Las Vegas A's?

[Dan Druff]

I've long contended that an MLB team isn't coming to Vegas, because there are several problems:

1) The population isn't big enough to fill a baseball stadium (much bigger than a hockey/NBA area) for 81 games per year.

2) The TV market is small. Many don't realize that Vegas is incredibly isolated. There's basically no population in outlying areas for 100 miles in all directions. The closest city of any consequence is St. George, UT, which is 120 miles northeast. So your entire market is basically Vegas/Henderson/North LV/Boulder City. And that's it.

3) The number of tourists coming into town to see their home team play in Vegas will be minimal, aside from close teams such as the Dodgers, Angels, Padres, and Diamondbacks. This is different from the NFL, where there are very few games per season, so people are more likely to plan trips around their team being in Vegas.


Despite that, it looks like an MLB team might come to Vegas anyway. Presumably they're excited by the success of the Golden Knights (which Vegas people loved both because it was their first major pro team, plus the team was immediately good) and the Raiders (first "big 3" sport to come, plus it's easy to fill stadium with just 8 home games.)

The Oakland A's, long battling a lousy stadium, lousy area, and lousy fan support, are seriously considering moving to Vegas.

Team officials came to Vegas this month, and claim they will finalize a list of 10-12 potential sites for the new Las Vegas A's stadium by November: https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports...ember-2442670/


So is this a done deal? Not yet. The A's want to stay in Oakland, but only if they can have a new waterfront stadium, supported by a new proposed tax which would fund major infrastructure improvements around that new stadium. If the A's get this from special tax approved, and if their new stadium gets the green light, they will stay in Oakland.

However, they claim they will likely decide by the end of 2021 if a move to Vegas is coming. It does appear that Vegas is their only desired new location, so if the Oakland ballpark falls through, you'll be saying hello to the Las Vegas A's very soon.

Sadly, being an AL team, the Dodgers won't be playing them very often. I think it would be better to move the Rockies over to the AL West, and put the Vegas A's in the NL West, given that fans from Phoenix, San Diego, and Los Angeles are all roughly 300 miles from Vegas.

1. The population has almost doubled in the last 25yrs. 660k and just cracked the top 30 metro population in the country. Plenty big enough. Oh and MLB teams don't "fill their stadiums" for regular season games. They operate at 50% capacity if they are lucky, much lower if they are not. They don't need to pack 45k into a stadium nightly to be successful. I would bet my ass this would be a smaller 35-40k stadium anyway since that is what the trend is now.

2. Most local TV markets derive their viewers from far less than 100 miles away. There aren't many fans of teams 100miles outside of market unless it is a NY or LA or Chicago.

3. Sports teams don't give a shit about tourists they get all their revenue from season tickets, the rest is just filler. And they will sell a metric ton of them right out of the gate. You seem to think that Vegas is still a desert tourist destination only when in 2023 that is not true anymore. I personally know 3 people who grew up here on East Coast and have been in Vegas for 15-20 yrs now raising a family. It's not the 90's anymore, lots of people have been laying down roots over last 20 yrs.

The metro area is not large. That's the problem. 100 miles away? You leave the immediate area of Vegas, and there's just empty desert.

The pool of people potentially going to the games and watching it on TV just simply is not large enough to justify a MLB team there. The tourists are the only ones who could make up for the attendance issue (like how the Rockies draw well when the Dodgers are in town), but for reasons already stated, I don't think that's going to make a large impact.