MLB News: Nevada high court rejects referendum on funding for Oakland Athletics’ new stadium

As the Oakland Athletics continue their plans to build a new stadium in Las Vegas and move the franchise there, they received some good news from the Nevada Supreme Court on Monday. A group called "Schools Over Stadiums" came up with the initiative to stop taxpayers' money from being used to build the new baseball stadium.

However, the supreme court ruled against the referendum, meaning that all signatures collected will be negated and it will not be placed to a vote in the state's November ballot.

Last year, Nevada's legislature passed a bill that gave the Clark County Stadium Authority the green light to build a new baseball stadium, which would be the new home of the Oakland Athletics. While the stadium will cost a total of around $1.5 billion to build, the bill allows for $380 million of that to be paid by taxpayers' dollars.

Hence, Schools Over Stadiums came into being in June last year, opposing the use of taxpayer's dollars for a stadium while their schools rank 48th in pupil funding. After the court's decision, the justices explained that the referendum was rejected for two reasons.

First, any referendum petition should contain a full text of what is being proposed, so that anyone who signs knows exactly what they are signing. Second, the court ruled that the referendum did not properly describe what it would do; it was too general and lacked details. Due to these two factors, the referendum was denied for the November ballot, but Schools Over Stadiums is still unwilling to give up.

School Over Stadiums vows to refile their petition against Oakland Athletics' new stadium in 2026

Oakland Athletics are currently planning to temporarily move to Sacramento, California, for the next three years while they build their stadium. The MLB team will move from their current stadium in 2025 and hope to have their new stadium in Las Vegas ready by 2028. However, the group protesting the use of taxpayer money has vowed to refile their petition.

Speaking after the court's decision on Monday, Alexander Marks of the Nevada State Education Association said:

“With this guidance, Schools Over Stadiums plans to refile our petition next year and win in 2026. Nevada voters deserve the opportunity to decide where their money goes.”

While the Oakland Athletics' project has caused a major rift among MLB fans across the country, it remains to be seen what other challenges they will face in the future. As of now, their plans remain unchanged as they push for the move to Las Vegas.