A’s Prez Kaval: Expect Fun Veeck-Like Promotions At Athletics Stadium On Strip In 2028; ‘We’re Going To Do Some Crazy Things In Vegas’
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
MESA, Arizona — My conversation with Dave Kaval before Oakland Athletics’ spring training home-opener began at Hohokam Stadium when we talked spring training baseball in Florida.
Kaval, the Athletics president and team point man on transitioning the historic franchise from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2028, loved Vero Beach’s historic Dodgertown — the early blueprint for Major League Baseball’s spring training system.
I lived a mile from Dodgertown when I was in Vero Beach in 2016. So, we had a lot to chat about on that one.
Kaval also loved the former Cleveland Indians’ spring training home in Winter Haven, Fla. where there was a tower with a big orange on top.
I told Kaval I was at the former Indians’ crackerjack box of a ballyard when I saw Bob Feller in full Indians uniform pose for photos for me, then get into his car to drive away.
Eventually, I did steer the conversation to what baseball fans in both Oakland and Las Vegas were curious about — details about the Athletics’ plan to build a $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat stadium on the Tropicana site on the Strip.
And when we discussed the old Cleveland teams of the 1940s and Kaval reminded me that Bill Veeck was the former Cleveland owner. Veeck was a master baseball promoter, creating many amusing and funny promotions to get fans to his teams’ games.
Kaval said the Athletics will have many Veeck-like promotions in Las Vegas when the A’s open their planned stadium at Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue in 2028.
He mentioned the A’s stadium in Vegas have a stage built into the venue, much like how the Vegas Golden Knights constructed a mini-castle area for entertainment and promotions during games at T-Mobile Arena.
“We’re going to do some crazy things in Vegas,” Kaval told LVSportsBiz.com after the Athletics’ spring home-opener. The Colorado Rockies defeated the A’s, 5-1, before a paid crowd of 5,253.
Kaval said the breaks between half-innings during a baseball provide time to script fun promotions and entertainment acts.
Kaval declined to say when the A’s stadium drawings will be displayed to the public in Las Vegas or whether the roof will be fixed or retractable. But he did share a few thoughts on the proposed A’s stadium on the Strip.
^ He’s working on ingress and egress issues because the site is so infrastructure-challenged. The only public transportation on the Strip is a public bus that has two levels and is called the deuce. The recent traffic jams and gridlocked intersections during the nights before Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas showed how mobility on the Strip in motorized vehicles is atrocious.
^ The Athletics’ stadium project is a true partnership with Bally’s Corporation, which owns the Tropicana hotel-casino, and Gaming Leisure Properties, Inc. , which owns the 35 acres at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Blvd. and Tropicana Ave. The A’s will use nine acres of the 35-acre site for their stadium, while Bally’s has talked about building a new hotel on the site, too. The Bally’s development on the site is being coordinated with the A’s stadium plan, Koval said.
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LVSportsBiz.com met legendary Athletics/49ers/rock-and-roll photographer Michael Zagaris, who was at Hohokam Stadium for the A’s game.
“You guys should get your own team,” Zagaris volunteered to LVSportsBiz.com. Zagaris, a colorful and very talented photographer, said the A’s know well about his opinions.
While today’s paid attendance was less than 5,300 here at the A’s spring home-opener in Mesa, an energetic crowd of A’s fans held their own Fans Fest 2024 event to celebrate their love for baseball in the Bay area. Athletics fan groups Oakland 68s and Last Dive Bar hosted the Fans Fest for A’s fans at Jack London Square today. It was held from 11 AM to 4 PM.
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A young bearded guy named Steven with an upbeat personality was the first baseball fan in the stands at Hohokam Stadium at around 11:30 AM Saturday.
He said his in-laws live in the Mesa neighborhood where the Oakland Athletics’ spring training stadium is located, so he thought he’d check out the Athletics’ spring training home-opener against the Colorado Rockies.
Expect some awkward days for the Athletics franchise, an original American League franchise founded in Philadelphia in 1901 and planted in Oakland for more than a helf-century..
The team won a $380 million stadium subsidy from the Nevada Legislature in June, so Saturday’s game was the first ballgame that the team played since the season 2023 season ended with 112 losses for the A’s and the difficult reality that the franchise is supposedly heading for Las Vegas.
