With the Athletics inching closer and closer to a move from Oakland to Las Vegas after a deal was finalized earlier this month for a $1.5 billion stadium to be built on the Las Vegas Strip, club owner John Fisher is considering an interesting schedule tweak.
When the Athletics officially move, Fisher reportedly is considering start times of 4 p.m. for home games. The thinking behind the possible move is to allow tourists to come to the game before they head elsewhere on the Strip for evening entertainment, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.
The A’s have struggled with low attendance this season, often playing home games in a near-empty stadium. With Las Vegas’s average of 40 million tourists per year, the team expects attendance to spike in its new location.
A economic consultant working with the A’s, Jeremy Aguero, estimates that approximately 30% of fans at A’s games in Las Vegas will be tourists, for an average of about 9,000 tourists per game.
