Big League Baseball in Las Vegas? Not A Good Idea (For Now)
By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
Major League Baseball in Las Vegas? There are sobering tales out there for Las Vegas to proceed with extreme caution.
How about the Tampa Bay Rays, the low-payroll, sunbelt-market ballclub that made the World Series a decade ago and the American League playoffs in 2010, 2011 and 2013?
Tuesday morning Rays owner Stu Sternberg looked glum at the baseball winter meetings at Mandalay Bay hotel-casino, where Sternberg said plans for a $892 million ballpark in the Tampa, Fla. neighborhood of Ybor City are dead after the Rays received a stern letter from Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.
The Rays’ ballpark plan consisted of pretty drawings, but scant details on funding — public, private or otherwise. And Manfred called them out for providing so few funding details. Check out Manfred’s Dec. 11 letter here.
LVSportsBiz.com hears that an ownership group with some major financial players has been quietly assembled behind the scenes in Montreal and it might look to go after the Rays after Sternberg said the Ybor City ballpark plans are dead in Tampa.
Which brings us to the whole chatter about a Major League Baseball team in Las Vegas.
The growth of major league team sports in Las Vegas was built on the commitment to build palatial new sports venues. Privately-financed T-Mobile Arena, which opened in 2016, led to the Vegas Golden Knights being born in Las Vegas in 2017. And the public’s commitment to give the Raiders $750 million for a $1.8 billion Raiders stadium project led owner Mark Davis to move the NFL team to Las Vegas starting in 2020.
The public till is tapped out when it comes to committing more public dollars for a major league sports venue. Any MLB ballpark would have to be privately financed, have a dome and likely cost in the $1 billion plus range.
ADVERTISEMENT
And LVSportsBiz.com believes this market of 2.2 million residents is not financially equipped to support 81 home dates for baseball games. The new Raiders football stadium will draw thousands of visitors and can be seen as a tourism draw, but Major League Baseball teams are much more local and regional than NFL teams.
LVSportsBiz.com chatted with Oakland A’s play-by-play man Ken Kovach (who lives in Henderson during the off-season) about stadium issues, from the proposed Oakland A’s ballpark to whether Las Vegas could support a MLB team.
I saw the expansion Marlins of South Florida and Devil Rays of Tampa Bay do well selling tickets in the 1990s before the attendance of both teams plummetted. In 2018, Tampa Bay ranked 29th and Miami ranked last out of 30 MLB teams in attendance.
For now, enjoy the new Las Vegas Aviators’ $150 million ballpark — which is being built by Aviators owner Howard Hughes Corporation, which received a whopping $80 million ($4 million a year for 20 years) from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) as part of a sponsorship deal.
*
Speaking of the new Aviators ballpark off South Pavilion Center Drive in Downtown Summerlin, LVSportsBiz.com caught up with the founder and owner of the company that will be selling the seats that will be used at the venue. Deron Nardo, principal/president of 4 Topps Premium Seating, said he met Aviators Chief Operating Officer Don Logan a year ago at the Minor League Baseball trade show and they talked seats. The airflow mesh seats will keep fans cooler during Las Vegas’ beastly hot summer.
Take a look at our interview with Nardo Tuesday.
*
Images of the winter meetings.
*
Follow LVSportBiz.com on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Contact LVSportsBiz.com publisher/writer Alan Snel at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com
