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The surprising A’s have made a series of significant moves this week to establish themselves further in their forthcoming Las Vegas home, including hiring a former skeptic as team president, releasing a new set of stadium renderings, and locking up another key player.
The efforts arrived as the team Friday began taking ticket deposits for a planned $1.75 billion ballpark along the famed Las Vegas Strip that is due to open in 2028.
Leadership Shuffle
The A’s named former Raiders president Marc Badain to the same position with the MLB club, succeeding Dave Kaval, who left at the end of last year, and interim president Sandy Dean, who now moves to a vice chairman role. Badain previously spent 30 years with the Raiders, helping lead the NFL team’s similar relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas, before being pushed out in 2021 amid a series of alleged financial irregularities. Since then, Badain has been involved with Oak View Group in efforts to bring an NBA-ready arena to Nevada.
Perhaps most notable regarding the A’s, Badain previously conveyed sizable doubt about MLB’s likelihood of success in Las Vegas.
“I think it’s a little more challenging,” Badain said in 2023 at a conference regarding MLB’s prospects for success in the market. “The economics of baseball are very different than the other three sports. Regional sports television comes into play here. This is not a huge market for that. And you’re going to have to sell 2.5 million tickets. That’s not easy.”
Now, Badain is offering a somewhat different sentiment.
“The challenges that MLB has versus what [the] NFL has are pretty well documented,” Badain told The Athletic. “You start [addressing that] with the stadium, and then you start with an incredible design, and you start with a great product and a great experience. I have no doubt we’ll be able to achieve that here.”
New-Look Venue
The A’s, meanwhile, released a new set of renderings regarding the Las Vegas ballpark, addressing a series of critical missing pieces in prior drawings, including bullpens, a batter’s eye, and luxury seating. The enclosed stadium design is continuing with the unusual “spherical armadillo” concept first unveiled last year.
“It freed us up from some of the constraints that you might typically have within a ballpark, both in seating and environments,” HNTB’s Emily Louchart, one of the stadium designers, said in a presentation Thursday to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority.
Another Big Signing
The A’s have also signed outfielder Lawrence Butler to a seven-year, $65.5 million contract extension, according to multiple reports, with the 24-year-old seen as a long-term cornerstone for the team.
The deal, the third-largest guarantee in franchise history, is the latest in a series of offseason pacts for the A’s, showing a heightened aggressiveness from the club. Other recent deals include a three-year, $67 million contract for pitcher Luis Severino and a five-year, $60 million extension for designated hitter Brent Rooker.
Some of that activity likely owes to pressure from the MLB Players Association regarding the use of revenue-sharing funds. The A’s now have a projected luxury-tax payroll of $106.7 million for the 2025 season, well above the comparable $80.4 million figure from last year.
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