Elephant Rumblings: Nevada governor finally speaks on A’s

A very merry Thursday morning, AN!

Late last night, journalist Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal posted an interesting quote from former sheriff and newly-elected Nevada governor Joe Lombardo regarding public funding of potential stadiums in the state:

Soon after that, however, was another statement from Lombardo’s “team” that seeked to clarify the governor’s earlier words:

The key words in that second statement was a refusal to “raise state taxes”, but didn’t rule out the use of “existing” development programs the state has for projects, such as a potential stadium for the Oakland Athletics, who were specifically name-dropped in that second release.

Remember, Nevada’s previous governor Steve Sisolak, who Lombardo just beat in November to lead the Silver State, was very vocal about not spending a dime of public funds to help multi-billionaire John Fischer build in Las Vegas, but Lombardo has been much more coy on the subject and hadn’t made his feelings on the subject known. Until last night, that is.

It seems like Lombardo’s team felt that he put his foot in his mouth in that first quote when he ruled out the possibility of tax-payer funds for a stadium, then in the written statement tried adding that caveat about “existing” programs, which would essentially use taxpayer money for just that. Still, because the first part was a direct quote from the governor, it feels like that position is more in line with how he personally feels, but that he wants to keep the door open to changing his mind just in case.

If Nevada refuses to fork over public funds to help Fischer finally build the A’s their forever home, then Oakland’s chances of keeping their Green & Gold definitely shoots up. We’ll see if Lombardo eventually reverses course or sticks to his guns -pun intended-.

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