51's Leaving Las Vegas

provided by KLAS-TV Las Vegas Channel 8 (click on image for video)

The Los Angeles Dodgers are leaving Las Vegas, taking their triple A farm team to a new ball park in Albuquerque. The critical element to this story is that Las Vegas isn't losing triple A baseball altogether, just the Dodger affiliation.
For years, the parent club in Los Angeles has complained of insufficient facilities to support its highest level minor league operation. Now they're doing something about it.
The Dodgers, unhappy with the amenities for their players at Cashman Field, will take the team to Albuquerque where a state-of-the-art ballpark awaits.
The Pacific Coast League will re-assign a franchise to Las Vegas and there are several under consideration.
Mayor Oscar Goodman has long been a proponent of building a new downtown venue, but not if a minor league team will be its only Tenant, "I would love to talk to a Major League team, I plan to be at the conference, about coming here. If we are going to build a stadium at the beginning to house a Minor League team, it has to be convertible if in fact they're interested in bringing a Major League team here."
"We have one of the worst facilities in terms of all of the accoutrements that are necessary, both in terms of a player and fans stand point. Unfortunately our place just isn't up to standards. There's 30 triple A teams and there's 30 Major League teams. It might be a shotgun wedding, but we will have an affiliate. At this point, we just don't know who it's going to be," said 51's GM Don Logan.
So far. the Mets, Nationals, Marlins and Blue Jays are among the leading the contenders. So get ready to buy a new hat and jersey for 2009.
This isn't the first time Las Vegas has gone through an affiliate change. You may recall the old Stars organization being affiliated with the San Diego Padres.