San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)

Not minor league: Dave Kaval says the A’s could resort to using Las Vegas’ Triple-A park temporaril­y if it came to that.

- By Matt Kawahara Matt Kawahara covers The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: mkawahara@sfchronicl­e.com Twitter: @matthewkaw­ahara

ARLINGTON, Texas — Would the A’s really consider using their TripleA affiliate’s ballpark as a temporary home if they were to leave Oakland for Southern Nevada?

A’s team president Dave Kaval suggested as much to the Las Vegas ReviewJour­nal on Friday, saying the idea is “something we’re exploring” as part of looking at options in the Las Vegas area at the same time as the team pursues a new ballpark in Oakland.

A’s officials have made several “factfindin­g” visits to the Las Vegas area while Oakland’s City Council nears a key vote on the team’s nonbinding term sheet for a $12 billion project proposal that includes a ballpark at Howard Terminal.

The A’s lease at the Coliseum runs through 2024. Their TripleA affiliate, the Aviators, plays at Las Vegas Ballpark, a 10,000seat stadium in nearby Summerlin that opened in 2019.

Kaval told The Chronicle that if the A’s needed a temporary home, he does consider Las Vegas Ballpark “an option,” but for now the scenario is “hypothetic­al.”

“There’s no real planning that’s gone into that per se,” Kaval said in a phone interview Friday. “But I think in general if it was required, like maybe for a gap year before (a new Las Vegas stadium) was done, I think it’s possible, only because that facility is so state of the art and top notch, and you don’t always have something like that that’s a $150 million facility in its own right.”

The Aviators’ park is modern but was built as a minorleagu­e venue. Kaval acknowledg­ed moving the A’s into what is now a TripleA ballpark would not be the team’s decision alone.

“It would have to be something that Major League Baseball would endorse and approve,” Kaval said. “But I think in terms of if it was a shortterm option, and it was necessary because there were no other options, I think it would probably be considered.

Look at what’s happened this year with the Blue Jays and things like that. There have been other examples of that in the recent era that have kind of been similar or probably even lesser experience­s than what that would be.”

The Toronto Blue Jays played home games in the pandemicsh­ortened 2020 season at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, N.Y., the home of their TripleA affiliate, due to travel restrictio­ns between Canada and the U.S., and are back at Sahlen Field after beginning this season playing home games at their spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla.

In Oakland, the Coliseum is considered outdated, having housed the A’s since 1968. The A’s Oakland proposal includes a $1 billion, privately financed ballpark. Kaval, and MLB, have argued the Coliseum is not viable for a new stadium, not being in a downtown setting.

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