The city of Las Vegas has announced it has struck a deal for
land to build a ballpark for the Oakland Athletics baseball team. The two sides
announced a binding agreement to build a ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip, where
the Tropicana Hotel currently stands.
"We are excited about the potential to bring Major
League Baseball to this iconic location," Oakland A's president Dave Kaval
said in a statement. "We are thrilled to work alongside Bally's and GLPI,
and look forward to finalizing plans to bring the Athletics to Southern
Nevada."
Ballys, along with Gaming and Leisure Properties, Ink.
(GLPI), currently leases part of the land. The move continues a trend in which
the city is luring professional sports franchises and using them as a tourism
arm.
Las Vegas got an expansion team in the National Hockey
League in 2017, and it promptly went to the Stanley Cup finals. Three years
later, the city lured the Oakland Raiders football team and built a sparkling
new stadium in Allegiant Field on the outskirts of town.
Now Vegas will have three of the four major sports, when
just recently many franchise owners eschewed the city because of its gambling
reputation. Many travel companies have built packages around sporting events to
bring out-of-town travelers to Las Vegas.
All that is left is a professional basketball franchise. Las
Vegas has openly courted a National Basketball Association franchise, and
recently hosted the NBA All Star game. But league superstar LeBron James has
said he would love to own or co-own a franchise in Las Vegas and possibly play
with his son, who will head to college in the fall.
The new baseball facility will be small by Major League
standards, at about 30,000-seat capacity.
"The Tropicana has been a landmark of Las Vegas for
generations, and this development will enhance this iconic site for generations
to come," George Papanier, president of Bally's, said in a news release.
"We are committed to ensuring that the development and ballpark built in
its place will become a new landmark, paying homage to the iconic history and
global appeal of Las Vegas and its nearly 50 million visitors a year."
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