It was the talk of the town all summer, and now Las Vegas baseball will become a reality. Was it ever really in doubt? Well actually, yes. Fights over financing the stadium, a grassroots campaign from concerned citizens, and the approval of Major League Baseball were all factors, but in the end Vegas gets a team.
Last week the thirty owners of MLB teams met for a vote on the move of the Oakland A’s to Las Vegas. A minimum of 75% of those votes (23 teams) were needed to approve the move. Instead, the vote was unanimous, and Las Vegas baseball will become a thing in 2028.
This does open up another can of worms, however. Plans for the new stadium have it on The Strip where the Tropicana Casino now stands. So the decision to bring the A’s to town is a death sentence for the casino. But that’s not all. Have you seen the traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard lately?
Adding another professional sports team to the city will not only add a massive amount of congestion to the city’s already stressed roads, but it will also add to the growing expense of the city over all. Everyone has noticed the rising prices of hotel rooms, cab rides, events, and food. Las Vegas baseball will put even more pressure on all of that.
Want an additional rub? The A’s agreement with their current ballpark in Oakland ends after the 2024 season, but the new stadium in Sin City will not open until 2028. So, no one knows exactly where the team will play for three years. That’s sort of important.
Managing partner of the team, John Fisher, stated that “Baseball has to produce a schedule, so they need to know where we’re going to play. We wanted to focus our efforts on today and make sure that we could get past this milestone and get permission from the owners before we can now tackle the question of interim play and where that’s going to be.”