Coronavirus pandemic puts Aviators in holding pattern

Don Logan, the longtime executive and most visible and consistent face of Las Vegas’ Triple-A team, finally experienced his dream season last year.

The Aviators played their first season at Las Vegas Ballpark, the nation’s finest minor league stadium, and the reaction locally was so positive that the team attendance record fell in June, midway through the season. Plus, the Aviators made the Pacific Coast League playoffs.

Logan, the team president and chief operating officer, figured to continue the momentum into this season, having received a strong response in season ticket and sponsorship renewals. Group ticket sales took off as well.

Then the coronavirus pandemic shut it all down.

“So many good things were about to take place,” Logan said. “For me, it puts everything in perspective, because look at what’s going on. This is unprecedented in our lifetimes, certainly. It’s a global pandemic. There are people legitimately and justifiably scared to go out of their house. It’s shut down businesses. It’s wrecked the economy.”

Without fans, minor league baseball cannot take place because those teams don’t have TV contracts to make up for the lost in-house revenues. So this summer, stadiums will either open to at least some fans or no games will be played.

Either way, the Aviators are better positioned for whatever the future holds compared to most of their minor league brethren. They have not laid off or furloughed employees because of the virus.

“We’re stable,” Logan said. “Nothing’s going to happen to us.”

What the eventual return to play looks like is uncertain. Some fans will be hesitant to be in large crowds, but others are hungry to return. Logan said the feedback he’s received is most fans are ready to return because they are better aware of how to stay healthy.

One fan ready to come back is Joe Wilkerson, who has owned season tickets for about 20 years. When the team moved from Cashman Field after the 2018 season, Wilkerson got to pick his seats along the third-base side at the new park.

He isn’t concerned about safety issues once Las Vegas Ballpark opens again.

“I would feel 100 percent comfort,” said Wilkerson, 60, who works in sales. “I would be the first in line.”

Derek Delp, a season ticket holder for four years who has been attending games for about 16 years, also is eager to return. He and 15 others sit together at games, and he misses the atmosphere at Las Vegas Ballpark.

“It was something that was on mine and my wife’s list of things to do literally almost every night last summer,” said Delp, 50, who is a realtor. “It was always nice to know I could go. It was also nice to offer tickets on a regular basis to my clients, and they got so excited. I could post on Facebook that I have extra tickets for tonight, and my phone would blow up.”

Because of the Aviators’ ticket and concessions prices are lower than those in MLB, they could be in a better position than the Raiders and Golden Knights to welcome back crowds.

“That’s one of our strengths is the affordability,” Logan said. “The situation is just comfortable. I know from Raiders tickets and Knights tickets, that’s a financial commitment.”

As for the rest of Triple A, Logan said he thought those teams should be able to survive the pandemic.

PCL president Branch Rickey III cautioned, however, that the upper level of the minors has its vulnerabilities.

“They’re carrying bigger exposure,” Rickey said. “The stadiums are bigger. The staffs are larger. The debt carried on stadiums is deeper. There’s nobody in minor league baseball that’s sailing smoothly through this.”

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.