Offensive Explosion at Las Vegas Ballpark May Not Mean Much for 2028

There are a few factors that should prevent the ball from flying out of the park on The Strip quite like it was last week during the Las Vegas Series.

There were plenty of home runs to celebrate during the Athletics' week in Las Vegas. | Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images

It’s been said that chicks dig the long ball. Well, the chicks would have absolutely loved the six-game stretch the Athletics just played at Las Vegas Ballpark in Summerlin South, Nev., as an appetizer of sorts to the main course that will be their grand opening of a new stadium in Las Vegas in 2028.

Las Vegas Ballpark, home to the Pacific Coast League’s Triple A Las Vegas Aviators, was less a ballpark and more a giant baseball trampoline that the Athletics, as well as the visiting Brewers and Rockies, used to send pitches into orbit at a ridiculous pace.

Inside the numbers of mind-boggling MLB Las Vegas Series power surge

The only thing hotter than the temperature in Las Vegas this past week were the bats deployed by the likes of the Athletics, Brewers and Rockies, who combined to belt 35 home runs and score 102 runs across the six games in Summerlin. There was a back-and-forth, 12-inning affair, won by the Brewers on June 8, in which 11 homers and 34 hits were collected. Then there was the final exclamation point that was Sunday’s Rockies-Athletics contest, where Colorado must have felt like they were back at Coors Field en route to a season-high six homers and 23 runs, the most runs scored in franchise history. Even in defeat, the Athletics did not go meekly, putting up nine runs on the scoreboard.

The offensive explosion begs the question.

Las Vegas Ballpark dimensions? Las Vegas elevation? Why was the MLB Vegas Series so hitter-friendly?

In terms of its dimensions, Las Vegas Ballpark is remarkably similar to baseball launching pad Coors Field.

Coors Field dimensions

Left field	Left-center field	Center field	Right-center field	Right field
347 feet	390 feet	415 feet	375 feet	350 feet

Las Vegas Ballpark dimensions

Left field	Left-center field	Center field	Right-center field	Right field
340 feet	380 feet	415 feet	380 feet	340 feet

And yet, Las Vegas Ballpark played very similarly to how one would expect a series at Coors to play out because of another similarity the Summerlin stadium shares with its Denver counterpart: higher elevation.

Las Vegas Ballpark sits at approximately 3,012 feet above sea level. While not quite a mile high like Coors, that would still comfortably rank second in MLB in terms of ballpark elevation. Couple the higher elevation with the dry, dead-heat of Las Vegas—temperatures hovered at or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the open-air stadium throughout the two series—that typically makes baseballs fly and voila, you have the perfect conditions for a home run derby.

One need look no further than the Aviators’ 2025 home-road splits to see that.

Aviators' 2025 hitting splits at Las Vegas Ballpark

Runs scored	Home runs	OPS
563	114	.904

Aviators' 2025 hitting splits on the road

Runs scored	Home runs	OPS
415	76	.787

What does offensive-charged MLB Las Vegas Series mean for Athletics in 2028?

The eruption of offense means Athletics’ 2028 home games at the new stadium are going to be homer-happy affairs, right? Not necessarily.

For starters, the dimensions of the Athletics’ permanent home have yet to be revealed as construction is nearing its beginning. Early on, the word was that the new ballpark would be 340 feet to left and right field, 380 feet to left-center, and 415 feet to center field, but these dimensions are unofficial. So, that’s a relative unknown. What we do know is that the site of the A’s new ballpark, in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip at the site of the former Tropicana Hotel, sits at an elevation of about 2,133 feet above sea level. That’s roughly 1,000 feet below the elevation of Las Vegas Ballpark, but 1,000 feet above the elevation of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chase Field, the second most-elevated ballpark in MLB and one of the league’s friendliest yards to hitters.

So while the elevation effect might not be felt in the bats quite to the level we saw at Las Vegas Ballpark, one could reason that the A’s new ballpark is likely to favor hitters near a level seen at Chase Field, which has ranked second to only Coors Field in Statcast’s Park Factor over the last three seasons. But that's just in terms of elevation.

Then, we arrive at how the new ballpark will combat the unrelenting Las Vegas heat. The new stadium is an enclosed dome with no retractable roof, roof panels, cable glass and a climate-controlled environment featuring circulated air conditioning under each seat.

It certainly won’t feel anything close to how hot it felt on the field at Las Vegas Ballpark, where the dry heat turned cans of corn into taters. And with a humidor, which will help offset the effects the heightened elevation will have on the baseballs, set to be in use, there are certain deterrents to a homer-happy environment that will be in play in the new ballpark in 2028.

All this to say, baseballs may carry at the A’s permanent home, just not as much as they did during the wild Las Vegas series.

---