Las Vegas Ballpark

• Name: Las Vegas Ballpark
• GPS-able Address: 1650 S. Pavilion Center Dr., Las Vegas, NV 89135
• Ballpark Owner: Summerlin Las Vegas Baseball Club LLC (also owns Las Vegas Aviators)
• Architects: HOK
• Groundbreaking: 2/23/2018
• Minor League Baseball/Professional Development League Teams: Las Vegas Aviators (AAA) 2019-present
• Pro Baseball Class/League History: AAA/Pacific Coast League 2022-present; AAA/Triple-A West 2021; AAA/Pacific Coast League 2019-2020
• First Pro Baseball Game: 4/6/2019; stadium debut of Class AAA Aviators
• Others Playing or Operating Here: None
• Previous Ballpark Names: None
• LF: 340 CF: 400 RF: 340
• Seats: 8,155
• Stated Capacity: 8,196
• House Baseball/Softball Record Attendance (as currently configured): 12,111, 5/14/2019

Las Vegas Ballpark in Las Vegas, NV, is the home of the Las Vegas Aviators, the Oakland Athletics' Triple-A Pacific Coast League farm team. The Aviators appear to be about to share their market, and maybe temporarily their ballpark, with their parent A's.

With the A's having cleared the highest hurdles in their proposed move to Vegas, LVB could possibly host both teams for two or three seasons until a purpose-built ballpark is available for the major league team. Sacramento, CA, and Reno, NV, have also been mentioned as possibilities, presumably in those cities' existing Professional Development League ballparks.

A cloud may be appearing on the necessary-but-presumed vote of MLB team owners. Reportedly, many experts are questioning whether the existing plan will fit into the allotted nine acres, but the A's say the agreement allows for sharing additional space.[1]

After a decade of trying to find a new home in Oakland or the Bay Area or at least California, the Athletics-Vegas courtship was relatively brief but quite intense. The key was enough state funding for a new ballpark to make the plan work, and Nevada approved $380 million on June 15, 2023.

The big club's move to Vegas does not appear to put the farm club and playpen under the threat such a situation would usually create. Both teams say they like the idea of being in the same metropolitan area. The A's will need a place to play after their stadium lease expires following the 2024 campaign until a new big-league stadium can be built and opened, possibly during the 2027 campaign but more likely in time for 2028. LVB is perhaps the best non-MLB playpen in the United States and its seating capacity is more than the A's average attendance in 2023 - not that this is a high bar to clear.

A's president Dave Kaval has reiterated both points:[2]

1) "It’s going to be like the Golden Knights and the Silver Knights. Having two teams in town at the same time. It’s going to be great for player development."

2) "We have an agreement with the Aviators with Don [Aviators President Don Logan] and Howard Hughes [Corporation] to play at their stadium temporarily. We’re really deferring to Major League Baseball to kind of help us make that decision."

Opened in 2019, LVB also hosted some practices and skills competitions during NFL Pro Bowl Week in 2022 and will host the 2023 Triple-A Baseball National Championship game on September 30th. It was slated to host that event in 2020, but the Coronavirus pandemic erased it along with the entire Minor League Baseball season. There was no championship as such in 2021, but a Triple-A crowning event - under a different format - came to LVB in 2022, before the 2023 traditional one-game championship was again awarded to the ballpark.

The annual spring-training Big League Weekend, which was lost in the 2018-2019 stadium transition, returned in 2020 as a four-team, two-weekend event that barely beat the pandemic - which went on to kill the 2021 event. Late that year, the Aviators announced a two-team BLW for 2022, later expanded it to four, then lost them all to the 2021-2022 lockout. Rolling cancellations of the spring schedule killed the first weekend; then the March 10th settlement set spring training's start on the 18th but revamped the shortened schedule into the same pod-based concept that had been used in 2021. Finally, the 2023 BLWs came off unimpeded.

The Howard Hughes Corporation built the stadium for its ball club, spending $150 million after selling naming rights to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority for $80 million. Some seats are mesh-backed against the desert heat, there is a swimming pool beyond right field, and netting far above the left-field wall protects the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights' neighboring practice rink from home runs.

Architect HOK designed the stadium in its first foray into baseball after the expiration of the non-compete agreement that followed its spinoff of Populous - now the industry leader in building ballparks.

After only three years - and, thanks to the pandemic, only two actually played seasons - LVB's turf was replaced in February 2022. The original fescue grass was replaced with Bermuda, which needs significantly less water.

The ballpark replaced Cashman Field, which hosted the Las Vegas PCL franchise as the Las Vegas Stars and the Las Vegas 51s - and even some big-league games as a temporary home for none other than the A's in 1996.

A mural behind the third-base side luxury suites depicts the entire Vegas run of the franchise.