Bally Corporation, who purchased the Tropicana and agreed to provide land for the new Las Vegas baseball stadium, has agreed to a $4.6 billion buyout offer from their largest shareholder, Standard General. This massive move has some people asking if the change in leadership will have an impact on the deal already in place. A fair question.
First, the buyout deal does include the recently closed Tropicana Las Vegas, which officially shut its doors on April 2nd. And while any future plans for a new resort remain clouded, the plans are in place to demolish the existing structures in an implosion, probably in early October.
Soon after the Standard General deal was made public, questions were raised about the new 33,000-seat Vegas baseball stadium, planned for the site, which is expected to break ground by April next year. Fortunately, a representative of the baseball team informed the Las Vegas Stadium Authority that the they were still in “good shape” with the financing of the ballpark.
Still, there are some rumblings and concerns. While the comment was reassuring it provided no specifics on how the franchise will cover its anticipated $1.2 billion share of the construction costs. Additionally, Bally’s executives have not commented about the deal or the Vegas baseball stadium beyond the initial buyout announcement.
Should the public be concerned? Probably not. Will they be concerned? Probably so. That’s what people do. But here’s one important piece of the puzzle which provides a clue: Bally’s Chairman is Soo Kim, who is also the chairman of Standard General. And Kim said the buyout would actually help Bally’s with the property development, as well as the ballpark project. That said, this doesn’t look like an issue for the stadium.
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