Can Las Vegas Support Three Major League Teams?

With it looking like the Oakland A's are relocating to Las Vegas, can the city support three major league and several minor league sports teams?

Las Vegas is certainly among the smaller markets for pro sports. One list of sports markets we saw ranks us at 36 out of 41, just below Milwaukee and just above Jacksonville. Similarly, Nielsen ranks Vegas 40th out of 46 markets, with 870,000 homes with TVs.

That said, Las Vegas isn’t exactly like other markets, since it has such a large visitor component to swell the ranks of local fans attending sporting events.

On the other other hand, the success of the Vegas Golden Knights and Las Vegas Raiders don’t automatically translate to a reverse of the fortunes of the Oakland Athletics. Still, locals who since the arrival of the VGK have shown themselves to be fairly rabid fans, plus the 40 million annual visitors, bode well for the A’s acceptance here.

Also, Las Vegas is the fastest growing sports market in the country, which gives it some cachet when it comes to visitors planning to attend their home-team away games in Las Vegas. So some of that will surely spill over into higher attendance figures for the A’s.

Of course, that’s not saying much. Last year, Oakland had the lowest attendance of all 30 MLB teams, averaging less than 10,000 per game, and this year is even worse. Some games barely break the 3,000 mark, not even 5% of the total number of seats in the A’s Oakland Coliseum home field. Embarrassing.

Heck, the A’s-affiliated minor-league Las Vegas Aviators average closer to 10,000 attendees per game, mostly filling the stadium. (Maybe Aviators’ fans will show up for A’s games if they share the Las Vegas Ballpark in the 2025-2026 seasons.)

Finally, we come to how many fans will show up to watch the A’s lose, and lose, and lose. The team had the smallest opening-day payroll in the MLB this season and as of this writing, they’re 8-28, a .222 win percentage, worst in the entire league. They’re also 3-15 at home.

Put it all together and it’s a totally mixed bag. Add to that the inauspicious ways in which Oakland’s management has approached this move (still mostly up in the air) and its bad blood with the Raiders and here’s our bottom line: We believe that Las Vegas can support not only three pro sports teams, but four (the NBA is almost certainly on its way). But whether or not the local and visiting fans will support the Oakland Athletics is another matter entirely.

What do you all think?

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Comments

jeepbeer May-12-2023

soccer

maybe like soccer, can they promote the Aviators and relegate the As and they can both stay where they are currently located?

Rick Sanchez May-12-2023

No support on Strip

I would be a season ticket holder if they played their games anywhere else than the Strip. The owner stated that he expects 70% of his fan base to be locals. I'm sorry that ain't going to happen if you build your stadium on the Strip. Us locals are no way in hell going to deal with the intersection of Trop and LVB 81 times a year.
I was OK but not thrilled with the WWW site. The Trop is a deal breaker for me and I'm sure many others.

May-12-2023

I'll visit

I'll fly in when they play the Orioles at least one time, Or schedule my bi-annual trips to Vegas around that.

Jetpilotrick May-12-2023

70% of locals….

Where do these owners get their data??  Did they do any sort of polling to find out that 70% of the patrons will come locally?  I don’t think so.  NOBODY on my neighborhood is remotely interested in seeing the A’s come to town.  No less they want the city of Las Vegas to help foot the bill?? Do some research, extreme small percentage wants the A’s here.  And, even less want to help build a stadium for them!  How narcissistic to come here and think we want to find their team!  STAY IN OAKLAND!

Ray May-12-2023

What was the question?

Or, should I say, "What was the answer?". Yes, LV could support them, but maybe they won't? Look, whenever any team from any sport moves, there is immediate interest, support, attendance and most often improvement in the team's records. Is it sustainable? Time will tell. Look how many times the Raiders have moved. To Rick's qualifier, the increase in visitor attendance will outweigh the loss of the few locals who won't go to the Strip. (At least in the minds of the ownership). And the reason that the small attendance in Oakland has gotten worse is a direct result of the inevitable move--part of the reason for the terrible record is waiting to spend money until they can make a big splash with the influx of cash and publicity with the move to Vegas.

AZmaddog May-12-2023

Local support

The Golden Knights have been unquestionably a success so far in Las Vegas. However, they have had good teams in all the years they've been in existence. Before we can predict how a mediocre A's team will be accepted in Las Vegas, we need to see what happens when the Golden Knights enter their "down" years, which in the NHL is inevitable due to salary caps and tendencies of clubs to keep their star players under long contracts even as their skills depreciate.

[email protected] May-12-2023

Comps

Easy, free play, must stay 3 innings, 6 innings doubles, 9 innings triples.
Locals casinos only.

IPA Noah May-12-2023

A's did it on purpose

Part of the reason the A's have the worst attendance is because they purposely built one of the worst major league baseball teams ever put on the field. It helps further their narrative that A's fans in Oakland don't want to support the team. Interest from out of town fans who come in for a series will be huge. I just wish I didn't hate this current ownership/management group as much. They are truly terrible and treated the people of Oakland terribly. That being said, build a winner and the bandwagon will always be there.

Mike Scudiero May-12-2023

A’s

As noted, already bigger than some markets and that says nothing of the 100,000 daily visitors to the city. Really hard to imagine this doesn’t work out. Not that they can do any worse on attendance than they currently do.

Dave_Miller_DJTB May-12-2023

Pay to go?

Sounds like [email protected] wants to test the phrase “You couldn’t pay me to go to an A’s game.”

Frankly, even if the A’s weren’t as shitty as they currently are, I think everyone is overestimating the numbers of people that will visit Vegas to see their home team play here. I mean, how many people go to so many home games that going to an away game becomes an option?

Hoppy May-12-2023

Monorail

Extend the LV Monorail to the A's Stadium District. (That would take care of moving about 10% of the fans).

BGIZMO68 May-12-2023

Traffic

Just what the strip needs is more traffic. The Rio would have been a better option.

CLIFFORD May-12-2023

BET

THEY WON'T BECOMING UNDER CURRENT CONDITIONS

Lotel May-12-2023

The Owners  will make money.

the A's and Raiders will make a lot of money but not a lot of success on the field. visiting team  fans and casinos  will buy up a lot of the seats and the A's and Raiders will have no home field crowd advantage  that helps teams  a lot in MLB and NFL.  just like that LA Chargers. more visiting team fans go to Chargers home games then Charger fans.

Jon Anderson May-12-2023

A's in Vegas

IF (and that's a big IF) the management puts a winning product on the field, they will come...if not...NOT !!!  very few folks turn out to see a crappy team day after day...you just gotta put on a good show or fans will catch on pretty quickly and go elsewhere for their jollies...
p.s. love the videos by anthony and andrew...go LVA !!!

Rick Sanchez May-12-2023

@JetPilotRick

I know a lot of people that would love to have MLB in Vegas. We obviously hang out with different crowds.
They did run a survey about a year ago asking locals their opinions on locations, pricing, size of stadium and many other ideas. So they did ask. Now if they read the responses or not is a different question.

Tim Clark May-12-2023

hockey fan

That's a lot of seats to fill 81 times a year compared to 41 for NHL, and a handful for NFL. I can see room rates jumping more so the little guy like myself will not be able to afford Vegas overall. Although the do need to put a viable team on the field or all your going to get is out of towner's coming to see their team.

DwWashburn9 May-12-2023

They need to win

The Golden Knights have an active fan base because they are winners.  The Raiders have drawn well even though they put a substandard product on the field but such is the nature of pro football.  If the As don't improve after they get here, their support in years 3 and beyond will be minimal except for tourists who want to see their home town teams play the Vegas team.

Question of the Day - 12 May 2023

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