The Athletics organization has begun construction on a new baseball stadium in Las Vegas, which has opened the door for new investors like former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park.
The Athletics are in a period of transition, as they are in the midst of their first season away from Oakland. They are temporarily playing at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento while their Las Vegas baseball stadium is being built.
In search of more financial capital to support their move and stadium construction cost, the organization has found two new investors in the form of Park and South Korean boy band member Suga.
According to Jong-Kwan Park of The Korea Economic Daily, Park and Suga have acquired a minority stake of the A’s franchise in exchange for their financial contributions:
They are joining a $70 million fund to support the franchise’s relocation to Las Vegas from Oakland, California and the construction of a new stadium, a $1.75 billion project to give the team a fresh start, according to investment banking sources on Friday.
They will acquire new shares in the team to secure approximately a 2-3% stake.
The Athletics officially broke ground for their new stadium in Las Vegas on June 23. It will be located at the site of the former Tropicana hotel. It will hold a capacity of 33,000 fans and be fully enclosed by a roof.
The ballpark is expected to be open for the start of the 2028 season. It is being built on a 36-acre lot that will also house a future hotel resort and entertainment complex.
Chan Ho Park’s career
Park played professional baseball for 19 years, including 17 seasons in MLB. He signed with the Dodgers in 1994 as an amateur free agent and made his Major League debut that same year against the Atlanta Braves as a reliever.
But his first couple of stints in the Majors didn’t last very long, as Park made four total appearances during his first two seasons in the Dodgers organization.
Park played his first full season with the Dodgers in 1996. He ended up spending the first eight years of his MLB career with the Dodgers before signing a five-year, $65 million contract with the Texas Rangers.
After spending parts of four seasons with the Rangers, Park had brief stints with the San Diego Padres and New York Mets before his second go-round with the Dodgers in 2008. During his 17-year career, he played in the Majors for seven different organizations. But the Athletics were not one of them.
Park played the final two seasons of his career in Japan’s NPB and South Korea’s KBO, spending one season in each league.
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