If you heard fireworks repeatedly going off in Summerlin last week, blame the 35 players that hit home runs at Las Vegas Ballpark.
The Athletics came to town for a visit, and they gave Las Vegas a taste of what major league baseball games will be like once they move here in 2028. The team played six sold-out, regular-season games against the Milwaukee Brewers and the Colorado Rockies at Las Vegas Ballpark, winning four of them. And out of those 35 home runs, 20 of them belonged to the A's.
Does this mean that the A's and Las Vegas are now a fit?
The A's showed up for both the fans and the community, from hospital and food bank visits, to local restaurants.
"They wanted to show their product," said Alan Snel, owner of LVSportsBiz.com. "They wanted to show some of their young players, who will be here in two years when the new stadium opens on the Strip, but also they just wanted to create a presence here in the Las Vegas market. This is their future home."
A's fans, decked out in the team's green-and-white garb, came out in full force for the games. But so did the opposing teams' fans, especially the Brewers' faithful, who were just as loud as the A's fans during the first game of the series. The scene offered a preview of what games might look like in the new A's stadium, as fanbases from the visiting teams are expected to make up a significant part of the attendance.
That is, unless the A's performance on the field improves over the next two years. Currently, they're playing just under .500, but they're in second place in the American League West and in contention for wild-card placement for the playoffs in the fall.
"It gets back to the Raiders," Snel said. "The Raiders have been losers, so you have lots of other opposition fans in the stands. If the A's continue to improve, I think, and the trajectory just continues to go up, I think you'll see a much more intense buzz in the community as 2028 approaches."
Speaking of playoffs: The Vegas Golden Knights fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup final at T-Mobile Arena on June 14. To Snel, it was less about the Golden Knights' shortcomings than the superior performance by the opposition.
"In the end, the Golden Knights ran out of gas there," Snel said. "To me, it's not so much the Golden Knights. You've got to just tip your helmet to the Carolina Hurricanes. They had the most points in the Eastern Conference, believe it or not, they lost only three games in the entire postseason ... so, you know, good for the Hurricanes."
Snel also didn't blame goalie Carter Hart's playing, even as Hart endured chants against him throughout the series, in response to 2024 charges that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2018. A Canadian judge found him and four other men not guilty.
"That's something that Carter Hart will probably have to deal with for the rest of his career," Snel said. "Obviously, a very controversial hire by the Golden Knights, but for the most part, I think Carter Hart is an average goaltender. And he played, to me, what he pretty much is kind of bound to play, which is average hockey."
Guests: Alan Snel, owner, LVSportsBiz.com; Mike Prevatt, senior producer, KNPR
