Las Vegas makes pitch to Athletics with 'a better opportunity'

LAS VEGAS — While the Oakland Athletics mull the possibility of moving to Southern Nevada, Las Vegas baseball officials insist the gaming capital is ready to take on a Major League Baseball franchise.

Las Vegas has been home to a Triple-A team since 1983, and currently, the club is the Athletics' affiliate. The city is also playing host to the A's and Cincinnati Reds this weekend for a two-game spring training series at Las Vegas Ballpark.

«Las Vegas had always been a unique sports market, a really good sports market,» Don Logan, president and COO of the Triple-A Aviators, told ESPN on Saturday. «It makes sense. My perspective, make the best deal you can in Vegas and start to turn this community on. And every other [fan base] on.

»Las Vegas offers a dynamic that no other team has. We have 45 million visitors annually in this market, and that's what we want — heads in beds. That's what Las Vegas is about."

Logan, who acknowledged a retractable-roof stadium would be needed for the summer, when temperatures regularly hit 110 degrees, said Las Vegas first looked at the A's in a «quiet examination» for potential relocation in 2004.

«It's a better opportunity here [for the A's] in the long term.»

Las Vegas was affiliated with the San Diego Padres from 1983 to 2000, the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2001 to '08, the Toronto Blue Jays from 2009 to '12, the New York Mets from 2013 to '18 and has been affiliated with the A's since 2019.

The A's, meanwhile, have played in the Oakland Coliseum since moving from Kansas City in 1968 and have also flirted with San Jose and Fremont. They also are exploring a waterfront site in Oakland.

Asked if he preferred a new stadium in Oakland or Las Vegas, A's general manager David Forst said, «I'm