The Athletics wrapped up their first series playing in Las Vegas on Sunday, having faced off against the Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Rockies.
The Athletics played at Las Vegas Ballpark, home of the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators, as their new stadium is under construction on the Las Vegas Strip, set to open in 2028.
The A’s have since returned to their temporary home in West Sacramento, where they will play at Sutter Health Park for at least one more season. But the Athletics have received mixed reviews after making their debut last year, marked by average play and attendance.
The Sacramento region has also launched its own bid to land a Major League Baseball team in the future, with plans for a modern ballpark and 50-acre mixed-use development in West Sacramento after the Athletics leave.
Jen Ramos-Eisen is a freelance baseball labor and economics reporter, and runs the Left On Base newsletter. They were recently in Las Vegas covering the Athletics, and spoke with Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez about how Sin City is welcoming its future team, and where things stand back in Sacramento.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
You got to tour the construction of the new Athletics stadium in Vegas. What’s the status of it, are things on schedule?
It's still a shell of the stadium, but it is definitely a lot more than what I would have anticipated was being built there. They raised one of the trusses for the roofs recently last week. There was a lot of progress made between when the players took a tour last Tuesday and when the media took a tour on Friday. I was just really impressed with how they actually are building, and building quick.
They told me that it was on schedule and some parts were ahead, but that is according to team president Mark Badain. They’re telling me it is on schedule and on budget.
You also watched the first series the A’s played in Las Vegas in a minor league stadium. What was the atmosphere and vibe like?
They were trying to very much play into Vegas the first night. They had had DJ Pauly D and Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys throwing out first pitches, [and] A’s legends like Rollie Fingers [calling out] “play ball!” They had a UFC announcer announcing the starting lineup like it was old-school boxing in Las Vegas, really trying to put the fanfare out there.
But one of the things that I've noticed is that there were a lot of people representing the teams that they actually root for. There were a lot of Dodgers caps, there were a lot of Brewers fans coming in for the series. It was a very mixed crowd, not necessarily all A's except for the jersey giveaway, but it was packed. They were announcing sellouts throughout the week.
I lived in Vegas before they had a pro team, and there was this excitement about just having professional sports around. They’ve since locked down several teams, but is that excitement still there?
It is, and it’s very different [from] the enthusiasm that locals have for the Vegas Golden Knights or the Las Vegas Aces. The Golden Knights actually started there, and then the Aces — when they relocated from Texas — were able to capture that market and because they've won a lot, a lot of people have bought into them.
With the Raiders the difference is that there's a lot of fans [from] away teams going to games, and it's more of “a home game for the road team” kind of feeling. One of the fears that some people have there is that’s what the A's will become with a team on The Strip. Locals don't necessarily want to switch their fandom from whatever team that they already root for, but they are excited that they don't have to travel really far to go see their team.
But there is still excitement there. One of the things that I did notice was that the energy at the ballpark was very high. Even though they were also playing a AAA ballpark there, and it was in the suburbs, there was an excitement for Major League Baseball.
Bringing it back home to West Sacramento, the A’s had some mixed reviews from their first season — both for the game performance and their attendance. How are they doing this year, have things improved?
One of the things that I had always noticed that was giving some adverse reactions [was] that they were not necessarily incorporating Sacramento into the brand. They're just called “The Athletics;” they're not picking up anything that says Sacramento. But now they have these “Sacramento Saturdays” where they have giveaways that say Sacramento on it. That doesn't necessarily mean that they're adopting the name “Sacramento Athletics” on anything, and it's just a holdover until they move.
The Athletics played Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento for Opening Day. They lost to the Cubs 18 to 3.Chris Felts/CapRadioThe reception still has seemed the same. There are a lot of people who are not happy that the A's left Oakland, that they're still in this transient stage and that this is only temporary in Sacramento. There's still a lot of standoffishness with Sacramento right now.
As far as attendance and seats goes, it varies. If the visiting team is a team that has a lot of fans there, they'll go. Giants series are usually packed there. The Yankees, Red Sox, the Dodgers are coming in at the end of the month, and a lot of people are anticipating those to be more packed crowds. There could be a random Royals game in the middle of the week and it's not necessarily as packed.
Sacramento recently launched an MLB bid of its own. What’s the likelihood that the region gets an expansion team in the next few years?
I would say right now it's low because MLB hasn't seriously considered looking into expanding. It's always just been an idea, but not anything that has started serious negotiations. There's a lot of cities that have bids out there. A lot of them have for years such as Salt Lake City or Raleigh, North Carolina, Nashville, Portland. But all of these bids are just to put an interest out there. There's still the process of trying to find an owner who's willing to invest in it, and nothing will really start until MLB declares that there will be an expansion process.
Right now MLB is focused on labor negotiations. They have the CBA coming up and the union is also a group that would have to be involved in the expansion process, because that's the players that they would be representing. It would be a lot of decision makers who would have to agree on the idea of MLB expansion
The Athletics play in Sutter Health Park, which is the home of the Sacramento River Cats. How have they been impacted by all this?
The ballpark is a little bit different. They constructed an entirely new clubhouse for the Athletics, it’s two stories [and] state-of-the-art, where the River Cats still have their home clubhouse. The plan was that the A's have theirs, the River Cats have theirs, and then visiting teams — Major League and Minor League — all are in the same small visiting Minor League clubhouse.
As far as how it's impacted with the ballpark, it's being used every day. Whereas before it would be used one week, and then there was a week for the grounds crew to fix the field, but now there is no time. So the field conditions are generally where the most concern has been, and last year there was a week where there were no games in Sacramento so that they could redo the field. There's been less concerns about the field this year, so that’s a change.
Minor League attendance has generally been down in the last 10 years. That's something that is kind of reflected with the River Cats’ attendance.
What are you going to be looking for as the season continues?
The thing with the American League is that they're not necessarily a great league; only five or so teams are at .500 or above. The A's actually have a chance to make the playoffs this year, which is surprising but it's also on account of there being so many bad teams. So whether or not Sacramento will see playoff baseball this year is something that is on a lot of people’s radar.
