Baseball fans in Las Vegas will get a sneak peek of what it’s like to host the Oakland A’s this weekend.
The A’s are traveling to Vegas once again as part of their spring training schedule and will play the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night and Saturday afternoon in a pair of games at Las Vegas Ballpark. Plenty of tickets remain.
The 10,000-capacity stadium plays home to the Aviators, the Triple-A affiliate of the A’s, and was once considered a potential landing spot for the A’s before their new ballpark in Vegas is ready in 2028.
But plans change quickly. Much has already changed with the A’s this year. Here’s where things stand:
On those Las Vegas ballpark renderings
The A’s finally released renderings for their proposed ballpark this week, and while the pictures of what the A’s are calling a “spherical armadillo” are quite pretty, there were several questions that immediately came into play.
There are no bullpens or batter’s eye, and the giant window behind the outfield could present problems for the players. There’s only enough parking for 2,500 cars despite the stadium holding as many as 33,000 people. And it’s all to be built on nine acres of land at the site of the Tropicana, owned by Bally’s, alongside a brand-new resort.
David Samson, the former president of the Montreal Expos and Florida Marlins who was involved with relocation efforts for both teams, was not impressed. He said the renderings weren’t particularly realistic.
“Renderings are certainly not construction documents,” he said by phone this week. “I think we’re all waiting to see the public agreements that get signed between the A’s and the public entities in Nevada, and the agreement between them and Bally’s, how that’s going to work. I think nine acres is tight. Not that it’s not doable but it’s tight.”
Samson is skeptical of the timing the A’s have to work with. When the Marlins built a new park in Miami in 2012, it took 36 months of construction.
“Before that, you need a year to get those documents in order,” he said.
The A’s have yet to reveal any construction documents that would be publicly available once finalized.
The A’s chose to go with a fixed roof rather than a retractable roof, which couldn’t have fit on nine acres.
The Tropicana hotel will close on April 2 as the site is prepared for construction. The idea that the Vegas ballpark could open in 2028 might be a stretch, Samson said.
“Time is an issue,” he said.
Where’s the money coming from?
While Nevada approved $350 million of public funding for the new ballpark, obstacles to the A’s getting that funding remain.
Schools Over Stadiums, a political action group formed by a teachers’ union in Nevada, is still waiting to hear from the state’s supreme court about language in a petition that could put the public funding on the ballot in November. The teachers had hoped to begin collecting signatures this month and turn them in by June.
“We need a good three months,” spokesperson Alex Marks said recently.
There’s a stadium authority meeting planned for March 21, when the teachers are considering filing an injunction to ask the courts to put a pause on the funding.
As for the remaining money of the $1.5 billion expected cost of the new ballpark, A’s owner John Fisher told the San Francisco Chronicle this week that $200 million will be debt, $500 million will be provided by Fisher and $500 million would come from investors who have not yet been determined.
What’s the latest on the Coliseum?
The A’s lease at the Coliseum will expire after the 2024 season and the A’s are still unsure where they’d play after that. Triple-A ballparks in Sacramento and Salt Lake City are being considered.
The A’s will have a second meeting with local officials on March 14 to continue negotiating a potential lease extension, and both sides are “exploring all options,” said one official.
The Coliseum has since taken down its “Rooted in Oakland” signage.
This Friday, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority has a special board meeting in which the topic of the Oakland Roots playing at the Coliseum will be discussed.
The A’s have also started talking with the African-American Sports and Entertainment Group about selling the team’s half of the Coliseum property.
What are A’s fans doing?
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After the smashing success of Fans Fest, a fan-created festival at Jack London Square two weekends ago, fans have turned their attention to a boycott of Opening Day on March 28. They plan to meet in the parking lot and tailgate, but not buy tickets to attend the game.
As for Fans Fest, Samson said other MLB teams would have a right to be upset that the A’s are continuously putting in little effort to connect with their fanbase, particularly when there’s revenue at stake. He said big-market teams would get frustrated with revenue sharing recipients if they aren’t trying hard enough to make their own revenue.
“I was surprised the A’s didn’t have their own fan fest, especially given all the negative attention happening in Oakland,” Samson said. “There would be ways to do it. Being a little more understanding of what the fans are going through and trying to let it be known that even if it’s one more year, three more years, 20 more years, what matters is now. And it seems as though it’s not the path that’s being taken.”