⚾ Bally’s is officially in the baseball business now

A rendering released by the Oakland Athletics in May shows their proposed new ballpark at the Tropicana site in Las Vegas.Associated Press

The sequel to “Moneyball” is going to be on the Las Vegas Strip.

Major League Baseball’s owners voted unanimously Thursday to allow the Oakland Athletics to relocate to Vegas beginning with the 2028 season, setting the stage for a $1.5 billion stadium to be built on the land currently occupied by the Tropicana casino and hotel.

Rhode Island-based Bally’s is the owner of the Tropicana, although the land is actually owned by a third party. Bally’s is leading the development of the 30,000-seat ballpark and plans to build a brand new hotel and casino.

”This is a huge win for the city to realize yet another major league franchise is coming to Vegas,” Bally’s chairman Soo Kim wrote on the platform formerly known as Twitter. “I think it’s great for baseball, because they can showcase their product to 40 million-plus visitors to Vegas.”

Bally’s informed investors this month that it made a decision to “pause reinvestment and operational changes at the Tropicana” while waiting for the decision from Major League Baseball, but that was more of a formality than anything else. The baseball owners had already signaled that they were supportive of the relocation.

Although Bally’s is not considered the shining star of the gambling business, it has steadily grown its profile in recent years.

The company won the rights to build a massive casino in Chicago, and is now operating a golf course in the Bronx that it bought from the Trump Organization. The stadium partnership in Las Vegas gives Bally’s the chance to essentially reinvent the Tropicana, an iconic property that hasn’t been able to keep pace with the newer casinos along the strip.

Once the Chicago casino and a separate one in Pennsylvania are completed, Bally’s will own 17 casinos in 11 states. The company also has 18 online sports betting licenses across the country.

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