right now we have no massive plans for that site. We do always look at the land that sits in front of, basically, Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Excalibur as a development opportunity.”
Hornbuckle said Bally’s Corp.’s development of a resort next to the stadium will figure into the future of his company’s property across from the venue. The exec reasoned, “Depending on what ultimately happens here, not only with the A’s and the stadium, but ultimately with Bally’s, we’ll make an assessment of what we want to do.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.