Friday, March 7, 2025 | 5:25 p.m.
The Athletics are set to play baseball in Sacramento for the next three years, but the team will have Las Vegas on its sleeve in the meantime.
A’s owner John Fisher named the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority the “official travel destination partner” of the franchise this afternoon at the Las Vegas Convention Center. A patch featuring the authority’s logo will be on A’s jerseys this season.
“Every time one of our players gets up to bat now, you’re going to see right in that camera shot: ‘Las Vegas,’” Fisher said with a giant baseball projected on the Sphere behind him. “That’s our future.”
Fisher said the partnership will be more than just the patch but a “whole marketing relationship,” adding that “we’re going to be doing things throughout the next three years to remind everyone on a continual basis that Las Vegas is our home.”
The Athletics will play two spring training games against the Arizona Diamondbacks this weekend at Las Vegas Ballpark, and today’s announcement was one of a few splashes they’ve made this week marking the occasion.
On Thursday, the team hired a new team president in Marc Badain, who served in the same position for the NFL’s Raiders during their move from Oakland to Vegas, and unveiled updated renderings of the $1.75 billion stadium scheduled to open for the 2028 season.
“It is going to be the best place to play baseball in the United States,” LVCVA President Steve Hill said. “Today (is) the next step in our relationship, partnership and in the elevation of both Major League Baseball, the A’s and Las Vegas.”
The franchise also extended 24-year-old right fielder Lawrence Butler for seven years this week. Butler came out with teammates Mason Miller, Shea Langeliers and Brent Rooker to model the new patch.
Since leaving the Oakland Coliseum behind, the A’s, which had the league’s lowest payroll by $25 million last season, have made a habit of investing in players for Sacramento and beyond.
In December, the team signed pitcher Luis Severino for $67 million over three years, the largest contract in franchise history. Fans in Oakland were left with a bitter taste in their mouths, but it’s a new day for the Athletics.
“I’ve learned … that I shouldn’t read blogs,” said Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson, also the chair of the LVCVA’s board of directors. “But if you do fall prey to that, you still see people saying, ‘Well, who even knows that the A’s are really going to come to Las Vegas?’”
“Well, this is as good a sign as we could come up with that says you are already here,” Gibson said.