LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Before the Oakland Athletics played the Milwaukee Brewers at Las Vegas Ballpark Friday night, young fans got a chance to get up close with their favorite players.
“We get signatures, we get to see them, they get to know us,” one young fan told FOX5. “It’s pretty fun.”
A’s President Dave Kaval felt similarly excited before the game.
“To have the team here, to build on the momentum of having the renderings come out and share our vision of the new ballpark, it’s going to be a great weekend,” he said.
Those renderings of the proposed ballpark on the site of the Tropicana made their 3-dimensional debut Friday.
“The ballpark is covered by these kind of major arches that are sort of almost like pennants in shape, like triangles,” lead architect Bjarke Ingels explained in front of a model of the stadium. “They arch over the ballpark.”
Ingels says the 9-acre limit for the stadium’s footprint wound up leading to a more intimate design.
“For a ballpark, you want to create the greatest possible intimacy and proximity to the game, to the players,” he said. “I think by making it more compact, we create more energy and we create more proximity and intimacy with the sport.”
Rollie Fingers, who won three consecutive World Series with the A’s in the 1970s, and currently lives in Las Vegas, is looking forward to seeing the A’s play in the proposed ballpark, which is scheduled to open in 2028.
“I think this city can certainly handle it,” Fingers said. “I think there’s a lot of baseball fans here. Las Vegas is a destination city from all over the world.”
A’s owner John Fisher says the ballpark will help the team hold onto its star players, which he called his responsibility. He plans to do so by increasing the team’s revenue stream.
“Over the last several years, we’ve lost some great, great players,” Fisher said. “We don’t want that to happen anymore, and this new stadium is going to allow us to be able to hold them and be able to sign new players as well.”
The stadium is scheduled to break ground next year after the Tropicana is demolished, and is set to open in time for the 2028 baseball season.
The A’s dropped Friday night’s game 5-4 to the Brewers. Game two of Big League Weekend is Saturday, with the first pitch set for 1:00 p.m.
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