A proposed lease extension to Cashman Field by the prospective buyers of the Las Vegas 51s (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) has been put on hold while the city debates the future of the facility.
Two years still remain on the existing lease, but Summerlin Las Vegas Baseball Club LLC (a joint venture of Howard Hughes Corp. and businessman Steven Mack) wants to extend that lease out to 2022. The problem: the city and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which jointly owns and operates the entire Cashman Center complex, are looking to expand the convention center currently on the site, which would mean tearing down the ballpark. (Worth noting: Cashman Center sits on 57 acres. In theory you could build another ballpark on the land as part of a redevelopment.)
The sale of the team isn’t final yet, but Summerlin is still pushing for the lease extension. Now, a new Vegas ballpark has been the Holy Grail — or maybe Moby Dick — for 51s Executive Director Don Logan for years now; next season will be his 30th with the team, and he’s spent a large chunk of time in that tenure working on ballpark plans. Talk of a Vegas MLB team and then a real-estate-fueled recession hurt the prospects for a new facility more than once, and in this case Summerlin isn’t actually asking for a new ballpark — just the right to play in the old one. Still, Cashman Field as it stands right now isn’t the future of Las Vegas baseball, but maybe a redevelopment of the Cashman Center complex is a good opportunity to look at the prospect of a new facility.
—-
Share your news with the baseball community. Send it to us at editors@augustpublications.com.
Are you a subscriber to the weekly Ballpark Digest newsletter? You can sign up for a free subscription at the Newsletter Signup Page.
Join Ballpark Digest on Facebook and on Twitter!
Follow Ballpark Digest on Google + and add us to your circles!