Zappos chief has eye on 51s baseball team

The high-tech visionary who is turning downtown Las Vegas into an experiment in urban renewal wants to add a professional sports franchise to his portfolio.

Tony Hsieh, the head of Zappos.com, is seeking to buy the Las Vegas 51s AAA-level baseball team and reinvigorate the game time experience at Cashman Center, the club's dated home that has seen declining attendance in recent years.

And it appears Hsieh has a competitor vying for the team -- the Howard Hughes Corp., an older money Southern Nevada land company that developed Summerlin and is named for former Las Vegas visionary Howard Hughes.

Zach Ware, a Zappos employee charged with executing much of the vision behind Hsieh's Downtown Project, said Hsieh wants to keep the team downtown and won't ask taxpayers to pitch in any money. In an email, Ware said those are the primary reasons Hsieh would be an ideal buyer .

"We appreciate and respect competitors in the discussions," Ware wrote. "But we feel that Tony's focus on the 51s as a Las Vegas community institution along with his goal of financing the future of the team without artificial incentives makes his proposal the most attractive for the citizens of Las Vegas, Clark County and the surrounding communities."

Hsieh, whose decision to buy the City Hall as a headquarters for Zappos, is said to view purchasing the 51s as an investment in a vibrant downtown that won't necessarily turn a profit.

Ware said Hsieh thinks the team can succeed at Cashman Center, which has a nearly 10,000-seat stadium that opened in 1983. It has been derided by some who think the team needs a new stadium to succeed.

"We believe the 51s, its management team and Cashman Field, when paired with a renewed focus on the Team as part of the community fabric, will provide even greater opportunities for the community to grow," Ware wrote.

SOURCE: HSIEH OUT FRONT

Thomas Warden, a spokesman for Hughes Corp., confirmed only that the company considered buying the team.

"To date we have had only preliminary conversations with the Pacific Coast League," Warden wrote in an email referring to the league in which the 51s play.

Although both Hsieh and the Hughes Corp. have acknowledged interest in acquiring the team, a source familiar with the maneuvering said Hsieh "is far, far ahead of the Hughes group."

No matter who gets the team, a successful buyer will have to navigate a complicated maze of public and private bureaucracy to close a deal.

The team is affiliated with Major League Baseball's Toronto Blue Jays, which makes all the baseball decisions. The 51s are owned by brothers Derek and Greg Stevens. They are seeking to sell so they can focus on running the Golden Gate and Fitzgeralds casinos on Fremont Street, which they also own.

Stephens Media, which owns the Las Vegas Review-Journal, owns 10 percent of the 51s as well.

The Cashman Center, at Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Street, includes the stadium, a convention center, a theater, meeting rooms and parking. It is owned by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which operates it at a loss of about $4 million annually.

The 56 acres beneath Cashman Center is owned by the city of Las Vegas, which leases it to the authority for $1 per year. The authority charges the 51s $300,000 annually to rent the stadium.

A prospective owner would also need approval from the Pacific Coast League.

The 51s buyer would own the rights to operate the non-baseball functions of the team, such as ticket sales, concessions, parking and merchandising.

SOME WANT NEW STADIUM

Don Logan, the 51s executive director, wouldn't discuss potential buyers but did say what he thinks the team needs.

"We need a new stadium; that's all I can say," Logan said.

Branch Rickey, president of the Pacific Coast League, has said he supports selling the team to a buyer who would seek a new stadium, even if it requires public support.

"The loyal fans of yesteryear who were blindly willing to support a sports team in any kind of a facility is a thing of the past," Rickey told the Nevada Legislature in June while seeking support for a bill that would have authorized public support for proposed sports stadiums. "They are replaced by families and by newer fans who are looking for the modern amenities."

That was when developer Chris Milam was trying to buy the team and move it into a new stadium that would have required public support. That fell apart after the Legislature let a funding bill die.

Rickey cited the "modern, successful franchise in Reno" as an example of what he envisioned for Las Vegas.

But the Reno Aces ballpark, which opened in 2009, is costing the Reno Redevelopment Agency about $1 million annually in debt payments and soaking up revenue from rental car and other taxes.

A source familiar with Hsieh's vision said the Zappos executive doesn't buy into the belief that the 51s need an expensive new stadium to succeed.

According to the source, Hsieh would rather make the games more fun for people to attend and invest in infrastructure around the Cashman Center site that would make it easier for fans to ride buses or stroll between the Fremont Street corridor and the stadium, which is about seven blocks to the north.

"If a team is run right, you could run it on a dirt lot and make more money than a new stadium," the source said.

Hsieh, the source said, doesn't want Las Vegas to follow Reno's footsteps.

"The city got screwed," the source said of Reno.

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.