Aviators’ New Ballpark Looking Green, Sod Rolled Out for Playing Field

 

 

By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com

 

LVSportsBiz.com photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell

 

It’s the green grass and the emerald diamond that makes it feel like a ballpark — not a stadium.

 

The newly-branded Las Vegas Aviators, the Pacific Coast League Triple-A team that fled downtown Las Vegas and Cashman Field, opened up their new $150 million jewel of the ballpark to the media Thursday morning to show the installation of the grass. Most of the sod was installed, and crews were rolling out strips of grass in right field as we gazed out to the ballyard from the 360-degree main concourse.

 

It’s shaping up to be the Taj Mahal of Minor League Baseball venues — and it should be for $150 million, which is a high-end price tag for a minor league ballpark. Summerlin’s master developer and Aviators owner, Texas-based Howard Hughes Corporation, is getting a nice $80 million financial windfall from the local public tourism agency called the LVCVA in the form of a “naming rights” and sponsorship deal.

 

LVSportsBiz.com caught up with Aviators President Don Logan, who had lobbied for years for a new ballpark for Las Vegas’ Triple-A baseball club. Logan said the ballpark will be — pound-for-pound — the nicest ballyard in the country (Donny Baseball used a Conor McGregor analogy but had a funny way of explaining that one here.) Logan talks about his favorite feature in the ballpark, too.

LVSportsBiz.com also caught up with Hunt-Penta’s Pat Delano to find out how the construction is going. Delano reassured everyone that the ballpark will be done by April 9 when the Aviators host the Sacramento River Cats. Hunt and Penta are two construction companies teaming up to build the venue for Howard Hughes Corp.  Delano offers great update info here.

More scenes from a ballpark, which has room for 10,000 fans, 22 suites and one swimming pool beyond centerfield. The team plans to keep a few suites open so that fans can rent them out for games and parties. Cashman Field will be used exclusively by the Las Vegas Lights FC soccer team.

 

In each corner of the ballpark there is tiered seating so that fans can place their beers, drinks and food on the counters.

 

 

 

Come back later for more photos.

 

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