An A’s fan is pledging to match $100,000 in donations to Schools Over Stadiums on Thursday
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An A’s fan with a bankroll is doing his part to keep the franchise out of Las Vegas.
The Nevada-based political action committee (PAC) called Schools Over Stadiums (SOS) will have a booth at the reverse boycott at the Oakland Coliseum parking lot on Thursday to collect donations from A’s fans opposed to the team’s proposed ballpark in Las Vegas. Along with online contributions, SOS is aiming to collect at least six figures on Thursday, as an unnamed A’s fan has pledged to match up to $100,000 in contributions for the cause.
In an aim to recoup the $380 million in public funds for A’s owner John Fisher and redirect them towards the state, representatives from the Nevada State Education Association (NSEA) are trying two different avenues to impede the A’s proposed $1.5 billion ballpark project: a lawsuit and a referendum.
During the latest episode of The Rickey Henderson of Podcasts, NSEA Political Director Chris Daly discussed the complicated topics with me and my co-host Hal Gordon.
“There is an A’s fan who has some deeper pockets, who wants to see this be successful,” Daly said. “If we reach our goal of $100,000 on Thursday, we’d get another $100,000 on top of that from a major donor. That would fully fund litigation and all appeals. And it would also get us started, in terms of getting out there collecting signatures on a referendum, if we were able to clear the supreme court (on April 9).”
Daly will be at the SOS booth on Thursday and periodically update the donation progress throughout the evening. The generous donor will be matching contributions — both in-person and online — from Thursday’s fundraising drive.
Lawsuit efforts
NSEA is affiliated with the two committees that are doing the legwork for the lawsuit and referendum efforts against the A’s ballpark proposal in Las vegas.
While SOS is the public-facing PAC of the movement, another NSEA-backed issue committee called Strong Public Schools Nevada (SPSN) is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 1 (SB1) – which has named Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, treasurer Zach Conine, the Nevada legislature, Las Vegas Stadium Authority and Clark County as defendants.
SPSN is trying to challenge the constitutionality of the SB1 ballpark proposal in five different areas. If successful, the legal challenge could dismantle the public funding approved by Nevada legislators last June for Fisher’s Armadillo Dome.
It’s all pretty technical, but here’s one example: SPSN is arguing that the personal seat licenses would generate new revenue for the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, and therefore Nevada.
“The (Nevada) constitution prohibits any new revenue from being raised without a 2/3 vote from the legislature,” Daly said. “They did not get a 2/3 vote on SB1.”
SB1 passed the Nevada senate by a 13-8 vote (61.9 percent) in June 2023, before passing the Nevada assembly by a 25-15-2 vote (62.5 percent), which is below the 66.7 percent threshold that SPSN is seeking for SB1 approval under its legal challenge.
Daly said other legal charges have to do with the relationship between the state and Clark County.
“We think each of our causes of action are pretty good and we only really need to win on one of them,” Daly said. “If we win on all of them, (the stadium deal) is gone, it’s dead. If we win on one or two of them, it is likely gone, or dead.”
Referendum efforts
Schools Over Stadiums is also trying to get SB1 into the hands of the Nevada public, by having it appear as a ballot measure during the November elections.
First, SOS needs to get a positive ruling in its hearing with the Nevada state supreme court on April 9, as the PAC is appealing a successful challenge from A’s lawyers regarding the language of the referendum petition.
If SOS gets the ruling overturned, the organization would be able to start collecting petition signatures. Daly said SOS needs to collect about 102,000 or 103,000 valid signatures of Nevada voters by June 26, divided among the four Nevada congressional districts. If the signature collecting is successful, the June 26 submission would give time to the Nevada Secretary of State to make a decision before a July 8 deadline to put it on the November ballot.
“We, from the very beginning, have known that if we qualify this measure — I don’t know if John Fisher has enough money to win the vote in front of Nevada voters,” Daly said. “We think we would win — not going away, we think they would close the gap — but they wouldn’t be able to close the gap enough, and we would win in November.”
For now, the referendum effort hangs on the balance of the Nevada supreme court’s decision on April 9.
“The fact that they have asked for oral arguments, which are going to happen on April 9, we think it is a good sign in terms of our case,” Daly said. “We’re hoping they act swiftly at the supreme court. We’re hoping to win, but we’re hoping that they act swiftly. If we win at the Nevada state supreme court, we can be on the streets the next day collecting signatures.”
While SOS was started by NSEA members with Nevada students in mind, Daly was honest in saying SOS wouldn’t be possible without contributions from A’s fans in California. While $200,000 is the goal Thursday, seven-figure support is probably necessary for a successful referendum, Daly said.
“It’s been largely rank and file A’s fans contributing 50 bucks, 100 bucks,” Daly said. “We had a few larger checks come in as well, which has been really helpful. But the truth is this, a referendum is expensive. I’ve publicly said before that it probably takes $1 million, is the going rate, in Nevada to qualify a referendum.
“Because of how the state is set up, usually most signatures are gathered by paid signature gatherers. We think that we can get a decent chunk as volunteer signatures, but we’re gonna need to pay for signatures (via paid gatherers). Those are going $8 to $10 per signature, you can do the math. Our lawyers also cost money.”
So, can $1 million from A’s fans stop $380 million in public funding for Fisher? We’ll see how it all plays out.
