STATUS
IN DESIGN
The new ballpark for the Athletics Major League Baseball team in Las Vegas, Nevada will echo the vibrancy of the ‘Entertainment Capital of the World,’ exuding an outdoor feel with panoramic views of the city’s skyline.
Situated on the Las Vegas Strip, the new home for the Athletics – a 33,000-capacity covered ballpark designed by BIG in collaboration with HNTB – will sit on nine acres between Tropicana Avenue and Reno Avenue. The project builds on a longstanding collaboration between BIG and the Athletics dating back to a different ballpark design in Oakland, California in 2018.
The new ballpark’s roof is accentuated by five overlapping shells resembling baseball pennants, paying homage to the sport. For players, these arched “pennants” will attenuate direct sunlight glare while welcoming indirect natural light through northern oriented clerestory windows.
The domed ballpark is designed to feature the world’s largest cable net glass wall. The structure’s exterior metal cladding shimmers in the natural daylight and reflects the surrounding Las Vegas lights at night.
"BIG's revolutionary design, created in collaboration with HNTB, represents a captivating ballpark concept, seamlessly blending innovation and technology with an enhanced fan experience. We are very excited to share the work of our design team with the entire Southern Nevada community."
“Our design for the new Vegas home for the A’s is conceived in response to the unique culture and climate of the city. Five pennant arches enclose the ballpark - shading from the Nevada sun while opening to the soft daylight from the north. A giant window frames a majestic view of the life of The Strip and the iconic New York New York hotel skyline. All direct sunlight is blocked, while all the soft daylight is allowed to wash the field in natural light. The resultant architecture is like a spherical armadillo - shaped by the local climate - while opening and inviting the life of The Strip to enter and explore. In the city of spectacle, the A’s ‘armadillo’ is designed for passive shading and natural light - the architectural response to the Nevada climate generating a new kind of vernacular icon in Vegas.”
An elevated outdoor plaza connects to the bridges over Las Vegas and Tropicana Boulevards, directing fans to the ballpark’s main concourse, where a large glass atrium pulls the city into the venue. This entrance sequence will immediately orient fans in the ballpark, allowing views of the entire field and seating bowl upon entry while optimizing wayfinding and circulation.
Secondary north and south entrances are marked by “bouncing” arches to increase visitor accessibility and promote a connection to the outdoors. Once inside, fans are met with bright, open atria, which will also serve as multipurpose exhibition spaces to showcase international and local artists.
The Athletics Ballpark is an immersive fan experience. Its tiered design and intimacy, inspired by historic ballparks like Fenway and Wrigley – with split upper and lower bowls – bring fans closer to the action than traditional ballparks and provide clear sight lines from every seat.
The ballpark is currently designed to feature an 18,000-sq-ft jumbotron, which would make it the largest screen in Major League Baseball. An air-conditioning system distributes at the seats rather than from above, making cooling more efficient and energy conscious.
The Athletics Ballpark will have the potential to double as a venue for hosting concerts, conferences and other events. Future development is expected to surround the venue, including an onsite hotel and casino.
The ballpark has an expected opening date of spring 2028.
Bjarke Ingels Daniel Sundlin Leon Rost Aran Coakley Margaret Tyrpa Ricardo Palma Prieto Thomas McMurtrie Bernardo Schuhmacher Douglass Alligood Ema Hristova Bakalova Frankie Sharpe Don Chen Alan Maedo Jan Klaska Luca McLaughlin Catrina Nelson Ahmad Tabbakh Jeff Yinong Tao Hudson Parris Ashley O'Neill Matthew Lau Sunghwan Um Hongye Wu Pooya Aledavood Paul Heberle Yuzaburo Tanaka
COLLABORATORS
HNTB
Thornton Tomasetti
Henderson Engineers
CAA ICON
Mortenson
McCarthy
Atelier Ten
RWDI
Kimley-Horn
Systematica
WJHW
Jensen Hughs
HKA
WSP
FP&C
Chicago Flyhouse
Duray Duncan
Ed Roether Consulting
Morean
Negativ
Mir
