What Happens in Vegas: A’s in Vegas

[Frayed Knot]

I've long been wary of sports teams in Vegas, not because of the gambling angle (at least not solely) but because of some of the issues brought up here. Las Vegas is an

'Event' town: prize fights, Super Bowls, conventions, etc. are made for that place. It's also a transient town, I mean is anyone actually from Vegas? It's a growing city

for sure so that question is less a joke than it used to be but, still, on any given day at least half the population has got to be just visiting there from somewhere else and

are going to be gone is a couple days, something that doesn't tend to lend itself to an everyday sport like baseball which depends on the existence of a hometown crowd.

Altering your start times from the norm to play into the idea that baseball is a mere sideshow just seems to acknowledge that fact.



Now maybe if I were following hockey more closely I'd rethink all this as I haven't heard that the NHL's Golden Knights are having issues although they've also enjoyed

unprecedented success right out of the expansion gate to the point where they're currently two wins away from winning Lord Stanley's trophy which is too ridiculous for

my mind to contemplate and I'm not even Canadian. I mean, how do you feel as a Maple Leafs fan when your last SC dates back to before the elder Trudeau was

Prime Minister and now here's some team from the American desert about to win the cup in their (3rd, 4th?) year of existence, and against another sun belt team to boot?

[bmfc1]

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.

[Benjamin Grimm]

If I end up retiring to the Vegas area, which is quite possible, I'll go see the Mets play the A's when they come to town every other year. But I doubt I'd attend any other games and I'm not going to become an A's fan.



There are people who switch their allegiances when they move to a new area. I have a childhood friend who grew up a Mets fan but then switched to the Marlins when he moved to Florida and then to the Braves when he moved to Georgia.



I don't do that.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I'd take in an A's game were I visiting for a convention. Why not?

[Frayed Knot]

I wondered about that whole fan allegiance thing as I watch clips of fans in the stands wearing their Golden Knights jerseys going mad over their team.

Who are these people? New hockey fans? Transplanted Canadians or other longtime fans who adopted the GKs upon moving to LV?

Total non-hockey fans who are riding the wave both of LV getting their first top-level professional sports team and of that team's

immediate success? Bandwagon jumpers who'll be gone at the first speed bump?

[Edgy MD]

The odd and ironic thing is that Vegas has become a real family town.



For better or worse.

[Fman99]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: If I end up retiring to the Vegas area, which is quite possible, I'll go see the Mets play the A's when they come to town every other year. But I doubt I'd attend any other games and I'm not going to become an A's fan. There are people who switch their allegiances when they move to a new area. I have a childhood friend who grew up a Mets fan but then switched to the Marlins when he moved to Florida and then to the Braves when he moved to Georgia. I don't do that.

My uncle has done that, grew up a Yankees fan in Queens (pre 1962, so Queens was a toss up between any of the 3 NY teams back then), then became a Sox fan in the 1970s when he moved to Acton, and now an Orioles fan as he's been in Ellicott City MD since the mid 1990s. I guess if you're just a casual fan you can keep your local ties and have it be OK. It seems alien to me personally.

[Edgy MD]

I give a pass to friends who move to a new area and their kids adopt the local team. If you're a Mets fan, and you move to Pittsburgh and you become a Bucs fan because your kid is all about the Bucs, you're OK with me.



You're not as cool and as steadfast and righteous as I am, maybe, but that's OK.

[MFS62]

I think it has to do with the age at which the fan moves.(and I have no data to back it up)

It just seems logical to me that the older you are the more your fan loyalty has been ingrained in who you are. So if you move and change teams, I think less of you than if you moved as a kid and adopted your new local team.

If you stay put and the team moves, that's a different ballgame. I wonder who the A's fans will root for after they move.



Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

Some will stay with the A's. Some will switch to the Giants. And some will just stop following the game. If the Mets left New York I'd just drop baseball entirely. And I'm not even in New York anymore!

[stevejrogers]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: If I end up retiring to the Vegas area, which is quite possible, I'll go see the Mets play the A's when they come to town every other year. But I doubt I'd attend any other games and I'm not going to become an A's fan. There are people who switch their allegiances when they move to a new area. I have a childhood friend who grew up a Mets fan but then switched to the Marlins when he moved to Florida and then to the Braves when he moved to Georgia. I don't do that. My uncle has done that, grew up a Yankees fan in Queens (pre 1962, so Queens was a toss up between any of the 3 NY teams back then), then became a Sox fan in the 1970s when he moved to Acton, and now an Orioles fan as he's been in Ellicott City MD since the mid 1990s. I guess if you're just a casual fan you can keep your local ties and have it be OK. It seems alien to me personally.

Jumping on the locals bandwagon seems more logical back in eras before the information super highway went mobile.



Today it seems more like “well, we're you much of a fan to begin with?” when you consider all the free and paid mobile apps (and even nefarious ways of getting streams without paying for services) that can help you stay informed of your team's activities and games.



I mean I didn't turn off my MLB app's notifications all weekend in Houston last weekend, and knew exactly how all three Mets-Rockies games were going, much to my chagrin!

Edited June 6, 2023 by Guest

[DocTee]

I lived in the Bay Area for 15 years before moving back. My then-wife and I were and are big Mets fans. We tried to raise our daughters the same. One day, in the midst of three titles in five years, our girls came home and said they wanted to be Giants fans. And that was ok by me. In fact, after the Mets, the Giants might be my go-to-rooting interest

[ashie62]

Las Vegas legislature adjorns without vote



The have projected all home games as sellouts

KC at LV on a Tuesday even

[G-Fafif]

MLB has approved the A's move one state east.



https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2023/11/16/oakland-athletics-move-to-las-vegas-approved-mlb-owners/71602944007/https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2023/11/16/oakland-athletics-move-to-las-vegas-approved-mlb-owners/71602944007/

[Benjamin Grimm]

The A's told MLB they plan to play in a revolving series of sites until they move, one MLB owner told USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has yet to publicly address the plans. 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 Coliseum.

So they'll be in Oakland full time in 2024, and then potentially be a vagabond franchise for three years before they move into their permanent home in 2028.



I know it won't happen, but I'd love to see them spend one full year in Philadelphia.

[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]

=metirish post_id=141213 time=1700162730 user_id=72]
How many pro sports teams can LV absorb? I guess we will find out , sucks for Oakland

[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]

Edgy MD wrote: "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 https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_1973.shtml#all_AL_CYA_votingCy 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.



https://defector.com/las-vegas-mayor-to-john-fisher-maybe-try-staying-in-oaklandLas 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.