A's Taking Inspiration For Las Vegas Ballpark From There?
It should come as no surprise that when the A's are looking for inspiration for their new ballpark that they would look to the most cookie cutter facility in baseball.
A's president Dave Kaval talked to (surprise, surprise) Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal about the designs they have in mind for their new Las Vegas ballpark, and said that the team is drawing inspiration from Globe Life Field in Texas.
Now, cards on the table, I have never been to the new ballpark in Arlington, so it may be a grand experience, but from what my eyes are telling me, as well as what I've herd from people that have visited, it's not very high on the list of places I have to go immediately.
In the article, Akers touts some of the amenities that the Texas ballpark boasts, like 70 suites with 13 between the dugouts, the most in baseball. Or how about the fact that it has 11 broadcast booths or a 50,000 square foot home clubhouse!
Sounds pretty cool, huh Vegas?
Here's the kicker: The Rangers ballpark, flush with all of those cool amenities, was built on 13 acres. The A's get nine at the Tropicana site in Las Vegas. Set aside the questions about how they'll incorporate a roof--retractable or dome--onto the project. How in the heck do they plan to fit so much stuff onto such a small plot of land? Plus they are magically adding an extra 3,000 seats from the original plan from 30,000 to 33,000.
Missing from the article are any photos of what Globe Life Field actually looks like from the outside. This is supposed to be an attraction in Las Vegas that grabs people's attention. Globe Life Field looks like a Home Depot from the outside. They made sure to include plenty of pictures of those pie in the sky luxury additions, though!
Just in case you thought the A's may be taking this process seriously now that they have had their bid for relocation approved by Major League Baseball, you can rest easy. Nothing about this process has changed.
Those renderings that were supposed to come out in November? We may not see those until December. And by the sound of it, they're still working on what this ballpark will actually look like. Nothing rushed about this process at all.
John Fisher is such a visionary. As long as it's someone else's vision that he can use other people's money to create.