A’s, Circa ink 1st Las Vegas founding partnership deal

The Athletics have signed a deal making Circa the team’s first founding partner as it moves toward relocating to Las Vegas in 2028.

As part of the multiyear deal announced Thursday, Circa will become the official resort of the A’s and Circa Sports the official sportsbook of the team.

A’s President Marc Badain said Circa being the first to sign a founding partnership deal made too much sense. He said Circa’s commitment to creating memorable Las Vegas experiences is exactly the level of commitment the franchise seeks from a founding partner.

“They’ve (Circa) been innovative in idea creation, and Derek’s been in every single meeting,” Badain told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, referencing Circa owner Derek Stevens. “They just made it very easy to sit down and come up with a package of assets that were good for them that are going to be good for the fans on game day. They came up with a lot of creative ideas, and the A’s are glad that they’re going to be first.”

Part of that partnership will be visible with the Circa Dugout Box, a premium hospitality experience that will host guests in a space directly connected to the A’s dugout.

The 22-seat, exclusive fan zone will offer an intimate experience unlike one found in a traditional suite or premium seating area, with up-close access to the players, dugout and the play on the field.

“We’re very excited about becoming the first founding sponsor for the A’s in 2028,” Stevens told the Review-Journal. “We’re excited about the amount of tickets that are going to be involved here. The big news is going to be the fact that Circa is going to have one of the dugout clubs.”

Invitations to the Circa Dugout Box will be issued by Circa, and Stevens suggested one way to secure an invite to one of the games in the exclusive space: “That’s going to be a very Circa-specific thing,” Stevens said. “I can tell you it’s going to be very important to know a Circa casino host. That’s how you’re going to get in.”

As 2028 rolls around, Circa will also introduce “Time of Your Life” seats in the outfield that will be included in packages combining a stay at the downtown resort with game tickets.

“They’ll have the ability to get Time of Your Life seats that’ll be out in the outfield,” Stevens said. “We’re just going to have a lot of fun with this. The outfield wall is the largest outfield wall sign that’s permanent. We’ve got signage behind home plate during the ninth inning and every extra inning. … So there’s just so much to this relationship. And then obviously a lot of events on property at Circa where we can bring out season ticket holders and sponsors and various events with the A’s and everyone. We’re very excited about that as well, both in season and off season.”

Between the Circa Dugout Box and Time of Your Life Seats, Circa will have 54 tickets to each home game, Stevens said.

Stevens’ baseball background

Stevens said he has long loved baseball and once owned the Las Vegas 51s. He has always believed that Major League Baseball could be a hit in Las Vegas.

The A’s and Circa first partnered on a three-year deal tied to the team’s temporary stop in Sacramento for the 2025-2027 seasons. That deal has a Circa logo on the outfield wall, digital signage behind home plate during games and the Homestand Giveaway, in which fans attending a homestand at Sutter Health Park can win a trip to Las Vegas and a stay at the downtown resort.

“A lot of the reason for doing it was just so that we could develop a stronger and closer relationship from ownership to ownership, entire family, to the management team, the marketing people, sponsorship team and help hold events here and really have Circa become a home for the A’s when during this time period in Vegas,” Stevens said. “That’s why we did this three-year deal; we were just really trying to set up and prep ourselves for 2028.”

After the two sides got to know each other over the course of the first two years of that deal in Sacramento, moving toward a longer-term deal in Las Vegas made sense, Badain said. Outside of the features the three-year deal included in Sacramento, Circa has also hosted A’s watch parties at Circa Swim, hosted the team’s Christmas party and had A’s players stay on the property. Circa was also involved during the six games the A’s played at Las Vegas Ballpark in Summerlin over the summer.

“They’ve just been a great partner the whole time,” Badain said. “So, transitioning that three-year bridge deal into a 10-plus-year longer term deal is a natural extension of those conversations and of the partnership.”

Badain said Stevens’ baseball background proved helpful as the two sides built a relationship and eventually led to striking the first founding partnership deal for the A’s in Las Vegas.

“His love for the sport, you can tell he’s a huge baseball fan,” Badain said. “He’s obviously a big (Detroit) Tigers fan, but you can tell he’s a huge fan, and he’s becoming a great A’s fan. When you get the principal involved in it at that level, it makes it a much more enjoyable process because he’s engaged, and he’s coming up with his own ideas and how much he wants to support the team and how much he wants to add and be additive to the fan experience is going to come through in different elements involved in the package.”

A founding partnership deal with a sports franchise and stadium is the second-highest entitlement partnership deal that can be struck, only behind the naming rights partnership for a ballpark, Badain said.

“The founding partnership will have some of the key tentpole assets in the building, whether they’re hospitality assets or whether they take over a particular space in the building and it becomes named after their company, their brand, something associated with their group,” Badain said. “So they’ll get some of those assets; they’ll get outfield signage. So the more prominent pieces of sponsorship inventory go toward the founding partnerships.”

While serving as the president of the Raiders during the team’s relocation and construction of Allegiant Stadium, the NFL team made around a dozen founding partnership deals. Badain said the A’s should land a similar amount tied to the team’s move and new $2 billion ballpark being built on the Las Vegas Strip.

“That’s probably close,” Badain said. “We’ll see which categories are interested in that level of partnership. So there’s never a set number; you obviously don’t want too many. You want to preserve the exclusivity and the value to the partner. But we’re in conversations with dozens of potential partners right now, and we’ll see which ones want to make that level of commitment like Derek did.”

From the source Contact Mick Akers at [email protected] or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.