Portland mentioned again as possible MLB town

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by cjseliga

It is not, but their AAA team (Las Vegas Aviators) does draw quite well for playing baseball outside in that crazy heat during those summer nights!

If a MLB team does come to Las Vegas, and that's a big IF, they will have a retractable roof stadium for sure.

Yep. But that's a $2 billion investment and if some team was going to pay that on their own, they would just stay put and build it in their own city, like Oakland. The East Bay is a much larger media market than Vegas. If the A's are going to drop a billion dollars of their own money into a stadium they might as well build it right there in Oakland where they don't need to put on a a retractable roof.

Vegas already maxed out its bond borrowing and hotel taxes to pay for Allegiant Stadium for the Raiders. I don't think they can go to that well again so soon to pay for an equally expensive (or more expensive) retractable roof MLB stadium.

[skeddy]

there would be a fear of burning down the stadium if one were to be built in Portland. Never happen.

[MacInTx]

Let them build a stadium in Portland. Let them field a team.


Only home runs to left field will leave the grounds. They'll build a 500 foot tall wall in right field, like Boston's Green Monster.

[JonathanLB]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

The A's won't move to Vegas either. It is one thing to attract fall and winter sports to Vegas like the NFL and NHL. It's another thing entirely to attract outdoor summer sports like baseball. Allegiant Stadium which was built at a cost of $1.9 BILLION to attract the Raiders can't be aligned for baseball. So Vegas would have to build another $2 billion domed stadium to attract a MLB team. Because summer outdoor baseball in the sun is not happening in Vegas. And as deep as the pockets might be in Vegas, I don't think they are THAT deep. There are only so many surcharges you can put on rental cars and hotel rooms and people like their low taxes as well.

The NBA is possible because Vegas already built T-Mobile arena for the Golden Knights and it is ready for an NBA tenant with little or no modification. But if I had my guess, I would think that Seattle would be a more likely location for an NBA expansion team now that they are completely remodeling Key Arena for the NHL Kraken. It is a much bigger and wealthier media market than Vegas.

The average daily highs in Vegas exceed 100 degrees from June through August and average 107 in July. That's not friendly outdoor baseball weather.

No doubt Seattle is a top target for the NBA, but current rumors suggest they’d be open to a two team expansion and they want a team in Vegas. What people forget is we don’t operate like other cities, it doesn’t matter how many people live here, the Golden Knights have fans all over the world even. Hockey fans fly in here to enjoy a vacation and hockey games. We’ve never relied on only locals for anything, and wouldn’t with baseball either.

As for Allegiant, that does seem the consensus, that Vegas is tapped out and wouldn’t easily be able to provide direct money for a stadium. But Henderson isn’t. And we already made a pitch to get the Diamondbacks, we made the same pitch for the A’s. That’s why it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they end up here instead of Las Vegas proper.

I fully suspect the A’s are using Vegas as leverage for Oakland, but if Oakland doesn’t budge - which they didn’t with the Raiders - they’ll end up coming here. I don’t agree at all that the “East Bay” is a bigger media market lol that seems very uninformed. That’s a small market team - SF roots for the Giants. They’ve won repeated and recent championships. It hurts the A’s immensely to have no real media market of their own. The Golden Knights have media market rights to parts of CA, all of Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. You can carve out a large media market playing here, much larger than Oakland. I think they’d do well here. PS: We don’t mind the heat here if it’s at night, and games wouldn’t start before 7 pm even if it was a closed stadium.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by JonathanLB

No doubt Seattle is a top target for the NBA, but current rumors suggest they’d be open to a two team expansion and they want a team in Vegas. What people forget is we don’t operate like other cities, it doesn’t matter how many people live here, the Golden Knights have fans all over the world even. Hockey fans fly in here to enjoy a vacation and hockey games. We’ve never relied on only locals for anything, and wouldn’t with baseball either.

As for Allegiant, that does seem the consensus, that Vegas is tapped out and wouldn’t easily be able to provide direct money for a stadium. But Henderson isn’t. And we already made a pitch to get the Diamondbacks, we made the same pitch for the A’s. That’s why it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they end up here instead of Las Vegas proper.

I fully suspect the A’s are using Vegas as leverage for Oakland, but if Oakland doesn’t budge - which they didn’t with the Raiders - they’ll end up coming here. I don’t agree at all that the “East Bay” is a bigger media market lol that seems very uninformed. That’s a small market team - SF roots for the Giants. They’ve won repeated and recent championships. It hurts the A’s immensely to have no real media market of their own. The Golden Knights have media market rights to parts of CA, all of Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. You can carve out a large media market playing here, much larger than Oakland. I think they’d do well here. PS: We don’t mind the heat here if it’s at night, and games wouldn’t start before 7 pm even if it was a closed stadium.

The North Bay Area (SF, Oakland and burbs) has a population of 7.7 million and a GDP of about $531 billion. And that's not even including the South Bay and Silicon valley which has a population of 2 million and a GDP of $331 billion, and the nearby Sacramento area which has a population of 2.5 million and a GDP of $145 billion.

The Las Vegas metro area (including Henderson) has a population of 2.2 million and a GDP of $122 billion (the entire state of Nevada only has a population of 3.3 million and a GDP of about $178 billion).

The Portland metro has a population of 2.5 million and a GDP of $164 billion
and Seattle has a metro population of 4.0 million and a GDP of $392 billion

But keep telling yourself that Vegas is bigger and richer and has more money to throw around.

And if you think Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah will all start rooting for the A's just because they moved to Vegas then you are kidding yourself. ID and MT are both Mariners territory, and WY is Denver territory. Anyway, broadcast media markets don't much matter anymore in this age of streaming. If I'm a baseball fan living in MT, WY, ID, or UT I can stream every game from any team I want at mlb.tv for $105 for the entire season or $25/month.

[SusVelo]

Person even has their own thread about it lol.

[take57]

With significant investor Russell Wilson now working in Denver, I think his interest in in keeping a stake in Portland (or anything PNW) is probably lacking. Yes, I know, people are able to conduct business from afar but being committed to a business three hours away by air is different critter than having the same commitment when it only took 45 min to fly to Portland from Seattle.

We'll see but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a press release in the future basically saying the same thing. I think he'll be spending a fair amount of time and focus winning the hearts and minds of Coloradans rather than some vaporware operation in Portland.

[pnwguy2]

Again, it comes back to a stadium. Build one and they will come. Wait for them to come, and they won't.