Las Vegas is adding one more reason for people to visit: a baseball team. As if the city needed another reason. Las Vegas already gets 40 million visitors a year, coming for unlimited options for entertainment. The world’s best entertainers perform on the Strip, and it is the place to be on New Year’s Eve for hundreds of thousands of people. It is the place to see the stars, leaders, and trend setters of our culture. On Monday, June 23, the city will get another visitor, the commissioner of Major League Baseball.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred will attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the Las Vegas Athletics’ ballpark. The A’s have lived in Philadelphia, Kansas City, Oakland, and now for a couple of years, temporarily, in Sacramento, California. After Sacramento, the Athletics are moving to Las Vegas and are scheduled to begin playing in Vegas in 2028. The addition of Major League Baseball makes a nice complement to the existing professional teams, the Las Vegas Raiders of NFL, the Vegas Golden Knights of the NFL, and the Las Vegas Aces of WNBA. The city also has three minor league franchises.
In 2025, Las Vegas will host the Las Vegas Grand Prix, a Formula One World Championship car race, for the third time. Las Vegas is as known for its sporting events as for its casinos. The city has hosted a Super Bowl, NBA, NHL, and WNBA all star games, WWE WrestleMania events, numerous championship boxing matches, and the National Finals Rodeo. Major League Baseball will help complete a menu of major sporting events. Missing from the list is an NBA team, but it is on the wish list of city boosters. In the meantime, building a stadium for the A’s is job one.
The Athletics have had itchy feet over the last 125 years, so the team may not be a forever resident. However, the team might stay if Las Vegas can solve a basic problem for the success of a professional sports team, making money. The city is relatively small to host a major league sporting team. As we are witnessing with the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, two things are important in building a successful professional franchise, population and financing.
Population is a major issue. Although the current trend is toward smaller stadiums, a team still needs to sell tickets and fill seats. Along with filled seats, a team needs to pay the players and like an election, the team that spends the most is most likely to win. The ability to pay top-flight players is somewhat related to ticket sales and advertising driven by population, but not completely. Rich owners willing to spend is a key ingredient. Las Vegas is not in the top tier in either of those categories. But it has an ace or two in the hole.
Cities like Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Oakland must depend on the people who live close to the stadium and identify with the team. Las Vegas is in a slightly different position. It has 150,000 hotel rooms, more than either New York or Los Angeles; that gives the city a well-heeled transient population. The extra 120,000 to 200,000 people a day, with time on their hands and money in their pockets is a major boost to the city’s ability to sell tickets and attract advertising.
The other ace in the hole is the casino industry and its deep pockets. Casinos in Las Vegas cost billions to build; they are crammed full of amenities to please a visitor and enhance a gambler’s experience while in town. For major events, casinos are able to sweeten the pot. The Grand Prix was a prime example. Building the track and filling the seats required the help of the resorts on the Strip; and it worked. According to KLAS-TV, attendance for race week reached 306,000 people, with 175,000 out-of-town tourists spending on average $2,400 on non-race-related expenditures. The total impact was estimated at $1.5 billion. Casinos willingly spent money to help with the event and to bring their best customers to the race.
Spending on pay is slightly different, but not unprecedented. The city has given bonuses to the Aces of the Women’s National Basketball Association. So far that is a one-off event, but it could become a trend. With a little help from their friends on the Strip, the A’s could afford some superstars. If the city’s teams win championships, it benefits the casinos. Championships bring more people to town. The Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association just sold for $10 billion. Las Vegas teams are a long way from that value, but being in Las Vegas certainly adds to a team’s worth. Play ball! Let that first pitch fly!
