Las Vegas Sports Voices Don’t Want A’s In Utah

Jan 26, 2024, 11:06 AM | Updated: 11:13 am

The Oakland Athletics mascot Stomper stands on the field during a game delay to due a faulty lighting tower before the game against the Cincinnati Reds at the Oakland Coliseum on May 7, 2019 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)

(Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)

BY JEREMY MAUSS

KSL Sports

SALT LAKE CITY – The Oakland Athletics are moving to Las Vegas but that is not until the 2028 season which is when the new stadium will be ready.

In the meantime, the A’s need a place to play and reports indicate team officials are considering Salt Lake City as a temporary home.

One Vegas radio station thinks they A’s should head straight to Las Vegas in 2025 to play at the home of their Triple-A club the Las Vegas Aviators.

“They should play here. We have the best stadium of all the ones that they just talked about,” Justin Watkins of ESPN 1100 said. “We have the highest capacity. The Triple-A group is a part of the A’s organization. It’s not like we’re displacing another team’s affiliate. We could just play at that ballpark like every day and try to work out the schedule.”

Scheduling around two teams would be a nightmare for all teams involved, having the A’s play in Utah for a few summers eliminates that issue altogether.

VIDEO – @BattleBornJW is wondering why the A's are looking at Sacramento and Salt Lake for a home from 2025-2027?

Why aren't they playing in Nevada the entire time? @mejvt has his say too.

WATCH – pic.twitter.com/PxnMpZxXfv

— COFIELD (@stevecofield) January 23, 2024

“I think this would be a tryout for them to be an expansion city, which would send me over the edge,” Coefield said.

The reason that may send someone “over the edge” is because the new Las Vegas A’s will still have the same ownership that is in Oakland. That ownership group has a reputation of being frugal with its payroll and seems to focus on profit and not putting out a competitive product.

An expansion team in Salt Lake would allow for that team to have a new ownership group in place that would want to put the focus on being immediately competitive.

.@JeremiahJensen makes a great case for Salt Lake over Las Vegas to host the A’s as temporarily. pic.twitter.com/yoABdfZHAa

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) January 25, 2024

Of the cities in place that want to host the Athletics for three seasons, it seems that the Larry H. Miller Group have one of the best plans out there and they already have an organization set up in Big League Utah with the goal of eventually bringing an MLB team to Utah.

They already are trying to land an expansion franchise, there is a brand new stadium being built for the Salt Lake Bees in Daybreak that will have the proper amenities for a big league plug, plus the weather in Salt Lake City gives a huge advantage over the other possibilities which include Sacramento, Las Vegas, or Reno.

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