Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 17, 2003
Expos in Las Vegas

Gareth Mitchell writes me about the pontential move of the Expos to Las Vegas:


I live in Las Vegas, and read the column in the Las Vegas Review Journal on Saturday mentioning the Expos moving here. A couple points from me living here for 3 years now. This town is made up of people who moved here from many locations, mostly southern California. We fail in just about every sport that comes here. We have the 51s and they only sell well on fireworks night. We have an Arena league team, but they are still new to us, so it is hard to judge, and we are just getting a AA hockey team. Mayor Goodman seems to think this is a major league town, yet we never support anything that comes here. Trying to fill a 42,000 seat stadium 81 times a year would be tough around here. We have several demographics that make anything like this difficult. Being a 24 hour town, we have a lot of people who work unusual shifts, which could make it difficult to make a night game. Also, a lot of people in this town don't make a lot of money. Honestly, I would love to see them give this a shot, and hopefully it would work, but it makes you wonder why every other venture to come to town doesn't work. Although one issue would already be addressed, baseball is played in the summer, and maybe people would go to Cashman Field more if it wasn't 115 degrees during the day. Just thought you would like an opinion from a Las Vegan.

Thanks, Gareth. There are reasons major league teams might do better; for one thing, they are playing for championships instead of just trying to develop players. But your concerns are valid. The Angels were really in a similar situation for most of their existence. People who lived in Anaheim came from all over the country, and often you'd have more fans of the visiting team than the home team at Angels games. But that's okay, as long as people come to the ballpark. Eventually, if the team wins, Las Vegans (love that term) will come to be fans of the 7-11's.

(Note: 7-11's is my name for the team. I've heard no rumors about what the team might be called. I might suggest two names depending on the situation. If they are winning, they could be called the High Rollers. If they are losing, the Craps. :-) )


Posted by David Pinto at 09:40 AM | Team Movements | TrackBack (0)