Oakland A's to play in Sacramento for a few years while Las Vegas stadium is built

[KevFu]

I'm sure if not an outright swap, there's an ex-MiLB stadium that could take the aviators since they culled a huge number of teams a few years ago. Still sucks all around.

The minor league cut list was based on facilities. They cut the places with the worst facillties (although, how San Jose survived that, I have no idea).

But you put the Oakland Aviators in the Coliseum, and keep working on a ballpark plan for MLB to return via expansion.. OR if no one wants to buy in, a minor league park for the Aviators.


The big problem is that unlike the NHL/AHL western teams situation, the same guy doesn't own the A's and Aviators. The Aviators owner can probably find a place a lot more lucrative than Oakland, because Bay Area baseball fans aren't going to come out in droves for Triple A baseball.

(This by the way, is why I think it's just dumb that the big leagues don't just own/operate their own minor league teams and run everything themselves. You can have nicknames and brands stay with cities and to the fans, it appears as though the Oakland A's moved to Triple A and the Las Vegas Aviators became an MLB team).

 

[MMC]

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

The minor league cut list was based on facilities. They cut the places with the worst facillties (although, how San Jose survived that, I have no idea).

But you put the Oakland Aviators in the Coliseum, and keep working on a ballpark plan for MLB to return via expansion.. OR if no one wants to buy in, a minor league park for the Aviators.


The big problem is that unlike the NHL/AHL western teams situation, the same guy doesn't own the A's and Aviators. The Aviators owner can probably find a place a lot more lucrative than Oakland, because Bay Area baseball fans aren't going to come out in droves for Triple A baseball.

(This by the way, is why I think it's just dumb that the big leagues don't just own/operate their own minor league teams and run everything themselves. You can have nicknames and brands stay with cities and to the fans, it appears as though the Oakland A's moved to Triple A and the Las Vegas Aviators became an MLB team).

Can't imagine the Aviators owner has any appetite for moving.

They just opened a new stadium 3 years ago at a $150m cost

 

[KevFu]

Can't imagine the Aviators owner has any appetite for moving.

They just opened a new stadium 3 years ago at a $150m cost

Right, but how much money you going to make selling Triple A baseball when there's an MLB team 16 miles away?

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Right, but how much money you going to make selling Triple A baseball when there's an MLB team 16 miles away?

A good amount here. It's at a casino, and locals find any excuse possible to avoid the Strip.

Tons of families in Summerlin where the stadium is. They can do well that way as a low cost option

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

A’s have agreement to play at Las Vegas Ballpark

The Las Vegas A’s will have a temporary home in southern Nevada ahead of the construction of a billion-dollar baseball stadium west of the Las Vegas Strip, Dave Kaval, president of the Athlet…

www.8newsnow.com

The A's will be playing out of the MiLB stadium until the new stadium is finished. That means this is the last season in Oakland.

Attendance will be paltry in Las Vegas too for a few years as a result, given the whole oppressive desert heat, there's a reason the Raiders built a dome.

I would have preferred Las Vegas get an expansion team with a unique nickname like the Bonanza (with an overall Western theme), or Martians (with an outer space theme). Perhaps this can still happen if this can turn into a Browns/Ravens-like situation where the A's personnel moves to Vegas to form a brand new team, while the A's become dormant for a period, though it would be a while since MLB should expand to Montreal and Nashville next, and then when MLB expands to 40 teams, the A's would be reactivated. It's not unlike Seattle waiting now 15 years for the SuperSonics to come back.

Given how the A's are the last team still playing in Oakland the city should fight for this to happen.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Attendance will be paltry in Las Vegas too for a few years as a result, given the whole oppressive desert heat, there's a reason the Raiders built a dome.

I would have preferred Las Vegas get an expansion team with a unique nickname like the Bonanza (with an overall Western theme), or Martians (with an outer space theme). Perhaps this can still happen if this can turn into a Browns/Ravens-like situation where the A's personnel moves to Vegas to form a brand new team, while the A's become dormant for a period, though it would be a while since MLB should expand to Montreal and Nashville next, and then when MLB expands to 40 teams, the A's would be reactivated. It's not unlike Seattle waiting now 15 years for the SuperSonics to come back.

That won't keep people away from the temp stadium. The Aviators pull 10k a night

 

[LadyStanley]

Interestingly, this now makes the NHL the only league in the Big 4 that all the teams that have won a championship in the modern era are still located in the same market.

Sharks have never won a championship. NBA Warriors have. Giants have (relocated). 49ers have.

The minor league cut list was based on facilities. They cut the places with the worst facillties (although, how San Jose survived that, I have no idea).

They're A, not AAA/minor league just below MLB.

Can't imagine the Aviators owner has any appetite for moving.

They just opened a new stadium 3 years ago at a $150m cost

Affiliated with MLB Athletics. Howard Hughes Corp own's them, through subsidary. (They also set up Summerlin.)

Will the Las Vegas MLB team be called the A’s?

As it was announced that the Athletics organization would be making its move to southern Nevada, many baseball fans wondered if the team’s name would also be making a change.

www.8newsnow.com

No name change. (Retaining 122 years of history).

 

[End on a Hinote]

Sharks have never won a championship. NBA Warriors have. Giants have (relocated). 49ers have.

No I mean every team since the Original 6 era that has won the Cup is still playing in that market, unlike the other 3 leagues.

The Raiders and Rams won the Super Bowl when in LA and St. Louis and now they are in Vegas and LA, the Sonics won the NBA title in '79 and are in OKC now, and now the A's who won 9 World Series' are also now in Vegas. Where as every team that's won the Stanley Cup is still playing in that market.

 

[Headshot77]

Yeah the NHL is really good about keeping franchises "rooted", despite what people say about Bettman. I think it's because the cultural identity of the league is inexorably tied to Canadian cities that have been historically vulnerable.

The sports leagues that are all-american or mostly American DGAF and just chase the almighty dollar.

 

[BattleBorn]

It's hard to understand for the outside of Vegas people, but the owner of the AAA Aviators is basically a corporation that runs the "city" in which the Aviators' stadium is located and they have a vested interest in keeping the Aviators either alive or long term profitable even if the short term suffers. Likely via development of the Downtown Summerlin area which surrounds the Aviators' stadium.

All that to say that I not only expect the Aviators to stay in Las Vegas, but now that the veil has been lifted off Las Vegas as a potential baseball place outside of a few Cubs spring training games, I think Las Vegas is an attractive destination for east coast teams to have spring training and play games at a time that is closer to primetime than they do in general now.

Who knows? Little 3:05 Pacific start time might look alright to the team in spring training and their fans coming home at 6:05 on the Yeast Coast.

 

[ScoreZeGoals]

Oakland isn't getting an expansion team, period. To get a stadium built there will take most, if not all of it being privately financed. Any businessperson willing to both buy a franchise AND drop a billion on a stadium, isn't putting it in Oakland. The Warriors moved to San Fran because of all the better licensing, tech partnerships, surrounding businesses, etc.. If you want to make money in the Bay, Oakland is not where you put a massive investment.

Oakland has had decades to get these arena/stadium deals done, and at the end of the day their actions show they were fine just letting them all leave. Oakland is a dead market at the major pro team level, they are not getting another. Their best case scenario might be the WNBA

 

[sh724]

It's hard to understand for the outside of Vegas people, but the owner of the AAA Aviators is basically a corporation that runs the "city" in which the Aviators' stadium is located and they have a vested interest in keeping the Aviators either alive or long term profitable even if the short term suffers. Likely via development of the Downtown Summerlin area which surrounds the Aviators' stadium.

All that to say that I not only expect the Aviators to stay in Las Vegas, but now that the veil has been lifted off Las Vegas as a potential baseball place outside of a few Cubs spring training games, I think Las Vegas is an attractive destination for east coast teams to have spring training and play games at a time that is closer to primetime than they do in general now.

Who knows? Little 3:05 Pacific start time might look alright to the team in spring training and their fans coming home at 6:05 on the Yeast Coast.

Cleveland is the only eastern time zone team that is in the cactus league. The rest of the eastern time zone teams are in the grapefruit league. I dont forsee a team moving all of their spring facilities across the country so they can have a few games in primetime. This would result in fewer fans traveling to spring training.

If a team wanted their spring games later in the day they would just schedule them that way, ratings for spring training games are pretty bad and any extra tv revenues for a primetime game would be minimal.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

It's hard to understand for the outside of Vegas people, but the owner of the AAA Aviators is basically a corporation that runs the "city" in which the Aviators' stadium is located and they have a vested interest in keeping the Aviators either alive or long term profitable even if the short term suffers. Likely via development of the Downtown Summerlin area which surrounds the Aviators' stadium.

All that to say that I not only expect the Aviators to stay in Las Vegas, but now that the veil has been lifted off Las Vegas as a potential baseball place outside of a few Cubs spring training games, I think Las Vegas is an attractive destination for east coast teams to have spring training and play games at a time that is closer to primetime than they do in general now.

Who knows? Little 3:05 Pacific start time might look alright to the team in spring training and their fans coming home at 6:05 on the Yeast Coast.

No Cactus League team is going to leave the Phoenix Valley. The setup for everyone down there is perfect.

 

[Fenway]

 

[Fenway]

IMHO Vegas is really risky for MLB.

The core TV market would be the smallest of the 30 teams and as the Golden Knights discovered it is difficult to build an RSN there. VGK is looking for a new TV partner as AT&T Sportsnet Rocky Mountain is closing.

In Las Vegas, an uncertain local media future awaits the Athletics

The Oakland Athletics are heading to Las Vegas in the near future, and once they arrive, they'll need to sort out a local media partner.

awfulannouncing.com

Sacramento on paper is their best option as they could keep their existing RSN partner NBC Sports California and it is only 80 miles away from the Coliseum.

Rank	Market	TV Homes	Share
1	New York	7,726,580	6.242%
2	Los Angeles	5,838,090	4.716%
3	Chicago	3,624,820	2.928%
4	Philadelphia	3,108,960	2.512%
5	Dallas-Fort Worth	3,041,540	2.457%
6	Atlanta	2,679,850	2.165%
7	Houston	2,666,330	2.154%
8	Washington-Hagerstown	2,617,350	2.114%
9	Boston-Manchester	2,596,190	2.097%
10	San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose	2,593,210	2.095%
11	Phoenix-Prescott	2,138,870	1.728%
12	Seattle-Tacoma	2,116,440	1.710%
13	Tampa-St Petersburg-Sarasota	2,068,720	1.671%
14	Detroit	1,937,250	1.565%
15	Minneapolis-Saint Paul	1,839,480	1.486%
16	Denver	1,792,540	1.448%
17	Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne	1,775,140	1.434%
18	Miami-Fort Lauderdale	1,720,970	1.390%
19	Cleveland-Akron-Canton	1,552,420	1.254%
20	Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto	1,502,080	1.214%
21	Charlotte	1,323,400	1.069%
22	Portland, OR	1,293,400	1.045%
23	Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville	1,289,510	1.042%
24	Saint Louis	1,255,160	1.014%
25	Indianapolis	1,207,280	0.975%
26	Pittsburgh	1,174,940	0.949%
27	Nashville	1,168,540	0.944%
28	Baltimore	1,149,480	0.929%
29	Salt Lake City	1,148,120	0.928%
30	San Diego	1,107,010	0.894%
31	San Antonio	1,059,540	0.856%
32	Columbus, OH	1,023,600	0.827%
33	Kansas City	1,019,550	0.824%
34	Hartford-New Haven	1,014,160	0.819%
35	Austin	978,520	0.791%
36	Cincinnati	953,940	0.771%
37	Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson	947,350	0.765%
38	Milwaukee	900,200	0.727%
39	West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce	888,210	0.718%
40	Las Vegas	870,240	0.703%
41	Jacksonville	790,580	0.639%
42	Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek	781,030	0.631%
43	Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York	772,320	0.624%
44	Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News	772,190	0.624%
45	Birmingham-Anniston-Tuscaloosa	766,220	0.619%
46	Oklahoma City	743,340	0.601%
47	Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem	739,970	0.598%
48	Louisville	721,070	0.583%
49	Albuquerque-Santa Fe	720,750	0.582%
50	New Orleans	687,110	0.555%
51	Providence-New Bedford	663,900	0.536%
52	Memphis	644,360	0.521%
53	Fresno-Visalia	634,120	0.512%
54	Buffalo	632,110	0.511%
55	Fort Myers-Naples	618,120	0.499%

 

[MMC]

 

[Mightygoose]

Wouldn't that be something else if the bill doesn't pass along with a burned bridge in Oakland.

There would be a global egg shortage with the amounts on so many people's faces

 

[TheDanceOfMaternity]

As a native of the area I’m just wondering what the heck they are going to do with that area. Giant parking lot and two unused stadiums.

 

[tank44]

Right, but how much money you going to make selling Triple A baseball when there's an MLB team 16 miles away?

Vegas has both the NHL & AHL teams in the Vegas metro area so there is precedence for this exact thing

 

[ponder719]

Vegas has both the NHL & AHL teams in the Vegas metro area so there is precedence for this exact thing

The Phantoms were quite successful playing across the parking lot from the Flyers for many years. Attendance waned towards the end of their time, but even in their final (and worst) year there, they pulled the 6th-highest average attendance in the A, and probably could have kept going fine if it weren't for the demolition of the Spectrum and creation of Xfinity Live.

 

[LadyStanley]

Raiders owner Mark Davis blasts Oakland A's proposed move to Las Vegas

Las Vegas Raiders Mark Davis aired his grievances regarding the Oakland A's potential relocation to his city.

sports.yahoo.com

NFL Raiders owner recounts some if the things the A's ownership did in Oakland to help his team decide to relocate.

 

[KevFu]

Vegas has both the NHL & AHL teams in the Vegas metro area so there is precedence for this exact thing

The Henderson and Vegas Knights have the same owner; same as the San Jose Sharks and Barracuda. The NHL owners don't care if their AHL team makes very little money or loses it, it's still better for player development benefits.

But the Las Vegas Aviators owner is independent and HAD the top baseball team in the city, and now he won't. He gains nothing from the Las Vegas Athletics moving to town.

The last 16 or so Triple A teams in that position have moved when an MLB team arrived.


And I know you've got the St Paul Saints and Sugar Land Space Cowboys in Triple A now... but they were independent clubs that started DECADES after the MLB team was there (and in both cases, the minor league team LEFT when MLB showed up) and got "promoted" to Triple A in a "once in a lifetime" situation --

The pandemic hit as MLB was trying to reorganize the minors (based on facility quality). COVID canceled minor league baseball so MLB had taxi squads nearby. Those stadiums served as Taxi Squad sites for MIN and HOU. Houston was spearheading the Minor League Reorganization, and said "these facilities are nicer than some Triple A teams.... we never considered Independents in our reorganization."

Going from an Independent team to a Triple A team is a massive talent upgrade for a minor league team that found their niche in an MLB market. The St. Paul Saints started right between the Twins winning a World Series and the 1994 strike. They weren't competing, they were additional, and found a niche.


Do you think the Aviators are going to lose fans if the Athletics show up? And do you think the Aviators are going to lose fans if the Athletics build an air conditioned stadium?

 

[LadyStanley]

The Las Vegas A's? What we know (and don't know) about potential move from Oakland

Does buying land for a ballpark mean a move is official? What obstacles could get in the way? Here's our latest intel on the Athletics' future.

www.espn.com

ESPN speculation, and "what we know/don't"

 

[BattleBorn]

The Henderson and Vegas Knights have the same owner; same as the San Jose Sharks and Barracuda. The NHL owners don't care if their AHL team makes very little money or loses it, it's still better for player development benefits.

But the Las Vegas Aviators owner is independent and HAD the top baseball team in the city, and now he won't. He gains nothing from the Las Vegas Athletics moving to town.

The last 16 or so Triple A teams in that position have moved when an MLB team arrived.


And I know you've got the St Paul Saints and Sugar Land Space Cowboys in Triple A now... but they were independent clubs that started DECADES after the MLB team was there (and in both cases, the minor league team LEFT when MLB showed up) and got "promoted" to Triple A in a "once in a lifetime" situation --

The pandemic hit as MLB was trying to reorganize the minors (based on facility quality). COVID canceled minor league baseball so MLB had taxi squads nearby. Those stadiums served as Taxi Squad sites for MIN and HOU. Houston was spearheading the Minor League Reorganization, and said "these facilities are nicer than some Triple A teams.... we never considered Independents in our reorganization."

Going from an Independent team to a Triple A team is a massive talent upgrade for a minor league team that found their niche in an MLB market. The St. Paul Saints started right between the Twins winning a World Series and the 1994 strike. They weren't competing, they were additional, and found a niche.


Do you think the Aviators are going to lose fans if the Athletics show up? And do you think the Aviators are going to lose fans if the Athletics build an air conditioned stadium?

I don’t think the owners of the Aviators have the same goals as many of the owners of other AAA teams. I mentioned it earlier, but the corporate owner of the Aviators is also the development company for the Summerlin community.

Much like them locating the VGK practice facility in Downtown Summerlin, I think they’ll be happy having the Athletics players and staff practicing/living in the area and consider it a win if they can get a few thousand people in the DTS area.

Much like Las Vegas makes sense for sports and public funding of sports facilities because it brings people into town/more business for LV’s main industry, Las Vegas Ballpark and the Aviators bring people to Summerlin and add value to Summerlin’s land values for future clients of Howard Hughes corporation and maintain the value of the area for current Summerlin residents.

In my mind, the Las Vegas Aviators are pretty much a publicly owned team.