Article: The Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas has been approved by MLB owners, AP sources says

from a fan development standpoint it makes ZERO sense to have the team play in a AAA stadium in Salt Lake City for a couple years vs. the perfectly fine AAA stadium in Las Vegas.

it's a really bad decision if they're actually considering it. you already have a city that's lukewarm about the move as it is. you need to start developing real and actual fans. if you think you're going to fill the stadium strictly on tourists you're mistaken. this isn't the NFL.

 

Could be a "bait & switch..." SLC gets the team
in the door for a few intermediate seasons, then if something falls apart in Vegas, the team stays in SLC..

 

Headache is spot on. There is this build-anything-and-they-will-come mentality to all things Vegas. Mostly it works. But 81 home games in a 43,000-capacity stadium (simply using the MLB average) isn't like the relative handful of games with the most popular sport that would fill even if the games were doubled in number.

Add: SLC makes a lot more sense, to me, as the permanent home.

 

Every article I read last year quoted a seating capacity of about 31,000, which would be the smallest in MLB. Sounds like they are not interested in having a bunch of 'cheap' seats for the locals. They want the more expensive seats they expect the tourists to buy (or get as perks from casinos). If the goal is just to have another tourist attraction in a town full of them, I can see why locals aren't thrilled with the prospect. How many locals will pony up for an 81 season ticket package if none are moderately priced? The team better get good fast.
Some teams' fans will be excited about planning trips and 'travel well' (Cubs, Red Sox, etc); others wouldn't cross the street in their own town (Rays, even when good).
That novelty will wear off. There will be empty seats.
The location of the stadium proves which fan base they are angling for: the visiting team, not newfound A's fans.

 

Still a lot of tickets assuming X visitors from Milwaukee just happen to be in town and are dying to buy up 20k+ when the Brewers are playing the hapless A's. Football fans travel for their teams. CFB fans travel for their teams.

 

The A's average attendance last year was 10,000, the bottom of MLB by far. Ain't gonna be to hard to beat that.

 

It's not about "beat that." It's about profitability and sustainability. Being able to tread water for 10 minutes is great, unless help is 15 minutes away.

 

And the Brewers would play three gamers there every year, with an even money chance that the series would be in the dead of summer.

Maybe I'll go to watch the Brewers play once in a while, but I am sure I wouldn't schedule a trip around it (a real life example... in 2022 my wife and I scheduled a trip to Washington DC. The Brewers were playing Opening Day in Baltimore while we were there. I never really considered going to that game).

Comparing it to the NFL... The Packers will play in Vegas once every four years, and a good chance the weather will be great in Vegas while its 40 degrees and raining sideways in Wisconsin. If one can afford the ticket, Packers fans will flock to Vegas every four years.

 

you can still have the venue on The Strip while angling for local fans. The Knights are a perfect example of this.

even at 31k - it would immediately become the second largest venue on or near the Strip, trailing only Allegiant. that's a lot of butts to put in seats.

The Mets have the biggest traveling fan club in MLB with the 7 Line Army - and their road trips typically tap out at around 1,000 fans.

It's also different in that baseball plays mostly 3 game series' vs. the one game at a time that the NFL, NBA or NHL would play. it's easier to plan a trip for one game vs. three. those tuesday to thursday series'... of which the Thursday game is almost always a day game to help with travel... are going to be empty.

Undoubtedly they'll have a decent walk up crowd for every game - but there's no way they're going to fill that place without appealing to the local audience - which is why playing games in SLC for a couple of years would be a mind-numbingly stupid idea.

it's not crazy to think that the SLC negotiations and talk of the A's playing there for a few years is simply a cover for a plan b - just in case the Vegas plans fall through. but yea - playing in SLC for 2 to 3 years would be dumb.

 

Every eight years

 

Las Vegas mayor throwing shade on the entire project. Doesn't like the Trop site and says the A's better off staying in Oakland. Wow! I guess she walked back those comments later, but didn't seem like a ringing endorsement.

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39472102/las-vegas-mayor-says-athletics-pitch-new-plan-bay-area

 

I think Goodman walked back those comments. She doesn't like the Tropicana site. It would be news to the owners of the Trop, considering they've set dates to close the place down for implosion.

 

Not her call, since it isn't even in Las Vegas!

 

Besides, the city of Oakland doesn't care about the A's. They have far bigger problems.

 

Portland A's.

 

While it's possible Mayor Goodman was talking out of the bottle, she's pretty much right on this one.

Things went quite smoothly with the VGK expansion and Raiders move. The A's situation is more debacle than divine.

MLB seems to want-in the Vegas market. So why would Vegas take the lowly A's? Why would they want Fisher? An expansion team would be their very own. So what if it takes a couple more years.

I don't think the A's to Vegas is a sure thing. And there's rarely a sure thing in Vegas.

 

Have they discussed that? Portland fans are pretty faithful to the Trailblazers, but could easily fit in a baseball team. Personally, I hate the idea because I really want to go to a three-game series some week in the summer and stay at Mandalay Bay, walk across the street and be entertained.

 

A new group is trying to pivot away from the idiocy of the Lloyd Center site to Red Tail Golf Center in Beaverton. (As in so many things Portland, GTF away from the city and Mult County is a motivator.) In either situation, traffic as much as anything is the stumbling block,

 

welp...