Construction delays on Oakland Coliseum, undergoing expansion for the benefit of the Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders, forced the Athletics to play their first six "home" games in 1996 here at Cashman Field, a minor league ballpark. It was the first such "neutral" venue (see the Anomalous stadiums page) to be used in Major League Baseball since 1969, when the White Sox played some of their home games at Milwaukee County Stadium. With one (mostly) uncovered deck, it bears the most structural resemblance to Colt Stadium and Jarry Park. The playing field is shaped like a simple rounded square, with a deep center field, rather like Aloha Stadium.
Cashman Field is unique in being attached to a shopping mall / convention center, called "Cashman Center." It is located just northeast [CORRECTED!] of downtown Las Vegas. For several years, Cashman Field hosted at least one Major League Baseball spring training game every spring. With plenty of standing room on the grass slopes behind the foul corners, some of the MLB exhibition games has exceeded 15,000. Three or so rows of box seats were added behind home plate some time in the last few years. Beyond third base there is a picnic area occupying what would be foul territory covered by a blue tarpaulin. A study in 2003 by Major League Baseball found that Cashman Field was inadequate in almost every respect, especially the undersized locker rooms and poor quality turf. This finding undermined hopes that Las Vegas might become the next home of the Montreal Expos, who ended up in Washington. It also gave ammunition to the owners of the Las Vegas AAA club, who want the city or state to help pay for a brand new ballpark, even though this one was only 23 years old.
In 2019, the Las Vegas 51s moved into the new Las Vegas Ballpark in the suburb of of Summerlin, about ten miles west of downtown, and changed their name to the "Aviators." Cashman Field was then converted into a soccer stadium, and the square outline of the stadium made for a quite suitable fit. The Athletics, who moved to Sacramento temporarily in 2025, played three games at Las Vegas Ballpark in June 2026, in preparation for their expected move into their new stadium in Las Vegas as of 2028. (That means that there will eventually be two new stadium pages for Las Vegas on this website.) In effect the Athletics are "tagging along" with their former Oakland Coliseum house-mates, the Raiders! The future home of the Athletics is located where the Tropicana resort used to be, on the southern side of The Strip, next to the Las Vegas airport and about a mile northeast of Allegiant Stadium, where the Raiders now play. Accordingly, the days of Las Vegas Ballpark being used for professional baseball may be numbered as well, quite similarly to Cashman Field. Perhaps it will become a spring training venue for one of the Cactus League teams in the Phoenix, Arizona area.
WEB LINKS: minorleaguebaseball.com, minorleagueballparks.com, charliesballparks.com, reviewjournal.com
FAN TIPS: Bruce Orser
| The Clem Criteria: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field asymmetry |
Architectural design |
Seat proximity |
Location * | Aesthetics | Overall |
| 3 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 5.2 |
* See the Stadium locations page.