Going to A’s games in Las Vegas? You should have lots of local company

The Athletics are expecting locals-heavy crowds when the team arrives in Las Vegas in 2028, bucking a trend that has been seen at Raiders games held at Allegiant Stadium.

Initial estimates cite that 70 percent of fans attending games at the A’s planned $1.75 billion, 33,000-fan capacity Las Vegas ballpark will be Southern Nevadans. The remaining 30 percent is expected to be visitors to the Silver State.

This would stand in contrast to what’s been seen at Allegiant Stadium during Raiders games as more than half of fans attending games are from out of state. On average, 68 percent of fans at Raiders games at Allegiant Stadium last NFL season were from out of town, according to Las Vegas Stadium Authority data.

“We’ve always thought that baseball would likely have a strong local component,” A’s vice chair Sandy Dean told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week. “It’s hard to compare to Allegiant entirely because Allegiant has eight or nine games whereas baseball is going to have 81 games.”

The mix of the large Raider Nation presence in California and Raiders games usually falling on Sundays has the makings for an ideal Las Vegas weekend.

Allegiant Stadium has become the preferred destination for fans traveling to see their favorite team on the road.

“Allegiant’s games are almost always on a Sunday; we’re going to have games every day,” Dean said. “I know Allegiant has had a different experience, but it’ll be a strong local component to what we do.”

The A’s envision a fan turnout closer to what the Vegas Golden Knights see, with more locals regularly attending games.

The breakdown of local and visiting fans was detailed in the stadium’s parking demand study conducted for the A’s by transportation consultant Kimley-Horn, showing the expected ways people will travel to and from the stadium.

The stadium will feature 30,000 fixed-seats and standing room for 3,000 additional fans. But the study is centered around how fans are expected to travel to games based on a sellout, or at least 98 percent of tickets sold, equating to 29,400 fans.

Based on the sell-out figure, 20,580 are projected to be local, with 8,820 expected to be visitors.

Fans are expected to arrive to the A’s ballpark in several ways, with the majority of those walking to the stadium in some fashion. The study suggests 17,191 fans would park and walk to the stadium, 6,691 fans (mainly visitors) would walk from nearby resorts, 5,301 patrons via taxicab or a ride-hailing service, 195 would take a bus or shuttle and 22 patrons would by limousine.

Based on those numbers 5,370 parking spaces would be needed to handle fans who drive a car to a sold-out game. Plans call for a 2,500-space parking garage to be built on the stadium site, with an estimated 40,000 parking spaces also located within walking distance of the ballpark.

The A’s stadium would feature a similar dispersed parking plan that has been successfully implemented at the 65,000-fan capacity Allegiant Stadium.

“What they have in the traffic study are well-thought-out estimates and that’s been studied extensively,” Dean said. “We’ll also learn a bit more once we get up and running.”

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.