Oakland A’s Las Vegas Plans Bring Work for Law Firms, Lobbyists

The Oakland Athletics planned relocation to Las Vegas is giving ample work to law firms, including Katten Muchin Rosenman, Goodwin Procter, Greenberg Traurig, and Latham & Watkins.

Katten, known for its sports practice, is representing the A’s via sports law and facilities chair Adam Klein, real estate partner Benzion Westreich, and associate Paige Krause. Klein counseled the team’s ownership on its $180 million acquisition of the Major League Baseball team in 2005.

Goodwin real estate partners partners Benjamin Hittman and Erin Claywell, as well as tax of counsel Edward Glazer, are advising Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc., known as GLPI, which owns the land on which the A’s hope to build a new $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat retractable roof stadium.

The A’s announced May 15 an agreement with two companies, GLPI and Bally’s Corp., to build their new ballpark on the site of the Tropicana hotel and casino along the Las Vegas Strip. GLPI sold the Tropicana, one of the longest-standing casinos in Las Vegas, to Bally’s for $150 million in 2021 but continued to own the underlying land and collect rent from it.

Latham’s Sony Ben-Moshe, co-chair of the firm’s hospitality, gaming, and leisure industry group, is serving as outside counsel to Bally’s along with Greenberg Traurig real estate partners Jim Mace and Michael Hogue. Mace, a veteran Las Vegas dealmaker, co-heads the firm’s office in the city.

The Las Vegas stadium deal is contingent on roughly $400 million in public financial support from Nevada taxpayers.

Nevada Influence

A public funding gap could potentially hold up a new stadium deal for the A’s, who have yet to receive assurances from Nevada lawmakers that the team will receive all the money that has been requested, according to local news reports.

The A’s declined via a spokeswoman to discuss their legal and lobbying strategy. D’Lonra Ellis, the club’s chief legal officer, didn’t respond to comment requests.

Athletics Investment Group, an entity that owns the A’s, has retained a roster of Nevada lobbyists and lawyers in its effort to secure public funds by the end of the state’s legislative session next month.

Public filings show the A’s are fielding an 18-strong advocacy team that includes Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie government relations partners Alfredo Alonso and Garrett Gordon in Reno. The group also includes Nevada firms Ferrato Co., Griffin Co., and Black Joy Consulting, according to lobbying records.

The A’s have also tapped land use and legislative affairs partners Mark Fiorentino and Jennifer Lazovich of Las Vegas-based Kaempfer Crowell.

Kaempfer Crowell senior partner Christopher Kaempfer is a former co-owner of the Las Vegas 51s minor league baseball team that was sold in 2017 to Howard Hughes Corp., a real estate development company that rebranded the club as the Las Vegas Aviators.

Dave Kaval, president of the A’s, said last month the club has an option with Howard Hughes to play 2025 and 2026 home games at the Las Vegas Ballpark, the 10,000-seat home field of the Aviators, as the A’s await completion of a new stadium. The Aviators are also the top minor league affiliate of the A’s.

Howard Hughes has other ties to the city’s sports scene. Justin Carley, a former senior assistant general counsel at the company, last year was named legal chief for the Las Vegas Raiders, who once shared a stadium in Oakland with the A’s.

Howard Hughes notified its general counsel, Peter Riley Jr., that he’s being terminated without cause as of May 30, according to a proxy statement.

Riley was responsible for operating the Aviators and once offered the A’s free land if they chose to build a new facility near the minor league team. Riley and Howard Hughes didn’t respond to comment requests.

Oakland Exodus

The A’s and Oakland, the team’s home since 1968, have for years failed to come to terms on an agreement to replace or redevelop the aging Oakland Coliseum.

A $12 billion plan for a waterfront development in Oakland that includes a new baseball complex for the A’s has been mired in litigation, although a California appellate court upheld an environmental report for the site in March.

Lawyers from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Sacramento’s Remy Moose Manly have been representing the A’s in that dispute. Last year the A’s hired former Gibson Dunn litigation associate Stephen Wilson as an in-house counsel.

Bloomberg News reported last month that the Oakland Roots and Soul Sports Club, which owns men’s and women’s professional soccer teams in the United Soccer League, is interested in securing a 10-year lease on land next to the Oakland Coliseum on which to build their own new stadium.

Lindsay Barenz, a former Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton associate now serving as president of the Roots and Soul, announced in a May 12 statement a cooperation agreement to pursue a mixed-use stadium and real estate deal.

Barenz referred a comment request to a spokesman, who confirmed that Bay Area firm Reuben, Junius & Rose is representing the Roots and Soul on land use issues related to the project.