The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Ex-a’s slugger wants team to move to Las Vegas

Jason Giambi says city’s fans would support attendance-starved club.

- By Mick Akers |

LAS VEGAS – The debate about the future home of the Oakland Athletics was on full display Saturday as the A’s lost, 10-9, to the Cincinnati Reds in the first game of Big League Weekend at Las Vegas Ballpark. A current player, pitcher Paul Blackburn, said he’d prefer the team remain in Oakland after its current lease expires after next season. But former A’s great Jason Giambi, a longtime Las Vegas resident, said he’s excited about the possibilit­y of the A’s relocating here.

The A’s are looking to build a new ballpark to replace their current home, Ringcentra­l Coliseum, which has been deemed inadequate by Major League Baseball and the A’s.

The team is working with the city of Oakland on a $12 billion Howard Terminal proposal that would include a 35,000-seat ballpark. They also are looking at three ballpark sites in Las Vegas, where they could relocate to build a $1 billion, retractabl­e roof stadium.

A’s manager Mark Kotsay said the relocation talk doesn’t affect the team, and that wherever they end up the team will go on nonetheles­s.

“That’s not something that we look toward,” Kotsay said. “Right now we’re in Oakland. That’s where we play our home games until something changes. In my mind we’re still on parallel paths on being in Oakland or in Vegas.”

Blackburn, an All-star last season for the A’s, said there’s no doubt the team needs a new ballpark, and he said he selfishly hopes that ends up happening in Oakland.

“Personally, I grew up in the Bay Area in Oakland, and the A’s have been there my whole life,” he said. “It’s a thing where it would be kind of nice to see the A’s stay in Oakland.”

But Giambi, who was interactin­g with A’s players during batting practice before the game, said the A’s moving to Las Vegas would be a home run.

“It would be amazing,” he said.

Giambi said despite Las Vegas’ ever-growing pro sports portfolio, there is more than enough fan support to go around.

“They’re dying to support it,” Giambi said of baseball fans in Las Vegas. “You have so many transplant­s, but I think people want to have a home team. We’ve turned into a legitimate­ly big city. We’re starting to become like L.A. We can support all these teams. I don’t see any of them going away any time soon.”

The A’s have been researchin­g a move from the Bay Area to Las Vegas for the better part of two years. Team brass, including Fisher and team President Dave Kaval, have made several trips to southern Nevada during that time.

A’s executives have met with resort owners, land owners, politician­s and tourism officials to figure out what it would take to move to the area and construct a $1 billion, retractabl­e roof stadium.

Although the A’s ballpark happenings have grabbed headlines in Las Vegas and the Bay Area, the team isn’t distracted by the ongoing situation, Blackburn said.

“It’s been something that’s been in talks for the last four or five years,” Blackburn said. “So it’s nothing we sit around and talk about in the locker room. … If sometime down the road relocation happens or a new stadium happens, it is what it is. It’s going to be the same mentality for us.”

Blackburn played for the Aviators, the Athletics’ Triple-a team that plays in a Las Vegas suburb, in 2019 and 2021. He said the fan support in Las Vegas for baseball is great and said he thinks that will carry over if the A’s land in the city.

“Every game I felt was packed out and people were into the game,” Blackburn said of his days with the Aviators. “I felt like they knew what was going on. I like that. I like when fans are involved in the game and they are excited for action.”

The A’s are down to three sites in serious contention for a Las Vegas ballpark — the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on the north Strip; the Tropicana on the south Strip; and the Rio, located just west of the Strip on Flamingo Road.

Aviators season ticket holder and lifelong A’s fan Tyler Polk said he would prefer the Rio, but anywhere would work for him, as long as they end up in Las Vegas.

“If it’s on the Strip, it’s going to be a sellout every game, unlike Oakland,” Polk said.

That would be the case because of the appetite for Major League Baseball in Las Vegas and the influx of fans of opposing teams, Polk said, much like what has happened with the Raiders at Allegiant Stadium.

Blackburn said it would be a different vibe playing baseball on the Strip as opposed to Summerlin, where the Aviators’ ballpark is located.

“Just because there’s a lot more people down there on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “I don’t think it would be different as far as fans are. There’s probably a lot of fans here that would make the drive down there to the Strip.”

The fans who turned up Saturday in Las Vegas left Kotsay impressed.

“The fans were great,” Kotsay said. “They were loud. They came out. I think it was a sellout. It’s exciting to play in front of people that had a lot of energy.”

If the A’s move to Las Vegas, Giambi said the affordabil­ity of living in this area compared to California will be a big draw for free agents.

“When you can have a family of four live in a beautiful home and not a little tiny house in the middle of nowhere,” Giambi said. “What free agent wouldn’t want to come here? What free agent wouldn’t take an undermarke­t deal to play in Vegas?”

 ?? ELLEN SCHMIDT/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL/TNS ?? Athletics fans watch from the outfield seating during a spring training game against the Reds at the Las Vegas Ballpark on Saturday. “The fans were great. They were loud. They came out. I think it was a sellout. It’s exciting to play in front of people that had a lot of energy,” says A’s manager Mark Kotsay.
ELLEN SCHMIDT/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL/TNS Athletics fans watch from the outfield seating during a spring training game against the Reds at the Las Vegas Ballpark on Saturday. “The fans were great. They were loud. They came out. I think it was a sellout. It’s exciting to play in front of people that had a lot of energy,” says A’s manager Mark Kotsay.
 ?? JIM WILSON/NEW YORK TIMES ?? The A’s are looking to build a new ballpark to replace their current home, Ringcentra­l Coliseum, which has been deemed inadequate by Major League Baseball and the A’s. Oakland already has seen its NFL team move to Las Vegas.
JIM WILSON/NEW YORK TIMES The A’s are looking to build a new ballpark to replace their current home, Ringcentra­l Coliseum, which has been deemed inadequate by Major League Baseball and the A’s. Oakland already has seen its NFL team move to Las Vegas.
 ?? ORLIN WAGNER/AP 2013 ?? Former A’s slugger Jason Giambi, who also played for the Yankees, Rockies and Indians, wants Oakland to move to Las Vegas. Giambi, who was at Saturday’s game, said the A’s moving to Las Vegas would be a home run.
ORLIN WAGNER/AP 2013 Former A’s slugger Jason Giambi, who also played for the Yankees, Rockies and Indians, wants Oakland to move to Las Vegas. Giambi, who was at Saturday’s game, said the A’s moving to Las Vegas would be a home run.

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