They Hold Very Different Jobs But Their Similar Personable Styles Help Marc and Mark Guide Athletics’ Transition To Las Vegas
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — They are the Marx Brothers of the A’s, two employees on the MLB team payroll who have more influence on the Athletics’ nightly final game score and the team’s stadium project in Las Vegas than just about anyone else.
They are A’s manager Mark Kotsay and A’s team president Marc Badain.
You don’t see them in the same room much because their jobs are so drastically different. As skipper, Kotsay is hunting for some frontline pitching (The A’s team earned run average ranks 28th out of 30 MLB teams). Meanwhile, as president, Badain is seeking a financially juicy stadium naming rights deal, which could deliver $10 million-$15 million a year to a team building a $2 billion domed stadium for 33,000 fans on the Strip. The public is contributing $380 million to the stadium construction bill. The A’s plan on moving into the ballpark in Las Vegas in 2028.
But their orbits did intersect at Las Vegas Ballpark last week when the A’s played six regular season games in their future market of Las Vegas. The A’s won four of the six games before returning to their temporary quarters of a Triple-A ballpark in West Sacramento this week.
Kotsay, 50, a Whittier, California native, and Badain, 55, from Rochester, New York, have been co-workers for only 15 months.
Badain succeeded former A’s president Dave Kaval in March 2025 after a 30-year career with the NFL Raiders that included working as the Raiders president when the team moved from Oakland to Las Vegas and opened Allegiant Stadium in 2020.
Kotsay played 17 seasons in the Big Leagues from 1997 to 2013 and was named A’s manager for the 2022 season. Last year, Kotsay signed a three-year extension that will take him to Las Vegas for the first season at the new ballpark.
While Kotsay and Badain grew up on opposite U.S. coasts and proceeded to pursue different careers, their friendly personalities and management styles are similar, making them ideal choices to help lead the franchise’s challenging transition from Oakland in 2024 through Sacramento in 2025-27 and eventually Las Vegas in 2028.
A reporter who has observed both in action can see that their personable and disarming demeanors spiked with a sense of humor go a long way in guiding a major league team poised to play in three different cities in five years.
The A’s have been through a lot since April 2023 when the franchise announced it was leaving Oakland for Las Vegas to build a new stadium.
In September 2024, after a 57-year run in the East Bay, the A’s played their final game at the Coliseum. After the Athletics defeated the Texas Rangers, 3-2, on Sept. 26, 2024, it was Kotsay who addressed the sellout crowd and thanked them for their support.
“There are no better fans than you guys,” Kotsay told the crowd during his emotionally-charged comments after the game. “Thank you for your lifelong support of the Oakland A’s.”
Five years earlier in 2019 when the Raiders played their last game in the very same Coliseum, Badain was in Las Vegas making sure the Raiders stadium construction was on budget and on time.
And he also oversaw the Raiders’ phasing in of staff from Oakland to Las Vegas — something he’s doing now with the A’s.
Both Kotsay and Badain have a good sense of humor to help with the day-in, day-out grind of playing games on a daily basis and building a stadium on a nine-acre footprint at the old Tropicana hotel site on the Strip.
Just last week, Kotsay had some fun with young A’s broadcaster Chris Caray at Las Vegas Ballpark last week by starting his pregame media session with a tongue-in-cheek interview of Caray about the Athletics’ visit to Las Vegas. Kotsay even joked with Caray about how the TV announcer was “peacocking around” the field before the A’s played their first game in Las Vegas June 8.
It’s a rare baseball manager who has the vocabulary, humor and confidence to deploy the term, “peacocking around.”
And eight years ago in 2018 when the Raiders wrapped up their stadium deals with the Las Vegas Stadium Board, board chairman Steve Hill gave a lengthy speech during a stadium meeting about the Raiders-Las Vegas alliance. After Hill’s talk, Badain thanked Hill for his comments and joked to the board that Hill probably would have been cut off if he made the same speech at the Oscars.
It’s that type of sense of humor that can come in handy when dealing with the daunting challenges of operating a franchise in West Sacramento while also laying the foundation for a move to Las Vegas for the 2028 Major League Baseball season.
Kotsay had to deal with a tough A’s loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates Tuesday night. The Athletics jumped out to a 4-0 lead after one inning, but the Pirates bounced back for a 6-5 win, scoring the winning run in the top of the ninth inning.
The A’s record fell to 36 wins and 37 losses, a game and a half behind the division-leading Seattle Mariners.
Meanwhile, Badain is forging ahead with a stadium expected to generate more than $500 million a year in revenues. That money will help pay for young star A’s players like Tyler Soderstrom and Jacob Wilson who signed extensions during ceremonies here in Las Vegas before the 2026 season and who will take the field in the new venue in two years under Kotsay’s guidance.
(LVSportsBiz.com publisher Alan Snel will discuss the A’s in Las Vegas and VGK developments on KNPR’s State of Nevada at 9 AM Wednesday. Tune in at 88.9 FM.)
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