In the latest twist in the Athletics‘ maybe-move to Las Vegas, MLB has announced the team will play six home games next year at the home of the Las Vegas Aviators, Las Vegas Ballpark, which is not in Las Vegas but nearby Summerlin but has a naming rights deal with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, before the team’s planned 2028 move to a new stadium on the Las Vegas Strip, which is also not technically in Las Vegas — let me start again.
When A’s owner John Fisher burned his bridges with Oakland last year, he settled on Sacramento as a temporary home for the team because, apparently, he knew the minor-league team owner there and was able to cut a deal to rent the stadium for three entire seasons. Now everyone in Sacramento hates him, though, and nobody believes he’s really moving to Las Vegas now that construction costs are through the armadillo, so, apparently, he’s decided to move up the timeline for playing games in Vegas(ish), but only for two series in June:
The games — three with the Milwaukee Brewers, June 8-10, followed by three with the Colorado Rockies, June 12-14 — will be played at Las Vegas Ballpark in Summerlin after approval by Major League Baseball on Tuesday.
Why June? The A’s didn’t say, and you’d think they’d want to go a bit earlier to get the games in before the temperatures get quite so sweltering. Fisher doesn’t appear to have made any public statements about the upcoming Vegas series, which was just dropped along with the rest of MLB’s 2026 schedule, so we can only speculate: Maybe it just slots in well with the MLB 2026 special events calendar, including celebrating (?) the 25th anniversary of 9/11? Your theories are welcome.
That first series is Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday. That will be a great draw.
Milwaukee Brewers fans will definitely make the trip. I’ll give them credit. That fanbase (like the Packers) travels quite well.
Surprised the MLBPA approve this. Your temporary home with also have a temporary home. So plan your family commitments accordingly.
Kinda reminds me of what most teams in NPB (Japan’s pro baseball league) do, where they’ll basically farm out several home games per year to either smaller, “provincial” cities in Japan, or to larger venues in Tokyo or Osaka — my team, the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, usually do a mix of both every year.
Of course, every NPB team has its own dedicated ballpark to play its home games in, and it’s been decades since one of its teams has found itself in a nomadic state as the A’s have.
Japan is also slightly smaller than the state of California, and they have high-speed rail so it’s not a huge hardship to get to one of those farmed-out games.
Was the link about everyone in Sacramento hating John Fisher supposed to go to an article about the Grateful Dead? I kept reading the article trying to find the connection…
Fixed, sorry about that! (It wasn’t even a good article about the Grateful Dead…)
I presume the motivation for games in June is, “f*** the haters, I get what I want!” Much like every other major decision in FIsher’s life up until now.
Spare a thought for the buskers who will be furiously pushing comped tickets all up and down the Strip that week. This cannot fail!
Will a John Fisher bobblehead be a giveaway during that “homestand”?
Yes, but the bobblehead itself will be stuck up the figurine’s ass for authenticity reasons.
Summerlin isn’t actually a city in the Las Vegas metro area. Summerlin is technically Las Vegas, with a Las Vegas address.
Vegas has only three real cities: Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Henderson. While Paradise is its own entity, separate from Las Vegas, it is not considered a full city. But it is where the airport and the majority of the Strip is located.
For those games the A’s should change their name to the Blues, because there ain’t no cure the Summerlin Blues.
Nice one
Why June? It’s the Second Annual Empty Week at Sutter Health Park.
You may or may not recall that b the primary tenant, the Sacramento River Cats, had a week of home games shipped to Tacoma this past June in order to “rest the field” and make any necessary fixes while nobody was in the park.
In 2026, the Homeless Athletics get to move a week of home games for maintenance. The River Cats are in Texas to play Sugar Land while the Athletics are in Vegas.
And of course this is supposed to fool the marks into thinking there’s progress. But if the shell of the new stadium isn’t built by the time the Athletics drop in next June, Fisher will have blundered into a whole new set of unwelcome questions.
Excellent point, that makes total sense for the timing.
“But if the shell of the new stadium isn’t built by the time the Athletics drop in next June…”
They won’t have the shell of a stadium by then. Fisher and Manfraud will just hem and haw their way through unwelcome questions like they always do.
Typically of the greatly unwashed manor of thinking, you people just don’t get it.
Don’t feel bad. It isn’t your fault you aren’t smart like the owners and me and can’t see the forest fires for the trees.
Six games in Summerlin courtesy of Hughes Corp this year.
Next year we add six games at Hiram Bithorn and a mid August expansion extravaganzas in Nashville to highlight its inviolability as a future home of an MLB club. After that? Well, I am not going to be the one to give away the golden goose that slays its eggs.
Yes, this is just the start. Pretty soon you won’t even remember there is an Oakland. Or a Las Vegas.
The Homeless Athletics will become like that unwanted uncle who sleeps on the living room couch and, after a couple of weeks, moves on to the next relation. The Couch Surfing Athletics! Has a nice ring . . .
I mean…Building #7 fell due to the damage of both Twin Towers, which of course is logical.
There, I started the mess.
Is he trying to move the A’s to Vegas so slowly and stealthily that literally nobody will notice?