By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The COVID-19 outbreak at the Miami Marlins was caused by two players who did not comply with coronavirus protocols, leading to 18 Marlin players testing positive for the novel coronavirus that now threatens to wipe out Major League Baseball’s 60-game season.
Las Vegas Aviators President Don Logan, appearing on a local Las Vegas PBS TV public affairs show, said a former Aviators trainer now working with the Marlins informed him that “a couple of players went out” and “caused all this grief.”
Logan appeared this week on a PBS show called Nevada Week along with Vegas Golden Knights Chief Marketing Officer Brian Killingsorth and Las Vegas Lights FC team owner Brett Lashbrook.
The trio discussed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on their sports organizations and on the sports industry. The novel coronavirus has claimed the lives of 152,000 Americans.
The pandemic grounded the Minor League Baseball season in 2020, but Logan said 74 percent of Aviators season ticket holders renewed their ticket deals for 2021. Logan, a longtime minor league baseball executive in Las Vegas, called the pandemic “a sniper out there, you just don’t see it.” The Aviators are the former Las Vegas 51s and are the Triple A affiliate of the MLB Oakland Athletics.
“As long as we’re affiliated with the A’s, we’ll be competitive,” Logan said of the Aviators team that is owned by Summerlin master developer Howard Hughes Corporation.
As long as we’re affiliated with the A’s, we’ll be competitive — Aviators President Don Logan
MLB is not using the bubble environment, where strict protocols are in place to isolate players and limited staffers in controlled hotel, building, walkway and venue settings.
But the National Hockey League is deploying two bubble communities in Edmonton for the Western Conference and Toronto for the Eastern Conference. Killingsworth said on the PBS show that the safety protocols in the hub cities provide a “better chance of success.” He also mentioned Golden Knights President of Hockey Operations George McPhee mentioned the NHL bubble is “really tight.”
Here’s an NHL video showing its bubble setting in Edmonton, where the Golden Knights play the Dallas Stars Monday in the first of three round-robin games to determine playoff seeding.
Killingsworth said the Golden Knights’ new minor league affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights of the American Hockey League, is in good shape with 10,000 season ticket deposits. The AHL Silver Knights will play in an arena in Henderson that will be rebuilt from the Henderson Pavilion off Green Valley Parkway. While the $84 million Henderson Events Center project is being developed in Henderson, the Silver Knights will play at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
The Lights play in the 35-team United Soccer League, the Triple A pro soccer in the U.S. one tier below Major League Soccer. The USL is not using a bubble approach. Instead, the league has been split into eight geographic areas where teams will play each other within each region of the country. For example, the Las Vegas Lights will stick to playing USL teams like those in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. The Lights play their USL rivals from Reno later today at Cashman Field in downtown Las Vegas.
The cost for a USL bubble was too expensive, Lashbrook said.
We are learning in real time. I’m cautiously optimistic. I can’t sit here and say there’s no risk — Lights owner Brett Lashbrook
Lashbrook said a development group continues to have talks with the city of Las Vegas about rebuilding a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, including the Cashman Center site where the Lights plan. The talks include building a new Lights soccer stadium for MLS play. If there is a deal, Lashbrook would sell the Lights to the development group.
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