Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Logan working on 51s’ future

51s general manager Don Logan knows that what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

So Logan didn't hesitate to travel to Carson City near the end of the legislative session support to a bill that would authorize a rental car tax in Reno to fund construction of a new Triple-A ballpark. The bill passed both houses of the Legislature in less than a week.

Rep. Chris Giunchigliani (D-Las Vegas) attempted to amend the bill to allow for a similar tax in Las Vegas, but was dissuaded by Sen. Bill Raggio (R-Reno). Raggio said that adding Las Vegas onto the bill might kill the bill for both cities.

Late Monday, the last scheduled day of the session, Giunchigliani proposed a new bill, similar to the Reno measure, that would authorize a rental car tax to fund a ballpark in addition to paying for a performing arts center and culinary arts institute.

"She saw what was done for Reno and felt like, if it's going to make sense to do in Northern Nevada, why wouldn't we do it here?" explained Logan.

The measure made it through the assembly, but the session ended before it could be addressed in the Senate.

Logan says he wasn't hoping too much for help this year from Carson City. "I don't know that Guinn is going to reintroduce the tax. I'm just trying to find out if they need me to do anything, and do it."

But while his northern counterparts made significant strides -- without having a team. They have a funding plan, a developer, and a location adjacent to I-80 and a lake in Sparks. Logan says he has to continue to take things slowly with finding a solution to his ballpark problem in Las Vegas. The first step, said Logan, is identifying the problem.

"As the cost of doing business continues to increase, the ability to keep pace just isn't here," Logan said. "That's where it gets frustrating. We can't justify asking someone to pay $20 to sit on a hot metal bench in the sun -- they don't pay $6 for it now. We need to offer a whole different entertainment opportunity."

He added that for a third of the money that some groups seek to build a performing arts center, a new ballpark could be constructed to last for 20 years.

Logan is also working with the LVCVA to determine how it fits into the picture. "The LVCVA is our landlord. If we went forward with a plan like this, what happens to Cashman? The authority built this place to bring baseball out here, and you can't just abandon it, though this place is paid for. The authority has to be a part of it."

Cashman Center also includes meeting rooms, a theater and convention space.

Next month, an architect from HNTB will return to Las Vegas to begin looking at potential sites for a new ballpark for the 51s. HNTB is the architectural firm that designed stadiums such as Denver's Invesco Field at Mile High, Sacramento's Raley Field, and Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium.

According to Logan, it's the same architect that oversaw the planning and design of a proposed spring training facility in Las Vegas in the 1990s. It's clear what the 51s general manager thinks will come out as the best location.

"The best place to do it is on the 61 acres," Logan says of the old UP railyard downtown. "It's right in the middle of town, and that puts the onus back on the mayor and the city council."

Mayor Oscar Goodman recently said that he's interested only in a major-league facility for the 61 acres, in addition to an academic medical center. "If the Dodgers want to tell me they want to move here from Los Angeles, I'll talk about building a new stadium," Goodman said in April, adding that he prefers rehabilitation of Cashman Field.

Logan discounts the feasibility of a Cashman Field renovation. "Cashman was built as a sole destination. If you're going to come here, if you want to eat before the game, you're going to go to restaurants somewhere around your home. There's got to be other reasons to come to the site."

Sen. Bob Coffin (D-Las Vegas) remembers when the plan was to renovate the stretch of Las Vegas Blvd. between U.S. 95 and Cashman Field. "We always thought it would be a draw," said Coffin. "The drive to develop the stretch between Fremont and Cashman just kind of died. They then focused on the downtown area."

The area between Cashman Field and U.S. 95 now houses a taco stand, a 7-Eleven, a plasma donation center, L.A. Street Clothing, and a load of transients. The stretch of Washington Avenue between Cashman and I-15 is even more unmentionable.

Logan thinks the poor surroundings hurt Cashman's potential impact on downtown redevelopment.

Friday and Saturday nights, the 51s draw in-house crowds of 5,000-8,000, estimated Logan. "Very few of that crowd went down to Jillian's or the Saloon at Neonopolis and took advantage of those. I think that's a great amenity for downtown. I would challenge that a real strong percentage, say 50 percent of them, would probably partake in some of the other amenities downtown if the 51s played in a stadium on the 61 acres.

So Logan thinks that the additional revenue generated by the new stadium will make construction well worth the initial cost.

"If we've got suites and club seats and a state of the art scoreboard with video, we'll be able to pay maybe even three times as much rent as we currently do. That's going to flow back to pay for construction. The additional taxes we're going to pay because we're going to sell more tickets, food, advertising, that's going back to the public coffers.

"But it's going to take a combined effort of the municipality, the team, the LVCVA would play a role, and ultimately the municipality is the main beneficiary."

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