The Oakland Athletics will share a stadium with the Sacramento River Cats for three seasons prior to moving to #LasVegas, the team said Thursday. The Cats are the Triple A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.
This kinda makes sense but dunno how the Sacramento team will feel having to play with a Double A [quality] #MLB team. It's a long time since Moneyball and all Billy Beane's awesomeness was ripped off by teams with scads more $$.
Still, the A's, while enduring a recent three-game sweep by the Boston Red Sox [Go Sox!], drew about 4,000 fans per game, easily half being Sox fans. Sacto's stadium capacity is 10,000. The A's did average 10K last year, but either way it's #NoProblem
In true Major League Baseball (MLB) fashion there's a club option for a fourth year. The A's will be called the Athletics or the A's for their time in Sacramento, dropping the word 'Oakland' — which can also only be good from a #branding perspective. Not just dropping the #Oakland part, but having no city at all on their name for four years. Then, what happens in #Vegas ... well, you know.
Vegas a'course is already well into becoming a sports mecca — the now Las Vegas Raiders, the Las Vegas Aces, the Vegas Golden Knights — a boon for #convention-goers staying an extra day or entertaining #clients, sunburn-easily #tourists, and local residents.
There are two Vegases after all: that 'what happens in' one, and the family-friendly one. Both can be pleased with the arrival of the A's, who perhaps will then have the dosh to keep players after working so hard to develop them ... only to see them currently and after several seasons decamp for hefty salary cities.
They're building a $1.1B stadium in the #Nevada desert.
Benjamin Siegel wd be proud.
#baseball
#sportsbusiness
#sports
#betting
