What Happens in Vegas: A’s in Vegas

[G-Fafif]

Going, going…

The Oakland Athletics have zeroed in on Southern Nevada, signing a binding purchase agreement for land just west of the Strip where a major-league ballpark could be constructed.

The agreement is for 49 acres at Dean Martin Drive and Tropicana Avenue, owned by Red Rock Resorts, parent company of Station Casinos.

“For a while we were on parallel paths (with Oakland), but we have turned our attention to Las Vegas to get a deal here for the A’s and find a long-term home,” A’s President Dave Kaval told the Review-Journal on Wednesday. “Oakland has been a great home for us for over 50 years, but we really need this 20-year saga completed and we feel there’s a path here in Southern Nevada to do that.”

With the announcement of the purchase agreement, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred concurs with Kaval and hopes the A’s shifting their efforts solely to Southern Nevada will lead to the end of the team’s yearslong quest to leave crumbling Oakland Coliseum.
“We support the A’s turning their focus on Las Vegas and look forward to them bringing finality to this process by the end of the year,” Manfred said in a statement provided to the Review-Journal.

The deal is for the land only, with the A’s having an option to purchase an additional 8 acres at a later date. Kaval said a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat, partially retractable roof stadium would be built on the site, and that ancillary development, including but not limited to food and beverage establishments and even an amphitheater, are also in the cards.

https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/at ... e-2764701/

[Benjamin Grimm]

Southern Nevada is a potential retirement destination for me, so from a selfish perspective, this would mean that the Mets would come visit me every other year.

[Edgy MD]

They got beat up by the Cubs last night, 12-2, dropping their record to 3-16, and now they've got to play out the season with a bad team and the absence of a future looking like a fait accompli.

The marketing department is gonna be like, "I don't know ... maybe we can do Bring-Your-Fiddle-to-the-Ballpark Night? Maybe that will get them out?"

"Here's a slogan! The 2023 A's! Come Bring Your Drifters to See Our Drifters!"

[Benjamin Grimm]

I wonder if they'll try to arrange to have some home games moved to Las Vegas next season?

[kcmets]

What's my wife's niece's husband called to me? My nephew in-law? Anyways
my nephew-in-law and teen kids are big A's fans. They go to a dozen games a
year and travel to other cities out west to see them too. He's been pretty much
resigned to the fact that Oakland won't last forever but I imagine with the writing
now on the wall he's pretty bummed about this.

[MFS62]

Dean Martin Drive and Tropicana Avenue,

This must be what happens when you mix Scotch and Orange Juice.
Later

[metirish]

[vtmet7]

I thought that Oakland colliseum still looks cool...makes me feel like it's 1973 all over again...I think that the A's should be forced to stay there forever...nothing that Orkin and RotoRouter can't fix...

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

I thought that Oakland colliseum still looks cool...makes me feel like it's 1973 all over again...I think that the A's should be forced to stay there forever...nothing that Orkin and RotoRouter can't fix...

Nothing that a wrecking ball can't fix! It's a multipurpose disaster with crazy foul territory and a monstrosity in center field that was created to serve a football team that no longer plays there! I'm usually all in on preserving older stadiums, but this one is a disaster.

[Edgy MD]

I'm not sure what makes a lot of foul territory disastrous (to me, it means more baseball), or what makes an upper-deck grandstand necessarily disqualifying. (It's not like there aren't plenty of other available seats if you don't want to sit there.)

As with Shea and any number of buildings, once you get committed to the idea that a building must be replaced, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, even if the prophecy takes 20 years to play out. If you regard a place as a dump, and tell folks it's a dump, it becomes a dump.

[Centerfield]

As with Shea and any number of buildings, once you get committed to the idea that a building must be replaced, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, even if the prophecy takes 20 years to play out. If you regard a place as a dump, and tell folks it's a dump, it becomes a dump.

Especially when you take affirmative steps to dumpify it.

Gotta give kudos to a top notch thread title here.

[kcmets]

I've never been there, but on television I think the field and stands look
appealing enough. Pretty grass and stuff don't sell tickets of course but
invoking disaster twice and a wrecking ball seems a little overdone.

[metirish]

I guess we were lucky to see and hear them

[Benjamin Grimm]

Those fans have got to be so discouraged.

Attendance is going to drop even lower than it's been. The A's will more and more play in front of fans of the visiting team.

When they get to Las Vegas, they can have Rat Pack races, with runners in big-head costumes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Joey Bishop.

[kcmets]

When they get to Las Vegas, they can have Rat Pack races, with runners in big-head costumes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Joey Bishop.

That's pretty funny!

[batmagadanleadoff]

I'm not sure what makes a lot of foul territory disastrous....

Me neither. In fact, I think it's a great and unique feature, by now, closely associated with the franchise's identity. It adds variety to the game.
I especially dont understand why the foul territory or the grandstands would be reason to relocate. Wouldn't it be a lot easier to simply add field level seats if the foul territory was so problematic? Talk about burning down a house to kill one mosquito. Sheesh.

[Frayed Knot]

Maybe the biggest shame in all this, at least beyond the one where the A's fans were an enthusiastic lot even if not the most numerous, is that Oakland itself seems like it's a city
on the rise following a loooong down period. Another is that the team put in a long and honest effort to stay but were shot down numerous times and at numerous locations, mainly,
according to various stuff I've read over the years, though NIMBY-ism. Now I don't know enough about the city or about the deals offered to say whether the NIMBY-ists were correct
in rejecting whatever terms they were offered. Maybe they were all the usual assortment of promises and hyped jobs projections, I dunno.

As for Vegas, I've long been skeptical about baseball & Vegas and it has nothing to do with the gambling angle. Vegas just strikes me as a very transient town, people are mostly
all from somewhere else so to what degree are they even going to embrace their own team, especially when it's someone else's reject. And the out of town visiter coming to LV is
going there for conventions and the nightlife, not a lot of time leftover for baseball. It's an event town: prize fights, they're getting the next Super Bowl, that sort of thing while
baseball needs an everyday audience and I'm not sure how good a fit it'll be.

But maybe I'm way off too. Looks like we're going to find out.

[vtmet7]

I thought that Oakland colliseum still looks cool...makes me feel like it's 1973 all over again...I think that the A's should be forced to stay there forever...nothing that Orkin and RotoRouter can't fix...

Nothing that a wrecking ball can't fix! It's a multipurpose disaster with crazy foul territory and a monstrosity in center field that was created to serve a football team that no longer plays there! I'm usually all in on preserving older stadiums, but this one is a disaster.

yeah, I was just joking...it is a good looking stadium from tv, not very different from the tv point of view that something like Dodger Stadium or the old San Francisco stadium looked like...but I have heard so many stories over the years about how much of a shit hole the behind the scenes stadium looks (sewage backing up into the visitor dugout, etc)...

I read a story a few years back that said something along the lines of when the Giants wanted to build the new stadium, they were putting it within Oakland's sweet zone of territorial control...The A's waived their territorial control to allow the Giants to build the stadium where it currently is...and then when the A's wanted to move to San Jose, which is a nicer area than Oakland; the Giants pulled the territorial control card and blocked the A's even though the A's were generous when the Giants needed the same favor...

also the A's like the Raiders are a nomad team that has played in several cities...does it really matter if they move again? They don't make money in Oakland, like they didn't in KC either...

[bmfc1]

So the team plays for 3 years in Oakland as lame ducks?

[vtmet7]

So the team plays for 3 years in Oakland as lame ducks?

they could move to Montreal for 3 years, if they wanted to...I'd imagine that they could draw as much interest in Montreal as they do in Oakland...

[Benjamin Grimm]

I think they'll play in Oakland through next year and then in the existing minor league park in Vegas until the new stadium is ready.

[Frayed Knot]

The other thing that suxx for Oakland is that they've just had their NFL & NBA teams leave in just the last few years (to Vegas and SF).

Maybe it's time to revive the NHL's California Golden Seals (complete with white ice skates). They'd have the city's sports interest all to themselves.

[Edgy MD]

Of course it matters if they move again. That's why they're moving.

[vtmet7]

I think they'll play in Oakland through next year and then in the existing minor league park in Vegas until the new stadium is ready.

They built that AAA stadium in a year, they are used to quick construction in Vegas, so they could conceivably build a MLB stadium in record time...

But also to back up what you said. The best crowd at AAA Vegas is over 12000 fans... Oakland hasn't come close to averaging that in the past 2 seasons, so would it be a big downgrade in attendance? The stadium is a nice place with good outfield dimensions, so it's conceivable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_Ballpark

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

I totally missed that you were kidding! Oops.