What Happens in Vegas: A’s in Vegas

[G-Fafif]

Deal isn’t done until it’s done. From the Athletic…

The approval of baseball’s owners was long expected and moves the A’s a step closer to realizing the move, which is ultimately likely to happen. But the team’s exodus from Oakland isn’t finalized yet. Nevada’s legislature and governor have approved $380 million in funding, but a political action committee backed by teachers in the state is attempting to get the funding on a public ballot next November. Were that to happen, and were the public to subsequently vote against providing the money, the move could be, at the least, delayed.

The availability of public money is a major lure to owners, and is what led Fisher to pursue a stadium outside of Oakland, despite protests from the city’s mayor that similar funding could be arranged.

[Edgy MD]

"We're so proud to represent the people of Las Vegas, and look forward to sending our best talent to the Yankees, in the great tradition of the Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Oakland Athletics."

[metirish]

How many pro sports teams can LV absorb? I guess we will find out , sucks for Oakland

[stevejrogers]

How many pro sports teams can LV absorb? I guess we will find out , sucks for Oakland

To be fair, Golden Knights are an expansion franchise

[stevejrogers]

The "Tourists Will Go To the Games" argument is specious. E.g., I'm a Jets fan (sigh). I'm hoping to go to LV this November when the Jets play the Raiders. I'll travel to see the Mets but I doubt that I would go to a summer series in LV. Maybe the ballpark will be enclosed but you have to step into the 110-degree temperature at some point.

FWIW, transients/tourists might be more annoying there than Tampa/Miami have ever been.

I was down there for the Giants game vs the Raiders, and watched it from a heated outdoor pool amphitheater that was connected to a Freemont Street resort’s sports book.

The game was set to start after a game ended, rather than deferring to a home team’s fanbase. And it stayed in a couple of side screens while the Eagles vs Cowboys 4pm start took over the main big screen.

Yeah the Cowboys are “America’s Team” and probably consider the entire Southwest as their primary territory, and the game was against the top two NFC East teams while the Raiders had just made a coaching change, and the Giants are plain awful.

But still, one would have thought that you are in the city of an NFL team, they get preferential treatment on establishments’ bigger screens. Oh well.

Vegas bars and the like do push the idea that they are Raider Nation friendly though with window/wall decals, signs and the like.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I'd definitely go to an A's game vs. doing anything else in Vegas. It would be cool if they could somehow squeeze the stadium onto the strip (Flamingo is a possibility)

[Edgy MD]

I'd be surprised if the park, like so many latter-day attractions in the area, wasn't jiggered to make sure fans spent as much time indoors as possible.

I could foresee start times at 9:00 PM or even occasionally a midnight special, but that obviously wouldn't work when hosting an Eastern team.

But I really wish that they'd just establish their own team.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

would have been a perfect expansion city. But now that th A's have moved expansion can go on. That's why the owners approved

[ashie62]

"We're so proud to represent the people of Las Vegas, and look forward to sending our best talent to the Yankees, in the great tradition of the Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Oakland Athletics."

They did best the Mets in 1973

[Edgy MD]

Sure they did. They bested everybody.

And then they broke up a terrific team. A legendary team.

[metirish]

[Edgy MD]

Finished third, seventh, and out of the money, respectively, in Cy Young Award voting that season.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

The team’s new stadium in Las Vegas will not be ready until 2028, so the team will play at a rotating series of sites in 2025, ’26, and ’27. Per USA Today columnist Bob Nightengale, “They will play games in Summerlin, Nevada, home of the A’s Triple-A team; Oracle Park in San Francisco, where the San Francisco Giants play; and perhaps also the [Oakland] Coliseum.”

This is crazy! Three years of bouncing around? That can't be easy for the players and their families.

[Benjamin Grimm]

This article implies that the A's might not actually be welcome in Las Vegas. The city's mayor, at least, seems pretty opposed to the current plan.

Las Vegas Mayor To John Fisher: Maybe Try Staying In Oakland

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

She tried to walk back her remarks afterward but was pretty clear in the podcast if you listened to that. Not interested in the A's coming to the Flamigo site where they can get public money, happy for them to go outside of town and pay for it themselves.

[Edgy MD]

There are plenty of towns that need to bend over backwards with public financing to draw a team. Vegas isn't one of those.

[bmfc1]

Salt Lake City--you're on deck!

[Benjamin Grimm]

I've seen references to Salt Lake City, but find it hard to believe that it would be ahead of Nashville, not to mention Charlotte, Portland, Vancouver, and Montreal. I suppose it might be easier for the A's to get approval to move to a city in the West, so that divisions don't have to be realigned, but I would be surprised if they were strictly required to stay out West.

[bmfc1]

I mentioned SLC because of where it is as a place for the A's. IMO, Nashville is a front-runner for an expansion team.

[ashie62]

There has been talk of the A's to Sacramento

Sutter Health Field 10-14k capacity

Home of the Triple A River Dogs of the SF Giants brand

If this was 20 years ago they could play at Randall's Island

[Frayed Knot]

Sacramento, about 80 miles east and 40 degrees hotter (in the summer) than Oakland.
You'd want a domed stadium if a move there were to be permanent.

[Edgy MD]

If there's anythin' more ridiculous than proposed stadium mockups, it just might be mockups of proposed stadiums in Las Vegas. And the A's do not disappoint!!









It would be nice if somebody in contemporary America did something that wasn't entirely derivative.

[metirish]

Someone saw the Sydney Opera House and thought yeah that'll do

[metsmarathon]

i dunno, but i LOVE that scoreboard concept.

Pretty good skyline out the left field window. looks... familiar, like i've seen it before...

[dgwphotography]

Pretty good skyline out the left field window. looks... familiar, like i've seen it before...

That’s one of the hotels in Las Vegas.

When I went out there about 10-15 years ago for a conference, I went with a few of my colleagues who work in our office in Ohio. When we walked by that monstrosity, in of them asked me, isn’t that impressive? I just replied, Not when you regularly see the real thing.