Aviators Prez Logan: No Big League Weekend in 2019, But It Will Return To Las Vegas In 2020

By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com

 

Big League Weekend in Las Vegas — the baseball weekend in March when the Chicago Cubs usually host two spring training games in Sin City — is scratched for 2019 but will return for 2020 at the new Aviators ballpark in Downtown Summerlin, Aviators President Don Logan told LVSportsBiz.com Wednesday.

 

The new $150 million ballpark that will hold 10,000 fans, 22 suites and one swimming pool beyond the centerfield fence will not be ready for Big League Weekend in March, Logan said.

 

The goal is to have the ball yard — officially called Las Vegas Ballpark under an $80 million naming rights deal between the LVCVA tourism agency and Summerlin master developer/Aviators owner Howard Hughes Corporation — ready for first pitch by the newly-rebranded Aviators on April 9.

 

Logan said Big League Weekend will return to Las Vegas for March 2020.

 

That means the Las Vegas Lights FC soccer team will not have to remove any grass from its soccer field to make way for a baseball diamond and infield at Cashman Field, the former downtown home of the Las Vegas 51s. Howard Hughes re-branded the 51s into the Aviators, which is now the Triple A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. (As a side note, the A’s struggle with home attendance, so don’t be surprised if there are days this 2019 baseball season when the Aviators attendance is more than the A’s attendance on the same day.)

 

 

Logan said it was only fitting that baseball at Cashman Field ended Sept. 3 with a walk-off home run by former 51s first baseman Peter Alonso for a 4-3 51s win. For more than three decades, Cashman was home for Triple A affiliates of the Padres, Dodgers, Blue Jays and Mets (for the past six years) before the Oakland A’s stepped up and cut a deal.

 

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Logan said about 67 percent of the 51s season ticket holders have renewed their deals for the new Aviators ballpark in Summerlin.

 

Some fans who just don’t like change did not renew their ticket deals, Logan said.

 

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The pedestrian safety game plan for the Aviators ballpark is to funnel pedestrian traffic from Downtown Summerlin through an at-grade pedestrian walkway/crosswalk with flashing lights to alert motorists along South Pavilion Center Drive, Logan said. There will not be a pedestrian bridge, he said.

 

There will be off-duty officers on traffic control at that point to make sure fans can safely walk across South Pavilion Center Drive to reach the ballpark from Downtown Summerlin, Logan said.

 

Metro police officers on motorcycles were also patrolling South Pavilion Center Drive and stopping speeding motorists last week (the South Pavilion Center Drive speed limit is 30 mph) to get the point across that motorists need to slow down and be careful with the ballpark opening in two months.

 

Here’s a photo of the Downtown Summerlin area where the Aviators are re-working so that pedestrians can safely walk across the four-lane road to reach the ballpark.

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