A’s hire group who built Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium for proposed Las Vegas ballpark

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - The Athletics have hired a building group that’s no stranger to building stadiums for Oakland sports teams who are eyeing a move to Las Vegas.

The A’s on Monday announced that the team has hired Mortenson | McCarthy to serve as construction manager for the team’s proposed ballpark in Las Vegas.

Mortenson | McCarthy was hired by the Raiders to build Allegiant Stadium for the football team when they moved from Oakland to Las Vegas. The company completed the Silver & Black’s new home in July 2020.

In a news release, Mortenson | McCarthy said it delivered the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium “project on time, within budget, and exceeding all community benefit goals.”

According to the release, the company “will be responsible for overseeing all construction-related activities, including preconstruction estimating, scheduling and logistics planning, bidding, coordination and management of all craft employees and trade partners, labor relations, and community engagement.”

“Mortenson | McCarthy brings an exceptional level of expertise and experience to our project. Their focus on innovation, safety, and efficiency makes them the best in their field,” said A’s president Dave Kaval. “The Raiders project was a model of tremendous success, including a 31-month-long construction schedule, industry-leading workforce diversity that exceeded local, small, and women and minority-owned business goals, and establishing new benchmarks in sports construction for Southern Nevada. We’re thrilled to partner with them on this important phase of the project.”

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo in June signed into law a $380 million public financing package to help build a Major League Baseball stadium for the A’s on the Las Vegas Strip.

The A’s have said that they intend for the ballpark to be built on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip, where the Tropicana Las Vegas casino resort sits.

In addition to Allegiant Stadium, Mortenson | McCarthy notes that it has completed other sports projects including the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park, the Minnesota Twins’ Target Field, the Golden State Warriors’ Chase Center, the Seattle Kraken’s Climate Pledge Arena and the Minnesota Vikings’ U.S. Bank Stadium.

FOX5 talked with a stadium construction expert Monday to learn more about the work done by Mortenson | McCarthy.

“If I were awarding this contract, I would say I want someone with a track record, and a good track record, in an industry where there are constant cost overruns,” Jerald Podair, who wrote the 2017 book “City of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles,” told FOX5.

Podair pointed out that it’s hard to meet all construction goals set forth in the beginning phase of a project.

“Virtually every other stadium project – it’s always over budget,” Podaid said. “It always takes more time than they say.”

Podair is impressed with Mortenson | McCarthy’s portfolio, particularly with Allegiant Stadium, which was completed on time without any cost overruns, and Target Field in Minneapolis, which is the only Major League Baseball stadium built on less acreage than the nine that Bally’s has given the A’s for their new ballpark project on the site of the Tropicana Hotel & Casino.

Construction on that project will have to wait until at least part of the Tropicana is demolished, which Podair says could throw a wrench in the plans.

“Any time you don’t have a blank slate, basically, just an empty parcel, that is always the wild card,” Podair explained. “How long will this other entity take to get out, basically, so you can build the stadium.”

Podair pointed to the new Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009, as an example of a project that had to wait for other entities to demolish buildings to make way for the new construction. That delay contributed to an end cost that was more than double what was budgeted for, but Podair is more optimistic about the project on the Strip.

“It would seem to me that with Mortenson | McCarthy’s track record, they should be able to get the job done and get the job done on time and on budget because they’ve done it before,” he opined.

The team has given itself a long runway to finish the stadium, saying it plans to open it in 2028 with an estimated cost of $1.5 billion. Any cost overruns would be paid by the Athletics.

The A’s official hiring of Mortenson | McCarthy is subject to approval by the Las Vegas Stadium Authority.