- Future Las Vegas A’s fans can view a model of the team’s proposed new stadium on the Strip
- While visiting the exhibition, fans can also buy season tickets to attend games in the real stadium — should it actually be built
A miniature model of the 33K-seat ballpark the former Oakland Athletics are building on the Las Vegas Strip is now on display to the public in a preview and premium ticket sales office.
The 1:200 scale model, created by Las Vegas-based ModelWorks AJT, is the centerpiece of a 12K square-foot Ballpark Experience Center that opened this week at UnCommons, a mixed-use residential, retail, dining and event complex in Southwest Las Vegas.
The center also includes the Immersive Cube, a 270-degree digital projection room with 26.5 million pixels simulating views of the 33K-seat ballpark from its pitcher’s mound.
Other exhibits include a clubhouse-themed area housing replicas of the four World Series trophies the team won in Oakland (1972, 1973, 1974, and 1989 — though the Philadelphia A’s also won World Series in 1910, 1911, 1913, 1929, and 1930).
Finally, there’s a life-size elephant sculpture — a nod to the team mascot born in 1902, after New York Giants manager John McGraw mocked the Philadelphia Athletics by saying they had a “white elephant on their hands.”
Expect Hardball Pitches
The Ballpark Experience Center is open by appointment only. This — and the fact that it’s about a 15-minute drive from the Strip — reveals its primary purpose: to sell season tickets and premium memberships to wealthy Las Vegas residents in a luxury car showroom-like environment.
One also can’t help but assume a secondary purpose — to sell the public at large on the notion that the $1.75-$2 billion stadium, promised in time for the 2028 season, will actually get built.
Though $380 million in public funding is secured for construction on the former Tropicana Las Vegas site, formal contracts for the remaining $1.6 billion are not — though Nevada officials have repeatedly stated that team owner John Fisher and his family have the equity to cover $1.1 billion. The rest is supposed to come from a $300 million loan from US Bank and Goldman Sachs, as well as investor equity that has yet to materialize.
Fans interested in an appointment to tour the Ballpark Experience Center can visit athletics.com/vegas.
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