A’s To Open ‘Experience Center’ In Vegas Southwest Valley To Allow Fans To Check Out Ticket Options, Stadium Model; 30 Premium Fan Areas In Ballpark On Strip
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Marc Badain is one of those rare types — a numbers guy who majored in economics in college and became chief financial officer for the NFL Raiders who also has a schmoozy touch when it comes to public chats about stadiums and shaking hands with fans in Las Vegas.
The MLB Athletics are building a $1.75 billion domed baseball stadium on the Strip with an aim of opening the 33,000-fan capacity ballpark in 2028. A former Raiders staffer for three decades, Badain has been on the job for about eight weeks serving as A’s team president to helm a venue-building project that A’s owner John Fisher and former team president Dave Kaval failed to realize in the Bay Area.
Badain received a warm reception from the Vegas Chamber at an Orleans hotel-casino ballroom Wednesday when he talked for about a half-hour about this subsidized stadium, responding to easy, open-ended questions from Chamber member Janet Uthman of Cox.
The A’s ballpark will be a small Major League Baseball stadium with seating for 30,000 and standing areas for another 3,000. But Badain pointed out that the venue will be packed with various premium seating areas — as many as 30 — besides the traditional level of suites.
Badain is here because he’s done this before.
As Raiders team president, Badain guided the process of building the NFL stadium about three miles away from the A’s stadium site on the west side of I-15 across from Mandalay Bay hotel-casino. The A’s are building their stadium on nine acres of the 35-acre site that used to host the former Tropicana hotel-casino on Las Vegas Boulevard at one of the most famous road intersections in the country.
It’s no secret that Raider owner Mark Davis and Badain were far from buddies with Fisher and Kaval of the A’s when the two teams shared the Coliseum in Oakland.
But there was a baseball man here in Las Vegas who helped the A’s and Badain start their new marriage. It was Don “Donny Baseball” Logan, the president of the Triple-A minor league Las Vegas Aviators, the Athletics’ affiliate.
Logan’s low-key, unflappable style was the perfect tonic to bring A’s owner Fisher and ex-Raiders prez Badain together. Several months ago Logan, Fisher, Badain and A’s Vice Chairman Sandy Dean had drinks at the Durango hotel-casino and a deal to bring Badain on board as team president to replace Kaval would eventually follow.
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In response to an LVSportsBiz.com question, Badain said a stadium groundbreaking is still on board for an April/May/June window. There will be about 32 months of stadium construction to have the venue ready for the 2028 MLB season, which starts in March.
The Raiders and the A’s are here in Las Vegas for one reason — public money to help build their stadiums. Under state laws approved in 2016 and 2023 respectively, Southern Nevada contributed $750 million to help the Raiders build a $1.4 billion stadium that was part of an overall $2 billion project while $380 million in public assistance was approved for the A’s stadium construction.
In both cases, the stadium subsidies were not voted on by the public. State lawmakers approved the public stadium construction money because the teams knew public votes would have potentially gone against their free government money to help build their venues.
But it was more than getting public subsidies to help stadiums in Las Vegas. Badain told the packed ballroom and sold-out luncheon that Las Vegas’ public tourism agency — the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) — has also been forthcoming in using public money to support the sports industry expansion in this market.
A few people at the luncheon like Vegas Chamber CEO/President Mary Beth Sewald talked about the sports growth in Las Vegas as “diversifying the economy,” but that’s incorrect because sports are just another sector of the Vegas’ singular entertainment/tourism economy. In fact, the term, “tourism,” is in the names of the two state bills that designated public dollars for stadium construction for the Raiders and A’s. Building manufacturing plants, medical research centers and regional warehouses is economic diversification — not just another type of entertainment.
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The A’s announced they are opening in the fall a stadium “experience center” at the UnCommons a mixed-use development in the southwest valley to give fans a chance to check out the stadium model and eventually buy tickets. The A’s are still considering whether to charge a personal seat license (PSL) for fans who want to buy season tickets, which was a lucrative source of revenue for the Raiders.
The Raiders had a similar stadium experience center at Town Square Las Vegas. The A’s experience center will also be available to host events.
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