By Alan Snel
LVSportsBiz.com
The Las Vegas Aviators are filling their new Downtown Summerlin ballpark to the tune of 104.6 percent of capacity because the Triple A baseball team owned by Howard Hughes Corporation says the venue’s capacity is 8,834.
After 66 home dates, the Aviators are averaging 9,241 fans a game during the season, which has included 43 sellouts.
For years, Aviators Chief Operating Officer/President Don Logan has asked for public money to help build a new ballpark for the minor league team, which played at Cashman Field in downtown Las Vegas until this year.
Howard Hughes Corporation hit the jackpot Oct. 10, 2017 when the local public tourism agency — the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority — voted to give a stunning $80 million to the Summerlin developer in the form of a naming rights deal that officially calls for the $150 million venue to be named, “Las Vegas Ballpark.”
The new ballpark has been Las Vegas’ sports star of the summer, drawing big crowds as the venue along South Pavilion Center Drive near Red Rock Resort and next to the Vegas Golden Knights training center/headquarters became the place for fans and families to be.
The Knights were knocked out of the Stanley Cup playoffs after one round in mid-April, so many fans went from attending VGK games on the Strip to watching potential future Oakland Athletics big-leaguers early on in the Pacific Coast League season. Plus, unusually cool spring and early summer weather helped bring fans to the aesthetically pleasing confines of the minor league baseball palace.
The Aviators lead the minors in attendance, drawing 609,878 with four home games left. In 2018 at Cashman Field, the old 51s team drew 332,224, or 4,746 a game.
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