Poker Writer
Questions linger over the Las Vegas baseball stadium project for the Athletics, as Bally’s has begun hinting at amendments to its prior plans or even a sale of the whole project. The proposed plans for a 33,000-seat stadium project, set to cost up to $1.75 billion, were supposed to be completed by 2028.
Bally’s was supposed to develop a 35-acre plot leased from Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. (GLPI). Of that, nine acres are meant for the actual stadium, with the other 26 set to house a retail entertainment district, including a Bally’s casino.
The site formerly housed historic Tropicana Las Vegas, which closed in April 2024 and was fully demolished by October of that year.
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Bally’s Amending Plans?
Bally’s released its plans for the development outside of the baseball stadium in September 2025. The plan included 500,000 square feet of retail, dining, and entertainment, including a 2,500-seat theater for live performances. The 3,000-room resort with two towers would have direct access to the stadium.
Speaking during the ICE gaming industry conference in Barcelona last week, Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim suggested that while Bally’s still plans to build on the Tropicana property, it is starting with the retail district. The casino and hotel are on the backburner for now:
To be completely frank, we’re actually more focused on developing what is called the RED, or retail entertainment district, around the stadium to complement the traffic that the stadium brings, even before we build an integrated resort, hotel, and casino. It’ll come in phases.
Vegas gambling and entertainment insider Vital Vegas has maintained for months that the project was never happening as planned. He called it a “delusional fever dream.”
Bally’s Stretched Thin
One reason Bally’s may be waffling about the plans for the Vegas baseball complex is that it has so many major projects currently underway.
Bally’s is spearheading an effort to build a permanent casino in Chicago, a $1.7 billion project that may not be completed until 2027. Construction on the project paused last year when an investigation found alleged links to organized crime.
After a hotly contested battle for casino licenses in New York City, Bally’s was granted one for a Bally’s Bronx project. Bally’s will invest at least $2.5 billion there.
Kim also remains committed to the company’s iGaming operations, Gamesys, for which Bally’s paid $2.7 billion. But several investors have pushed to sell off the iGaming operations. Though a sale was completed to Intralot, Bally’s maintains a controlling stake.
Bally’s also considered acquiring struggling Australian casino company Star Australia and Crown Resorts. That ended up amounting to a $195 million bailout.
All told, Bally’s is putting more than $7 billion into these large projects. That figure is 10 times larger than the company’s market capitalization, which is about $710 million as of February 2026.
Vegas A’s Baseball Stadium Called Bally’s Riskiest Investment
Kim admitted that the Vegas project is the riskiest of the batch. He cited the wide range of potential success and failure:
Of all the projects that we have in our portfolio, Vegas is the one with sort of the widest standard deviation of outcomes. I mean, you can do really well in Vegas and you can do really poorly whereas sort of the regional properties like Chicago and New York, they’re much easier, much more easy to predict what the outcomes will be.
Kim suggested it’s difficult to be a serious player in the gambling world without a stake in Las Vegas. But at the same time, he gave his most telling quote. Regarding the A’s complex, he said selling isn’t out of the question.
“I’m not dying to do it,” he said. “But again, never say never.”
