A's Las Vegas Renderings Less Than a Week Away?
Back in January Howard Stutz of the Nevada Independent reported that the Oakland A's ballpark renderings could be delayed until Big League Weekend when the team plays two games against the Milwaukee Brewers in Las Vegas.
Over the past few weeks, the A's have said they're waiting on Bally's to figure out what they're doing and Bally's has said they're waiting on the A's before joint renderings can come out, showing vision for the ballpark and the new casino-hotel on the Tropicana site.
Releasing the renderings next weekend would make the most sense in terms of the A's making a splash and grabbing some headlines in their potential new market. If the renderings look good, they could even provide the club with a much-needed PR boost.
Yet, there hasn't been any indication that the pretty pictures are imminent. To be fair, the renderings are for the public and not really needed in order to move the relocation process along. Those pictures being out in the world isn't going to help the A's land a lease extension with Oakland to play an additional three seasons at the Coliseum, and they're not going to help John Fisher bring on any minority investors in the team.
Those are two aspects to the relocation saga that are much bigger than the public finally seeing what the ballpark might actually look like, at least in terms of getting the project done.
But what if they don't come out next weekend? When would they come out?
The most vindictive answer would be on Opening Day. Sure, it would be a good time because of the amount of eyeballs they could reach, but it would also take away from the sport as a whole and bring the focus to what's going on in Oakland. It's more likely that MLB would like people to think about the A's relocation as little as possible given the level of uncertainty surrounding the project.
Opening Day also happens to be when A's fans are planning a boycott in the parking lot, which is sure to grab a number of headlines. Dropping some renderings on the same day would quiet some of the noise that gathering is sure to make. It would also be eerily reminiscent of when SB1 passed through the Nevada senate on June 13, as fans began to gather for the reverse boycott. SB1 was the bill that provided the A's with $380 million in public funding.
It seems as though the renderings will be dropped sooner rather than later, but the A's also don't necessarily need them to come out any time soon. When they are inevitably released, they have to be fairly accurate, too, so it's important that they wait until they have something that represents the project they have planned, but is also going to be embraced by the public.
If they're going to be released next weekend, you would think that it would happen on Friday, the first game of the series, in order to create a buzz for the entire weekend. We'll just have to wait and see what the A's have planned this week and how they promote their first games in Las Vegas since the relocation announcement.