A’s have signed a binding agreement to purchase land for a future ballpark in Las Vegas.
- Thread starter soxhop411
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Come on, they can have a slot machine that comes out of the ground and 3 baseballs lineup and someone yells JACKPOT! over the loud speaker whenever the home team hits a homerun. It'll be like the Shea Stadium now Citi Field big apple. Instead of fans hanging Ks for strikeouts, they can hang a king of clubs (get it....club?).
Original name of the place was Florida Suncoast Dome. The Sun Dome was the original name of the U of South Florida's basketball arena in Tampa, now known as the Yuengling Center.
Ironically, given the topic of the thread, the team in the early 90s that got the closest to moving there was the Giants themselves. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-08-08-mn-4660-story.html
No but same state
(Had no idea about WNBA had a team in LV tbh, but should have since the Sun play in a casino)
maybe Las Vegas Jacks of the Diamond? Jacks for short
then you could get a softball team Queens of the Diamond and you can have some fan promo where one could shoot the moon.
Big difference. No one will confuse a headline about Los Angeles Kings vs. Sacramento Kings. But 2 teams names Las Vegas Aces?
The two Kings aren't in the same sport. Same thing for the two Giants.
The Rays wanted to use Sting Rays but there was a baseball team in Hawaii that had the rights, so Devil Rays it was. The Tampa Bay owner didn't want to pay the Hawaiian team 100-grand for the naming rights. Dumb move.
The Rays wanted to use Sting Rays but there was a baseball team in Hawaii that had the rights, so Devil Rays it was. The Tampa Bay owner didn't want to pay the Hawaiian team 100-grand for the naming rights. Dumb move.
No one got the St. Louis Cardinals confused when the football and baseball teams were both in St. Louis. Neither did anyone get the football and baseball Giants mixed up in New York. There were also two Brooklyn Dodgers at one time (baseball and football). I mean, it's been done.
Vegas Card Sharks
Vegas Card Counters
Vegas Blackjacks
Vegas 21's
I mean, go all in with Las Vegas Strips
Another interesting topic is which cities have lost the most teams. I think St. Louis is the undisputed leader, at least in terms of teams who have left since the 50s. San Diego*, KC** and Oakland*** are the other flagship cities in this regard.
* Chargers and at least two basketball teams, 3 if you want to count the ABA team that folded.
**A's, Scouts, Kings
***once the As move, that'll be two football teams and one baseball team; I don't count the basketball move either, to me it's the same as the Pats moving from Boston to Foxborough.
Funny thing is, the Cardinal football team moved from Chicago to St. Louis and kept the nickname; whereas the Cincinnati Royals became the Kings when they went to KC.
Oakland also lost the Seals in the NHL and the Oaks in the ABA. At one point in time, Oakland had four teams in the four majors playing in their city.
None taken but thank you for the post. I just want Bostonians to know that there are fans involved in these discussions, since it's so easy to dismiss a club run like the Rays that don't have the benefit of history like A's.
That's an awesome anecdote, and I'd pay for one of those shirts! I found a Tampa Smokers shirt a few years back and love it!
Geez, how could I forget the Golden Seals? Sorry about that. I purposely left out ABA teams; but, I guess, that would increase the total for 3 of the 4 cities (St.L Spirit, SD Conquistadors, Oakland Oaks).
Vegas Nine or Nines kinda has a nice ring/ vegas + baseball theme to it maybe? Or Sin City Hookers
EFF just dropped a bunch of new Smokers stuff today for 4/20. You could get Smokers basketball shorts if you want.
I would have to imagine if an MLB team moves in, there would be incentives to move the AAA team out to reduce fan competition. Right?
Same is true if Salt Lake City gets a team, their AAA team would have to leave.
Thanks for this explanation.
As JMOH said upthread, I’m glad when city leaders stand up to billionaire sports team owners and don’t use taxpayer dollars to build stadia.
It does suck for the fans…
Oakland might be looking for AAA team. I really mean that — might make a lot of sense for the LV Aviators to move to Oakland. They are the A’s AAA team. Would keep a connection to the A’s for local fans (if they want that?).
The Tampa Bay Area was the leverage for owners to get what they wanted for almost 15 years, all thru the 80’s and early 90’s. A Tampa group bought 40% of the Twins and then was forced by Bowie Kuhn to sell to Pohlad, there was a deal with the A’s before they got a new lease at the Coliseum, the Rangers were coming at one point, White Sox and Giants were both “out the door”, Mariners were coming until Nintendo stepped in at the 11th hour and finally they were promised one of the 1992 expansion teams until owners realized it was stupid to give up their trump card.
Oh, yes, I should have remembered the Braves. Did not know that the Browns were once the Brewers.
Heck, the Yankees were once the Orioles.
Las Vegas Bandits? Pete Gray could be the model for their logo.
The cash flow of a major pro sports franchise generally sucks compared to other mature businesses with similar valuations. You’d have to be exceptionally foolish to drive a franchise into the ground (look at what Snyder is getting on exit), but it isn’t some sort of cash cow. Not that you should feel bad for the owners; they can sell easily enough if they don’t like the arrangement.
I’ve never seen anyone compare the incentives state and local governments give pro sports franchises to the incentives ordinary businesses negotiate when they’re making billion-dollar investments. Part of the anger these discussions generate is rooted in an implicit assumption that similarly situated non-sports businesses get $0 — but I think we all understand that’s not typical.
Let's not forget the Rangers!
If you are interested in all the dirt watch this documentary my friend put together. The only reason there is a team there is MLB
Rise of the Rays Doc
I covered the Giants press conference.. It was the first time I was in the Dome and it was set up as a baseball field. I had covered the Bolts and Storm games prior and it just seemed small for baseball with the wonderful catwalks.
[QUOTE="DennyDoyle'sBoil, post: 5504166, member: 48839"
I hope that Vegas learns a lesson from the other desert baseball city -- Phoenix built a stadium that is way way too big. Even when they get 30,000 it feels empty (and they don't often get 30,000). It's really a terrible barn.
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Chase ain't great but there's plenty of other targets to set our sights, no?
Speaking of stadiums too big for a baseball diamond, lets talk about Olympic Stadium (now, this is where taxpayer dollars go to burn). I attended games in there that had 2000 or less fans in attendance (about 80,000 capacity). If one were to drop a few quarters out of your pocket it woulda been heard easily on the opposite side of the field and you might get the attention of the pitcher. The Olympic committee could teach Vegas, a thing or two, about building an antiquated POS baseball field..
Lets set the record straight: owners should not be getting taxpayer subsidized stadiums built. It is ludicrous. Period. Full stop.
I have sympathy for the Oakland fans. Maybe someday I can tell them stories how I used to be able to drive to a MLB baseball game in 120 miles, but they'll have a hard time relating because they can still drive to a game in what 30 miles or less after they lost their team.
In closing, bring baseball back to Montreal.
edit: and Fuck vegas
I hope that Vegas learns a lesson from the other desert baseball city -- Phoenix built a stadium that is way way too big. Even when they get 30,000 it feels empty (and they don't often get 30,000). It's really a terrible barn.
[/QUOTE]
Chase ain't great but there's plenty of other targets to set our sights, no?
Speaking of stadiums too big for a baseball diamond, lets talk about Olympic Stadium (now, this is where taxpayer dollars go to burn). I attended games in there that had 2000 or less fans in attendance (about 80,000 capacity). If one were to drop a few quarters out of your pocket it woulda been heard easily on the opposite side of the field and you might get the attention of the pitcher. The Olympic committee could teach Vegas, a thing or two, about building an antiquated POS baseball field..
Lets set the record straight: owners should not be getting taxpayer subsidized stadiums built. It is ludicrous. Period. Full stop.
I have sympathy for the Oakland fans. Maybe someday I can tell them stories how I used to be able to drive to a MLB baseball game in 120 miles, but they'll have a hard time relating because they can still drive to a game in what 30 miles or less after they lost their team.
In closing, bring baseball back to Montreal.
edit: and Fuck vegas
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Then I guess since Tampa got a team, DC became the new Tampa; then after the Expos moved there, Vegas became the new DC; when Vegas is spoken for (very soon, it would appear, but never say never; we don't have the Hartford Patriots, for example); what's the new Vegas?
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I would bet that Nashville gets a team in the next round of expansion.
Depending on whether Portland gets a team, I could see either Portland or Raleigh being the next owner boogeyman to be used when a team is threatening to move. With Vancouver and Salt Lake City being darkhorses. Though I also think--and this will never happen--New York City could support another team. Either in Brooklyn or northern NJ.
That being said, I hope that Montreal gets the Rays.
NY could definitely support another team and if it existed it would succeed, but the thing about NY that's bad for that usage is that no-one in NY is clamoring for a third MLB team
You can argue about whether Vegas was good from that perspective either, but for all of those there are baseball fans (& money) that are excited about the idea of having an MLB team... I doubt there's many people in NY saying 'I love MLB but hate the Mets and Yankees, I wish MLB moved a new team here!"
Montreal has some cool plans for a new stadium, but the Big O made the Coliseum look like Camden Yards. A team in downtown Montreal would be so cool. If I inherited a few Billion getting the Expos back would be on my wish list. Obviously buying the Yankees and moving them to Juarez or Nunavit would be top of my list.
Before Mt. Davis, the Coliseum was actually really nice. The first stadium that I ever went to, aside from Fenway, was the Big O and even as a wide-eyed eighth grader I thought that the place was pretty shitty.
The old photos of the Coliseum are really sad. Without Mt. Davis, it would actually be a pretty nice-looking stadium. Wasn't it built as a way to court the Raiders or something?
The ones that are most commonly mentioned are (in some order) Nashville, Charlotte, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Montreal. I suppose we might start hearing Oakland's name, too. We'll see which one has the most willing city government - that'll be the next Vegas.
And I'm sure we'll find out soon, since Manfred has made "resolving the stadium situations in Oakland and Tampa" priorities 1a and 1b. Expansion won't happen until after the Tampa situation settles, since MLB isn't going to reduce its leverage with Tampa by taking two cities off the list. (Manfred has said as much, though maybe not in those words.)
Also, the Yankees and Mets have veto power over a New York team, and there nothing I could imagine short of holding the owners at gunpoint that would get them to give that up.
Mt. Davis was, yes. When Davis was leaving LA, he basically (I may have forgotten some of the smaller details) said that he'd come back to Oakland only if the city and county upgraded the Coliseum to include more luxury boxes and seating. And that's where Mt. Davis came in.
It absolutely destroyed the aesthetics of the park, but Al Davis was a huge piece of shit, so you get what you pay for.
I'm not sure they would support a third team. They are middle of the pack (at best) at supporting the Mets
Citifield holds 41,000, which is a good number, but their best average since they moved over was 34,400 in 2016 when they made it to the NL Wild card, and that only qualified them as 5th best out of 15 (for gross numbers) in the NL.
Last year, with an NLCS worthy team*, they averaged 31,600, for 7th best in the NL
*Worthy, as they won 101 games, just didn't get past the Wild Card.
Between those two years they were 9th and 10th in the NL each season . Even in 2015, when they made the WS, they only averaged 31,700.
Does it matter though?
That’s where the financials of sports networks is so weird here - like even if you built a 15,000 seat stadium in Brooklyn, it seems like the TV deal that team could get would still put them among the top half of teams in terms of revenue
That’s where the financials of sports networks is so weird here - like even if you built a 15,000 seat stadium in Brooklyn, it seems like the TV deal that team could get would still put them among the top half of teams in terms of revenue
I think NJ could support a team - somewhere central/south NJ, but it’ll never happen due to the Yanks/Mets/Phillies
Ha!They don't draw enough for an AAA team
But really, the 9,000 they draw would be great for AAA. And let’s face it, they’re pretty much running a AAA team out there now. It would be so meta.
Even ten or so years ago, the A’s were north of two million fans. They draw when the team is worth it. I’m 1990, they had 2.9 million come in.They don't draw enough for an AAA team
Fisher, who is worth $2 billion and has a net worth more than 80% of all MLB owners, salted the Earth in Oakland. He’s a real fucking piece of shit.
Austin and San Antonio have rough plans to try to lure a team to around Buda.I’ve head though SA wants it close so might be a hiccup.
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