Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
It was a whimsical-sounding promotion — What If Night at a recent Las Vegas Aviators’ Saturday night game at their home stadium in suburban Summerlin.
I interpreted the “What If” as in what if the baseball team was named for something intrinsic to Las Vegas’ local industry or landscape and shed the Howard Hughes-related Aviators moniker for one night?
The Aviators came up with Gamblers — a simple and direct reference to Las Vegas’ bread-and-butter economy.
Gamblers was as semantically real as it gets for Las Vegas.
Not gaming.
Gambling.
So, the Triple-A affiliate owned by Summerlin master developer Howard Hughes Corporation — for one day anyway — had a name that Las Vegas folks could relate to.
It also offered the team’s retail store so sell more merch.
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Minor League Baseball allows teams to come up with one-day alternative names, though not every team has to do the promotion.
The Gamblers gave Las Vegas’ minor league baseball team a chance to not only a new identity for a day but to also make some money.
A Gamblers jersey was selling for $249.99 on the team’s website.