Friday, June 7, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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When Las Vegas’ minor-league baseball team changed its name from the 51s and moved from Cashman Field to Las Vegas Ballpark this season, there were questions over how things would work out.
Would fans find the Summerlin location of Las Vegas Stadium inconvenient? Would they support the higher ticket and concession prices that would be charged in the slick and sparkling new facility?
In short, would the Aviators draw good crowds?
Well, after 28 games, the answer is a loud yes. The Triple-A club is drawing crowds of 9,600 fans per game, the best in the minor leagues and even better than the major-league Florida Marlins.
This is important to keep in mind as Las Vegas explores a deal to build a stadium on the Cashman site in hopes of becoming a Major League Soccer town.
As was the case with the Aviators’ move, the potential MLS deal has prompted questions over fan support. Are there enough local soccer fans to fill a stadium? And how will they react to MLS pricing, which is higher than that of the minor-league Lights soccer squad?
But the Aviators’ success strongly suggests that support for an MLS team would be just fine, thank you. Give the Las Vegas sports crowd a nice new stadium, a strong team and a good fan experience, and they’ll come.
The Vegas Golden Knights are another shining example of this. Facing down concerns that there weren’t enough hockey fans in the valley to support a pro franchise, the team has captivated the community in its two wildly successful seasons, drawing capacity crowds to T-Mobile Arena and enjoying a flood of merchandise sales. The NHL team has made passionate fans out of many people who previously wouldn’t have known that icing had a noncake-related defintition.
There’s no reason to think the same wouldn’t happen with the MLS.
To help make sure, though, Las Vegas City Council members should work toward making the games accessible to spectators at various levels of income. One way to do this is to create not only areas with low-cost berm or standing-room seating, but a viewing area where fans can watch for free. A few stadiums have already been built with this feature, including Oracle Park in San Francisco. The home of the San Francisco Giants offers a free area where up to 75 fans at a time can catch a few innings of games.
In Las Vegas, a city where free spectating in the form of people watching is a key attraction and a popular pastime, it makes sense to let people peek into our sporting events too.
In short, there’s no reason that the price issue should be a deal-breaker. And as shown by those large crowds at Las Vegas Ballpark and T-Mobile, neither should any worries about crowd support.
