Las Vegas Continues Pursuit of Professional Sports Teams as Tourism Route

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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