Lawrence Butler agreed to a seven-year, $65.5 million contract with the A’s on Thursday. (AP … [+]
The Athletics are already making a little cash off the Las Vegas brand — well, more than a little. It was revealed on Monday that a sleeve patch deal with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is valued at 8.5 million, according to various media reports.
The team — which will play at least three seasons in Sacramento before heading to Vegas — announced a multi-year agreement with the LVCVA as its official travel partner. Players will don a “Las Vegas” patch on their left sleeves beginning in the regular season. Here’s a good look at it:
The LVCVA will pay the team $2.5 million for 2025, rising to $2.75 million in 2026 and $3 million for the 2027 season.
“Every time one of our players gets up to bat now, you’re going to see right in that camera shot ‘Las Vegas,’” Athletics owner John Fisher said. “For us, that’s our future. Everybody, I think, is going to look at that and say, ‘We can’t wait.”
Fisher said the deal with the LVCVA will exceed the expectations of a normal sponsorship agreement, adding that there will be numerous events before the move that will “remind everybody on a continual basis that Las Vegas is our home and we will be here shortly.”
The tourism authority, which is funded by hotel room taxes in Clark County, has several marketing deals, including a 20-year, $80 million naming rights deal signed in 2017 for a minor league park in Summerlin.
The patch-deal announcement came a day after the A’s revealed updated renderings of the team’s new stadium, which is set for groundbreaking this spring as long as the remaining legal agreements are finalized.
After leaving Oakland at the end of the 2024 season, the A’s will play at least three seasons at a Triple-A ballpark in West Sacramento, California while waiting for its Las Vegas stadium to be ready by the 2028 season. It will be built on nine acres of land that once housed the old Tropicana Hotel off the famous strip.
According to Sportico: “The patch is one way of further convincing the public that the new Las Vegas 30,000-seat domed baseball facility will be built. It should help stifle many of the naysayers.”
And with a revenue-generating stadium on the horizon, the A’s are finally spending to lock up their younger players to long-term deals. Lawrence Butler agreed to a seven-year, $65.5 million contract on Thursday while Brent Rooker, who in January came to terms on a five-year, $60 million deal.
“I think for the first time we were able to sign some of our younger stars to longer-term contracts with the idea we want them to be on our team when we move to this incredible home,” Fisher said.
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