A’s Spring Training From Arizona: Baseball Fans In Las Vegas Can Track Athletics Via Online A’s Cast
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publiher-Writer
SURPRISE, Arizona — The MLB Athletics are focused on launching the 2025 season in Sacramento, but there’s also an eye trained on Las Vegas where a new A’s stadium is slated to open on the Strip in 2028.
That means the A’s are building the foundation for a new fan base in the Las Vegas market, with the Athletics using a streaming station on their team website to literally spread the word about A’s games and news to people in Vegas and everywhere else.
Baseball fans in Las Vegas can track the Athletics via A’s Cast, the online umbrella source for game play-by-play, pregame/postgame news and talk shows. It’s simple to find at www.athletics.com/ascast.
The Athletics’ Chris Townsend, a team broadcaster, explained how fans in Las Vegas can tap into A’s games and news via the A’s Cast streaming station:
“This is your team, Las Vegas. This is your franchise. We’re coming,” Townsend said today before the A’s were preparing to play the Royals in a spring training game at Surprise Stadium in the Cactus League.
Townsend said the A’s Cast content started as a Major League Baseball pilot program and noted it’s one-stop shopping for A’s games and news round-the-clock.
“Just go to www.athletics.com/ascast and hit play,” Townsend said Monday. “That’s how simple it is to listen.”
At 12 Noon Las Vegas time Monday, fans can do exactly that to hear A’s broadcasters Chris Caray and Townsend call the Athletics-Royals game.
A’s owner John Fisher has pledged more than $1 billion to build a $1.75 billion, domed, 30,000-seat stadium at the former Tropicana hotel-casino site at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. A 2023 Nevada state bill designated $380 million in public resources to help build the stadium, but the A’s say they will use $350 million of the public subsidy.
While the A’s stadium in Las Vegas is built, the team will play at a Triple-A minor league stadium in West Sacramento in 2025, 2026 and 2027. The A’s play their first game in Sacramento against the Chicago Cubs March 31.
The A’s have yet to set a date for the Las Vegas stadium groundbreaking. But the team said it will happen in either April, May or June. Expect about a 30- or 31-month construction period to build the ballpark that is supposed to be ready for the 2028 MLB season. Bally’s Corp. wants to build a hotel-casino next to the A’s stadium on the 35-acre site that would be connected via a pedestrian bridge.
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Surprise Stadium, shared by the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals, is a lot like the Peoria Sports Complex, where the Mariners and Padres train.
The Royals/Rangers spring training ballpark is off a commercial street named Bell Road and it’s a very functional modern venue.
Again, it lacks the charm and quirky features of old-time spring baseball homes like Dodgertown in Vero Beach, the Winter Haven venue where the former Cleveland Indians trained and even the Dunedin home of the Blue Jays in Florida.
There’s a nice 360-degree concourse with food/beer stands, souvenir stores and a green berm beyond the outfield fence. Today’s crowd for a Monday game between the A’s and Royals is sparse. It looks like a few thousand fans, with folks soaking up the 85-degree weather dotting the berm.
The press box announcement for game attendance came in at 3,269 — and it looked that way.
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It was interesting to meet A’s fans who said they were very bummed about the franchise leaving Oakland in 2024 after 57 years.
But they said they still love the team and will go to Las Vegas to see games on the Strip.
I interviewed A’s fan Humberto, a former Oakland man, to get his comments:
I met Royals broadcaster Steve Stewart and he mentioned fans will enjoy having Las Vegas in Major League Baseball.
“Every fan in baseball will want to see their team in Las Vegas. It’s a great addition,” Stewart told LVSportsBiz.com. “The Golden Knights proved major league sports can be very successful in Las Vegas.”
Indeed, the state A’s stadium subsidy bill included, “tourism,” in its title.
Expect A’s crowds in Las Vegas on the Strip to be packed with out-of-towners. We sure see that at Raiders games at Allegiant Stadium when the Chiefs, Packers or Steelers come to play the Silver & Black.
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This afternoon’s game zipped along with neither team piling up hits during the first five innings. The Royals’ first baseman, Cavan Biggio, smacked a home run in the bottom of the fifth and the KC squad led, 1-0. If the Biggio name sounds familiar it’s because he’s the some of Astros’ Hall-of-Famer Craig Biggio.
The A’s tied the game with a run in the top of sixth.
After two hours and 36 minutes, the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
See you in Mesa at Hohokam Stadium for an A’s-Giants game at 1 PM local time.
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