The Oakland A’s planned move to Las Vegas has taken most of the airwaves across the sports world. Strangely enough, this news could have repercussions for the XFL.
The Vegas Vipers first home game at Cashman Field received attention for all the wrong reasons, leading many to wonder if there was a better solution for the Vipers. This came after their much-documented struggle to find a home venue. With the construction of a new ballpark for the A’s, the Vegas Vipers could be in luck.
One of the underlying questions of the Oakland A’s move to Sin City is what happens to the Las Vegas Aviators, the Oakland A’s AAA affiliate. It makes little sense for them to play merely blocks away from the A’s and compete with a major league ball club, so a move is completely possible. This would leave Las Vegas with not only one but two vacant ballparks, a very strange issue for the city.
This leaves Las Vegas Ballpark, which opened in 2019, without a tenant. This is where the Vegas Vipers come in. There are two ways to approach this, either finding an alignment that works or doing a renovation similar to Choctaw Stadium, the home of the Arlington Renegades and former home of MLB’s Texas Rangers.
Las Vegas Ballpark has experience as a football venue, sort of. The ballpark hosted Pro Bowl practices in 2022 and the field was only 80 yards, but Aviators’ President Don Logan claimed the ballpark had room to fit a 100-yard field.
Moving the Vipers to Las Vegas Ballpark stabilizes the team in Las Vegas, a strong move considering the XFL lacks teams in the country’s three biggest markets. More importantly, it keeps the USFL away from the rising sports mecca.
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