We may have another new ballpark plan for the Las Vegas 51s (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League), as a suburban Henderson developer has brought up the idea of a Cashman Field replacement at the Cadence master planned community.
The community, located at Lake Mead Parkway and Boulder Highway, is just off downtown Henderson and in the midst of plenty of retail, car traffic and more. Cadence officials say they’ve met with 51s ownership, but say that talks that the presence are purely preliminary. Other developers in the greater Vegas area have also approached the 51s, as it’s become apparent team ownership’s preferred location in Summerlin faces some serious challenges. From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
A spokesperson for Cadence, a 2,200-acre master planned community at Lake Mead Parkway and Boulder Highway, confirmed this week that the CEO of Cadence’s developer, LandWell Company, has met with the 51s to express his development’s interest in having a baseball park.
CEO Mark Paris met with 51s officials this year, but Cadence spokesperson Cheryl Persinger did not know who specifically were the team’s representatives at the meeting.
“It’s preliminary talks,” Persinger said.
It’s no secret Cashman Field has virtually no chance to be the long-term home of the 51s, as the team ownership — local investors Steve Mack, Bart Wear and Chris Kaempfer along with developer Howard Hughes Corp. — has been open about seeking a new home. But things have been quiet in recent months, ever since Las Vegas officials said they weren’t interested in funding a new Summerlin ballpark outside the city limits, and the owner of the ballpark, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, is focused on yet another expansion of the convention center. Cashman Field, alas, is falling down: at one point it was state of the art, but the lack of investment in the facility over the years has diminished that status to being one of the worst in Triple-A. That Las Vegas is a great Triple-A market is undeniable — it’s a large market and the airline service can’t be beat — but at some point some sort of decision on the team’s future home needs to be made.
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