While mayor seeks big league team, some question his timeline for having stadium in place
By MATT YOUMANS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
This is an aerial view of the 61-acre parcel of land where Mayor Oscar Goodman hopes to have a downtown stadium built for a major league baseball team.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
Oscar Goodman
Mayor says major league baseball in Las Vegas is closer than some think
Don Logan
51s president wants new park for his team that can be expanded for a major league club
From where he sits, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman insists he can see the future. His vision is of a major league baseball team playing in a downtown stadium in 2008.
"I'm an old man," said the 65-year-old mayor, implying that he has neither the time nor patience to sit back and wait.
Skeptics say Goodman's vision is blurred, that he's sort of a modern-day "Bugsy" Siegel who can't possibly make good on his promise of a timeline. Goodman has a dream, but he has no team and no stadium -- obviously, the two most important pieces to the puzzle.
Almost everyone agrees that this town will eventually have a team. But if major league baseball in Las Vegas is to become reality, one question demands an answer: How and when can a stadium be built?
"I'm certainly not going to advocate the building of a stadium until we have a team," Goodman said Tuesday.
That's where 51s president Don Logan disagrees. Logan has been lobbying for a new stadium for the current team in town, the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Logan also has a vision, and his is of a downtown stadium built for the 51s that can be expanded when a major league team is ready to relocate.
"I would prefer not to do that, even though I love Don Logan and I love the 51s," Goodman said. "It's not an issue with me. I look at us as a major league town and I want to build a major league stadium."
Logan argues there is a "need to have a plan in place" so Las Vegas is prepared when a major league team comes calling, and he said building a Triple-A stadium jump-starts the process.
"Why would you sit back and wait? You want to be ready to react when a team is ready to move," Logan said. "I'm convinced it's the right way to do it. That demonstrates to a potential team coming here that you're willing to do something."
Goodman and Logan have the same answer for where the stadium should be built -- either on the desolate 61 acres just west of downtown or near Cashman Field, where the 51s play just north of downtown.
"I think a ballpark should be in the heart of a city," Goodman said.
The City Council signed a contract Jan. 5 with The Related Cos., the master developer of the 61 acres of Union Park land, and exploring stadium options there is part of the deal. About 20 acres would be required for the stadium site.
Goodman said he expects to throw the ceremonial first pitch at a major league game in 2008, which brings the timeline into question. How quickly can a stadium be built?
Terry Miller, CEO of HNTB Architecture in Kansas City, Mo., has talked extensively with Goodman and Logan and has studied several potential stadium sites in Las Vegas and Henderson.
HNTB built The Ballpark in Arlington for the Texas Rangers. It also built Invesco Field at Mile High, the home of the NFL's Denver Broncos, in 30 months at a cost of $400 million. Miller said because Las Vegas' climate is ideal for year-round construction, a stadium can go up in 24 to 30 months.
"What we would be proposing is building the first phase of what would be a major league stadium so the Triple-A team can have a home," Miller said.
The stadium's first phase, Miller said, would include about 10,000 seats, or 30 rows of seats foul pole to foul pole. In the initial design of the stadium, Miller said HNTB would put in some additional infrastructure to accommodate future expansion for a 40,000-seat major league venue. He said phase 1 could be constructed in 12 to 14 months, potentially putting the 51s in a new home by the 2007 season.
Logan said that plan would put Las Vegas in a better position to lure a major league franchise. But Goodman said that's not necessary and that he's closer to luring a team than some people might think.
Goodman raised support for Las Vegas when he attended the Major League Baseball winter meetings in Anaheim, Calif., in early December. He said he has not spoken with MLB commissioner Bud Selig or president Bob DuPuy this month.
"I have talked to a lot of people around the major leagues on a daily basis," Goodman said. "I don't want to get into specifics. I'm being pretty careful about what I say about any potential team."
Las Vegas lost out on a relocation bid last year for the Montreal Expos, who went to Washington, D.C., but the city should have other options.
The franchises most likely to relocate to Las Vegas are the Florida Marlins, Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. All three teams are searching for a new stadium and could be warming up to the idea of a home in the desert.
• Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria sent three of his top aides here to meet with Goodman on Dec. 8. If it was a negotiating ploy, it backfired, because Florida state lawmakers reacted angrily. The Marlins are working on a new stadium deal in the Miami area, but if it falls apart, Loria is reportedly interested in Las Vegas.
• Los Angeles developer Lewis Wolff, vice president of venue development for the Athletics, plans to announce within three months whether he will exercise an option to buy the team. If Wolff goes ahead with the purchase and doesn't get a new stadium, he is expected to attempt to move the team out of Oakland.
• The Devil Rays have not publicly expressed interest in Las Vegas, but fans in the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., area have shown little interest in the team, making for an unstable situation. The Devil Rays averaged only 16,139 fans per game at Tropicana Field in 2004, down from 30,942 for their first season in 1998.
Despite long-term lease agreements those teams have with their current stadiums, Goodman said a team will be on the move by 2008. "Everything I hear would suggest that," he said.
One baseball source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Devil Rays are the odds-on favorites to land in Las Vegas.
Goodman and City Councilman Larry Brown are researching issues such as stadium financing and the level of community support for major league baseball. Goodman said he thinks the team would get strong backing from casinos in forming a business relationship.
Brown, also the manager of community relations for the 51s, said it's imperative for the city to get an indication from MLB when a team will be available.
"Everybody says we're next in line. That's great, but that could be tomorrow or in 10 years. We need a timetable," Brown said. "I can comfortably say the `build it and they will come' scenario isn't going to happen in Southern Nevada. There is absolutely no appetite to go build a stadium and hope we can find a team. That would be insane."
Two weeks ago, Goodman was elected chairman of the board for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, a powerful position that reinforces the notion the mayor is the key player in the baseball movement.
Brown said breaking ground on a stadium this summer is a "very optimistic" way of thinking. Goodman said about one year is a more realistic timetable.
"Without the mayor, we wouldn't be in the position we are today. He's one of the people who could make it happen quickly," Brown said. "The last four months, we have gotten so much positive publicity. In a very short period, we've come a very long way.
"You just can't bet against Mayor Goodman."
I just don't see it happening anytime soon. We arent ready for any pro sports let alone baseball.
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