Update: Oakland A's put in binding offer for Las Vegas stadium

That's a good point... although the Vegas media market is growing faster than many other MLB cities just above it right now (Milwaukee, Cincy, KC), so that probably won'd hold true over the next 5 years given natural migration patterns.

I agree that baseball requires a different level of media market and corporate backing vs. even the NBA which is very much a 'smaller town' sport when looking at how many 1 pro sport cities they currently have (SA, Portland, Sacramento, Orlando, Memphis, OKC, SLC). Granted, a lot of that team placement was by design back when the NBA was a for-sure 3rd in the pecking order of pro sports, and markets were sought where their teams could have more of the local attention.

While I would also prefer Oakland to stay put and eventually expect the local officials to figure it out, I would expect a Vegas team's ancillary revenue would largely be supported by the gaming industry. They'd likely receive near the top of all corporate sponsorship rates in terms of naming rights for the stadium, and ad spots. And in the end, it boils down to whether or not a franchise valuation is more in one city vs. another. The Raiders went from 2.9 to 3.1 billion with the move. The A's currently valued at 1.13 billion, likely would see an increase as well.

 

ATL Shawty. ATL.

 

Franchise valuation is important, but what does this do to the sport as a whole? If you move out of a major television market to a small one, how does that reflect on national television ratings? There are collateral consequences to MLB above and beyond the individual team's value.

 

I think the Oakland to vegas move is going to happen. We'll see how it plays out

 

Values in the NFL go up every year. I'm not sure the Raiders going from 2.9 billion to 3.1 billion is that extraordinary given that the entire league saw in increase in value of around 7%....the exact change the Raiders saw. They were on par with league average franchise value appreciation.

I have no doubt the A's franchise value will increase when they get a new ballpark, regardless of where it is built. That they need a new ballpark and would benefit from a new ballpark is a given. If Oakland won't build them one, then the advantage of their media market size won't matter. So then it's a comparison of Vegas to other potential markets...potentially San Jose, Charlotte, Nashville, or Portland, I'd imagine.

 

Baseball is largely a locally driven numbers sport. Even when the most populous market teams are in the World Series, that doesn’t necessarily drive up ratings.

I don’t know what Oakland’s viewership numbers are. Yes, they’re lumped into a very populous area but that still doesn’t mean they’re all tuning in or the entire region is behind them. If they were, then getting a new stadium would be a no brainer.

Vegas is a growing market with national appeal. I don’t know if it’s current growth rate is sustainable, but at this rate they would eclipse several other baseball cities and very possibly have an audience similar to Oakland proper. That being said, I would think Oakland with a new stadium would do very well attendance wise. We know the fans there are passionate and show up for a winning team... it’s that bad of a current facility.

 

Does Brad Pitt still work for Oakland?

 

You forgot the Astros relocated to the AL.

 

Tell that to the Houston Oilers. RIP.

Lack of fan support had nothing to do with the team leaving.

 

A different era... where it was thought that new stadiums in the NFL were the end-all/be-all.

Turned out media market size, the NFL’s national media rights deals, and local TV/radio deals were all that matter. Check out the Titans franchise value. Then look at the Texans franchise value. The difference is solely based on the vastly superior size of Houston’s market.

Also, as we have all seen, the city was always going to be willing to build new facilities... they just weren’t willing to build them for Bud Adams who cried wolf one too many times.

Now baseball, where the local team gets all 81 game revenues... and usually controls the surrounding businesses/venues nowadays... does have a large component of overall revenue.

 

AL is real baseball and NL is more like Cricket correct?

 

Oakland A’s officials plan to tour Las Vegas next week

https://www.reviewjournal.com/sport...t-week-2356612/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

 

The NFL is perfect for Vegas. Once a week entertainment. One game on a Sunday afternoon. Perfect.

 

But their NHL team is also doing pretty well. I would think that would be the ‘hardest’ sell given the sport, league, time of year, warm city location, etc.... but that hasn’t mattered much.

 

Absolutely. And it might forever be that way. Smaller markets can absorb arena sports well, because a "good" crowd is around 17,000. There's also a tremendous novelty effect in place right now...the team was in the Stanley Cup Finals in their first season. I'm not sure there's a market of similar size in America that wouldn't support that. The question, what happens in what would be the smallest media market in MLB when you add a 3rd team to the mix and they need about double what an NHL teams needs in terms of nightly attendance over twice as many nights? What happens if the novelty wears off and that team isn't very good? If Vegas is the only market that is willing to build a new ballpark, then that question isn't important...but I'm assuming there will be more than one market willing to build a ballpark. And if one of those markets is Oakland, then I'd argue it makes no sense to move. If not, then it would be Vegas and whoever else competing for it.

 

I would make an effort to attend an Astros roadie in Vegas every year.

 

All good points. In the end, Vegas will be bigger than the bottom third of the mlb markets within a few years. And it’s clearly a “different” market in terms of the vast amount of tourists or conference goers that will make up attendance at the majority of these events.

Whether or not that works long term remains to be seen... but I could see the sport benefitting from having a presence there.