In June 2023 is when the State of Nevada approved up to $380 million in public funding to help the Athletics build a Major League Baseball stadium in Las Vegas.

Two years later, the A's have now broken ground on the ballpark located on Las Vegas Boulevard where the Tropicana once stood.

It's set to open in 2028.

(John Fisher) And three years from now, you'll see the fruits of all of that labor when in 2028 we have Opening Day out here on the Las Vegas Strip.

It's, it's an epic moment for our 124-year-old franchise.

-That was A's Owner John Fisher at the groundbreaking ceremony.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred was also there and joined John Fisher in praising the state's elected officials.

(Rob Manfred) You know, when you have 30 teams, you get a chance to work with governments around the United States.

And those of you who live here in Nevada should take great comfort in the efficiency and effectiveness of your elected officials.

And trust me, we would not be here today were it not for some of the hard work that went into making this a reality.

-Manfred highlighted Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo's efforts.

The Republican governor called a special legislative session in 2023 specifically for the A's stadium bill.

Critics clamored that the taxpayer money involved should instead be used to address the state's struggling education system.

At Monday's groundbreaking, Governor Lombardo said this is all about economic growth.

(Gov.

Joe Lombardo) To me, it's economic drivers, it's jobs, it's an ability to be the true "Entertainment Capital of the World" and drive everything home what we envisioned and what John and I envisioned in having success in this.

So here we are today.

The conversations still continue, but I anticipate that the pile drivers behind me are going to be hitting the ground sometime this evening.

And in 2028, we're going to be throwing a pitch across that plate.

-And to make sure that happens, the A's hired Marc Badain as their president in March.

He's the former president of the Las Vegas Raiders and oversaw their relocation to Las Vegas, as well as the construction of Allegiant Stadium.

A's owner, John Fisher, who also owns the Major League Soccer team the San Jose Earthquakes, is reportedly contributing more than $1 billion to the A's stadium, despite reports that he's also looking for investors to help finance it.

Badain told us the project is fully funded.

The basics, how much is this stadium expected to cost?

(Marc Badain) It'll probably come in around $1.75 billion as has been reported.

-And has that been adjusted for the anticipated impacts of tariffs?

-Yes, we've prepared for tariffs; we've built in a contingency.

You do all that when you do a project of this size.

-So the funding part of it, there is public funding, there is private funding, but it's not fully funded, correct?

-No, it is fully funded.

The Fisher family has made a commitment, and they're prepared to fund any amount, any overage, and that's one of the reasons why we're standing here today.

-Okay.

So there was the 1 billion committed by the Fisher family, right?

-There is.

-And so anything extra-- -Will also be committed by the Fisher family.

-Do you know if that is why Mr. Fisher is putting up the MLS team for sale?

-It has nothing to do with that.

That's been part of their plan for a long time.

-How much of a role did you play-- do you think you played in getting us to this point today?

-It's nice of you to say that.

I'm very fortunate.

The team did an incredible job.

Reached out to me about six months ago.

There are certain things they asked for me to help with, and the team of people that they put in place and, obviously, from what you see here in this tent, it takes, it takes a cast of thousands.

So I'm just, I'm happy to be a part of it.

-What were some of the requests they made for your help?

-Just, obviously, my relationships in this town go back about a decade now.

And then help with the sales and monetization of the building.

The design is done; I don't have to do anything there.

The construction team's in place.

It's a lot of people that I worked with on the previous project on Allegiant Stadium, so that familiarity is very helpful.

And the relationships, as you know, in this town are very important.

-How has this experience compared to your work with the Raiders getting a stadium here?

-Anytime you do something for a second time, it's a lot easier.

It's like doing a movie sequel.

You know the players, you know the director, you know the producer, and you put the right people in the right place.

And we've got a great team that's effectuating the plan.

-And then the last time I spoke with you, you were working on getting a privately funded NBA arena in Las Vegas.

What happened with that?

-That's still-- it's still ongoing.

I'm not a part of that project anymore, but I speak to Tim a lot, and I'm a big advocate of his company and the plan he has in place.

I'm looking forward to that coming to Vegas and being part of the infrastructure here as well.

-What's your level of confidence that that will happen?

-I wouldn't bet against Tim Leiweke.

-And then last thing, you grew up as a Raiders ball boy, correct?

-I started in the football operations department, yeah.

-Okay.

So what did you think of the A's who shared the stadium with the Raiders?

-I had a lot of very deep relationships with people there.

Some are here today.

Dave Rinetti and I have known each other 30 years.

Steve Fanelli and I have known each other 25.

So, yeah, there's a lot of history, and we had our issues.

We got through them, but they're really good people, and I'm just blessed to be working with them.

-Because to some it may seem strange that you were a Raider and now an A.

-Well, we-- I wouldn't consider it strange.

I'd consider it fortunate.

-The A's say the stadium's first concrete column should be in place by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, in last place is where the A's find themselves in the American League West.

A poorly performing team in recent years, will the A's improve by the time they get to Las Vegas?

I spoke with A's Assistant General Manager, Billy Owens, about that and more.

What was your level of confidence that we would reach this day?

(Billy Owens) You know what, out of 100%, I was like 99.5.

I mean, this is so exciting to all of a sudden on June 23, 2025, and here we are, grand opening.

-When you first heard Las Vegas, what did you think?

-Yeah, Las Vegas is special.

I go back to the Jerry Tarkanian Thomas & Mack Center, seeing the Las Vegas Knights win an NHL championship, the Aces win the WNBA championship.

It's kind of the mecca for sports.

The Raiders coming here, having the Super Bowl here, so baseball is obviously the next step.

I'm sure the NBA will be here at some point.

So this is exciting.

-This is a tough one: What are you saying to people who are thinking, Gosh, you're bringing a team with not a great record to Las Vegas?

-Yeah, the record is not great right now, but you can see the young talent flowing through.

I mean, Jacob Wilson right now is tied with Aaron Judge as far as the most Major League hits, and Jacob Wilson is 23 years old.

I mean, I comped him to Derek Jeter coming up.

His father is Jack Wilson, was all-star shortstop as well.

He's a star.

And Nick Kurtz, he came up, literally drafted last year, started the year in Triple-A.

He's got home runs in five out of the last six games, 10 home runs.

So I firmly believe Jacob Wilson and Nick Kurtz, they'll be 1, 2 in the Rookie of the Year voting this year, 2025.

And honestly, with the momentum, we'll see which one wins.

-To 2028 then.

-Cheers to 2028.

Can't wait.

-In 2028, Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley will still be in office.

She, too, was at the stadium groundbreaking where I asked her about several topics, including immigration enforcement in Las Vegas and the United States' bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities.

Let's start off with the event that we are at.

I imagine you were following all the progression ahead of becoming mayor.

Did you think that this was going to happen, that we'd reach this day?

(Shelley Berkley) I did believe that this day would happen.

Where else would any team on any sport want to be than Las Vegas right now?

We are the hottest ticket in the sports world, and I'm so excited to welcome the A's to Las Vegas.

-What role do you play in making sure that that happens?

Because this is technically Clark County.

-And I have a very limited official role to play, but I still think it's important for the mayor of Las Vegas to be very supportive and welcoming, and we are.

-I want to ask you on a different topic about immigration and how you currently understand the situation to be.

There have been, gosh, a series of events.

At one time, Las Vegas was named a sanctuary city.

You had to respond to that.

Then we heard that hotels and farms are no longer going to be targeted, yet democratic cities will be targeted.

What do you make of all this?

-Well, I think this is a very fluid situation.

As you know, I'm the granddaughter of immigrants that came to this country to escape the Holocaust.

We're a very diverse community.

Everybody is valued here.

Obviously, we don't want criminals in the streets committing crimes, but on the other hand, we welcome people.

We want them to be here, and they've contributed mightily to the success of our city.

So we'll see what happens on the federal level, but I think right now, the city is doing exactly what we need to do.

We protect our fellow citizens, and we do whatever we need to do to work with ICE to ensure that the bad actors are not here.

-Do you have an example of that, of what Las Vegas is doing?

-Yes.

We signed an agreement with ICE, the sheriff did.

As you know, the protests were relatively peaceful.

For 10,000 people to have 22 arrests, I think was-- I took a deep breath of relief.

We don't want anything messing up our city.

We all belong here; we're all a part of it.

Setting fires or attacking the police doesn't do anybody any good.

And we have our own issues.

We know where we stand on the issues, and you execute appropriately without doing anything foolish.

Everybody has a right to protest, and I welcome that, but we also need to keep our city safe.

-And for our viewers who are not familiar with that agreement that the sheriff has made with ICE, what is it?

-If you are an illegal or you're not here legally and you are arrested, the Metro is going to detain the person that's arrested for a few days to give ICE an opportunity to pick them up from the jail.

That is the extent of our agreement with ICE, and I think it's an appropriate one.

-You support it?

-Well, I don't believe that Metro should be doing ICE's job.

Metro has enough on their plate without doing federal law enforcement.

So as long as we have an agreement with ICE that we can execute appropriately, I think that's okay.

And that's exactly what we're doing now.

-Mayor, as a prominent member of the Jewish community, your thoughts on the US getting involved in Iran alongside Israel?

-Well, when I was in Congress, obviously, I wanted to eliminate the threat of a nuclear Iran.

I am very hopeful that this latest action did, in fact, do that, but I think it's still early in the game.

We're going to have to wait and see what happens.

-And the last question: Rabbi Sanford Akselrad, he is going to be retiring.

I think you were at his retirement party.

We have an interview with him coming up.

Any thoughts about him leaving this position?

-Well, I love this man.

I was not only at his retirement party, but I was there to welcome him when he was first hired.

So we have a very long relationship.

My husband was on the board of Ner Tamid for many, many years.

We love this man.

He's been a wonderful asset, not only to the Jewish community, but to the entire Las Vegas community.

And I, for one, will be very-- am very sad to see him leave.

He's earned this retirement, and we have a great new rabbi coming on that we know very, very well.

So it's a win-win-win for everybody.