The Athletics celebrated groundbreaking of a $1.75 billion ballpark project in Las Vegas last month, but the future of the franchise remains uncertain.Mounds of dirt, construction vehicles and a sign pointing to the exact location of where home plate will be served as the backdrop on June 23 as owner John Fisher shared his bold message.The Athletics broke ground in Las Vegas during a ceremony in JuneGettyPlans have been laid out for a $1.75bn ballpark that might never be builtGetty“We are Vegas’ team,” he told the crowd gathered on the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard.Indeed, it appeared that last month, the A’s took a big step toward their next chapter in Southern Nevada.The historic franchise dates all the way back to 1901, when owner Connie Mack founded the Philadelphia Athletics of the American Baseball League.Five decades on from that, the club moved to Kansas City in 1955 for 13 seasons.The Athletics then went out west, to Oakland, where they played for 57 seasons before temporarily relocating to West Sacramento in 2025.Now, though, they are set to make a 545 mile move to the Vegas strip, holding hopes that a new ballpark will be finished in time for Opening Day 2028.There’s a chance, though, that the facility may never be built.A’s Vegas stadium plan questioned by experts A report from The Guardian, published on July 2, described the A’s potential relocation as a ‘debacle in the desert’.Baseball journalist David Lengel wrote that owner Fisher is ‘way short’ of funding for the project that is already becoming a money pit.“It’s unclear what the endgame of John Fisher is,” JC Bradbury, an economist who studies the financing of sports venues, told The Guardian.Fisher’s decision to move the A’s away from Oakland has been criticizedGetty“Whether he miscalculated, doesn’t understand, doesn’t care about money, or there’s something I’m just totally missing in all of this.”The new A’s facility is set to be built on nine acres of a 36-acre lot where the Tropicana Hotel once stood, and will hold a capacity of 33,000 fans.Plans suggest it will feature the closest seats to home plate and the smallest foul territory of any MLB ballpark, while the building will be fully enclosed by a roof.From home plate, the see-through dome will offer views of the Vegas Strip, with the famous MGM Grand in clear sight beyond the outfield.How much will the new stadium cost to build?While exciting, it’s set to cost a lot of money, and it’s estimated construction prices have jumped from $1.5bn to the $1.75bn figure in just six months.Fisher has admitted the cost could rise yet again to $2bn, and according Lengel, he is ‘on the hook for all overruns’ and has not surpassed the $100m he must spend on the park to unlock $380m in public dollars toward the build.The A’s hope their new stadium will be built on the Las Vegas StripGettyThe team are currently playing in Sacramento on a temporary basisGettyPlans for The A’s new ballpark are spectacular, but in danger of failingX: AthelticsLengel wrote of the project: “Fisher is short — way short — and that will mean digging deep into his own pockets and risking his family wealth for a project that makes little fiscal sense to anyone analyzing in good faith.”Bradbury, meanwhile, argued that the A’s owner is a ‘dead man walking’ and could be bailed out — but not by Vegas.“Fisher has to realize he’s a dead man walking. And he is sort of trying to play out the string to save as much face as he can,” Bradbury said.“What’s eventually going to happen is someone will come in and be the savior. And that may involve not being in Las Vegas.” Plans for the new billion-dollar ballpark certainly look impressive, but it appears there are plenty who question if it can actually be built.After five decades in Oakland, where the A’s played for 56 years at the now-dilapidated Coliseum, the future of the franchise is far from clear.