The Oakland Athletics have released artist renderings of their planned $1.5 billion ballpark in Las Vegas, and the new building looks…
Awesome? Definitely.
Innovative? Absolutely.
Like a spherical armadillo? Sure (more on that later).
Only? Well, not entirely.
The stadium depicted in renderings released Tuesday by the A's and design firms Bjarke Ingels Group and HNTB is striking in many ways, and some people thought it looked quite similar to a world-famous venue.
Sydney Opera House in Australia.
The A's and their design teams on Tuesday released renderings of the club's planned $1.5 billion stadium in Las Vegas.
(Negative / Associated Press)
A ferry passenger views the Sydney Opera House.
(Alessandra Tarantino/Associated Press)
One X user notes that “the A’s are literally building the Sydney Opera House on the Las Vegas Strip,” while another notes that “Las Vegas already has a fake Statue of Liberty and a fake Eiffel Tower, so why What not a fake Sydney Opera House? Home?”
“We were really honored and flattered that people compared it to the Sydney Opera House, which is one of the most iconic and timeless buildings in the world,” athletics president Dave Kaval told the Times in a phone interview Wednesday. . “And we're very excited to share our vision for an entirely new type of ballpark.”
Kaval said it was not intentional that the A's future home, a 33,000-seat stadium to be built on nine acres of the site where the Tropicana Resort and Casino currently stands, would resemble the beloved Australian concert venue that held its 50th anniversary. anniversary in October.
While both buildings have distinctive roofs made up of massive overlapping arches, those in the stadium design were “inspired by traditional baseball pennants,” according to the A’s website. They also serve a functional purpose, working with another feature of the stadium, described on the team's site as “the world's largest wire-netted glass window,” to help fill the building with natural light.
The A's planned stadium in Las Vegas features a “giant wired glass window, facing the corner of Tropicana and Las Vegas boulevards.”
(Negative / Associated Press)
“Closed stadiums are usually completely closed, like the Kingdome [in Seattle] or the astrodome [in Houston] or whatever, and then you just don't have the ability to feel like you're outside,” Kaval said. “And that was the guiding principle of the design from the owner and with Bjarke Ingels, our designer, to make it look like it was outside. So introducing all the glass and bunting allowed us to do it in a way that created a really exciting architectural form at the same time.”
Social media users have also picked up on a certain two-word phrase that Ingels has used to describe the design.
Yes, this is the “spherical armadillo” part.
The interior of the A's planned ballpark in Las Vegas features an 18,000-square-foot screen and a view of the Strip.
(Negative / Associated Press)
“The resulting architecture is like a spherical armadillo, shaped by the local climate, while opening up and inviting the life of the Strip to enter and explore,” Ingels said in the team's press release. “In Show City, the A's 'armadillo' is designed to provide passive shade and natural light—the architectural response to Nevada's climate creates a new kind of vernacular icon in Las Vegas.”
Kaval said: “So when they made a lot of the designs for the roof, they also had others that were different shapes. And the armadillo (and at one time he called it 'zig-zag armadillo' and now it became 'spherical armadillo') was the one he always liked best. “It’s really amazing that he had the creativity to come up with something like that.”
MLB team owners voted unanimously in November to move the A's from Oakland to Las Vegas. Kaval said the organization is “on track” to move into its new facility before the 2028 season.
“I think when people go to the games, it's going to be really engaging and exciting for them,” Kaval said. “There will be a lot of energy, they will be close to the action and there really won't be a bad seat in the house. And that's really important to us because, in many ways, you're competing against staying home and watching on your 80-inch TV.
“It has to be different. “That's a change from 20 or 30 years ago, and we need to keep up and make sure we have a place that fits the moment.”
