A poll of 17,151 people indicated varying levels of support for the Oakland Athletics moving to Las Vegas, with plenty of interest on both the personal and corporate levels.
This wasn’t that hard to predict: who wouldn’t want to see an MLB team move to their town? So take these results with a grain of salt: with no mention of costs and conditions, expressing support for a fairly vague notion involving a pleasant experience is the same as expressing support for puppies and unicorns. A better poll would ask the locals their level of support for paying $100 for a ducat to a Wednesday night game with the Texas Rangers in town.
The polling from CSL International covered locals and tourists about the potential move of the A’s to Vegas, as well as preferences as to where the team could play. Though the most recent rumors have the team looking at a site at the Tropicana Hotel site on the Strip, respondents didn’t express a strong preference for a new ballpark location; all they cared about is that the ballpark feature a retractable roof and climate control.
As you might expect, Athletics President Dave Kaval shared the results with the local newspaper as a vindication of the team’s strategy in negotiating in both Las Vegas and Oakland. From the aforementioned local newspaper:
“It shows people are paying attention to this story (and) are really interested in the A’s being in Southern Nevada, which is super positive for us to hear,” A’s President Dave Kaval told the Review-Journal. “The results about attending games and prices and wanting to support the team, both for locals and tourists, was higher than our expectations. It further demonstrates the strength of Las Vegas as a sporting market.”…
Wrigley, who also played a role in the Raiders market feasibility study, noted that 87 percent of locals surveyed said they had some level of interest in purchasing some form of season tickets, whether it be full, half or quarter season packages. Of those who didn’t express interest in season tickets, 85 percent said they would consider buying single game tickets, Wrigley noted.
Non-resident respondents said they would strongly consider going to an A’s game during a trip to Las Vegas.
Again, take these results with a grain of salt, especially with modifiers like locals having some level of interest in buying season tickets as well as those who would consider going to a game. Of course you’re going to consider going to an A’s game in Las Vegas if you’re a local–just like you’d consider hitting a Piff the Magic Dragon show at the Flamingo or dinner at Battista’s Hole in the Wall. Still, as we get closer to crunch time, the fact that this info was released by Kaval the same day Oakland released the Final Environmental Impact Report for the proposed downtown Howard Terminal ballpark is a tell–a move to Vegas is far from a done deal, and he’s working to get the best deal possible.
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