The Athletics want fans to get excited about their Las Vegas move but won’t reveal how much of their Sin City stadium will actually look like the heavily AI-generated ad they used to market tickets for it.
On Wednesday, the official X account for the team’s new ballpark posted a video to advertise seats in its luxury suite sections: the Athletic Club and Diamond Club. After a few seconds of Vegas B-roll, the video cuts to AI-generated scenes of AI-generated people walking through the AI-generated models of what the club sections of the park might look like. A view of the field itself — which, surprise, is also AI-generated — doesn’t appear until the final 15 seconds of the 70-second video. The post wasn’t exactly popular among fans, especially those scorned by the team’s departure from Oakland.
But the cherry on top is that the A’s don’t seem interested in talking about this marketing strategy. SFGATE reached out to the team, asking how much of the video was made with artificial intelligence and how much of what was portrayed is in the plans for the actual stadium. An A’s spokesperson initially asked for a deadline extension to respond and then later came back and declined to comment.
On the one hand, this ad is clearly not intended for everyone. In theory, it’s for a tax bracket that can afford luxury-style accommodations in an already expensive city on a regular basis, or even those who can afford to shell out that kind of cash for a celebration or corporate event. On the other, however, one has to wonder how comfortable someone would be spending any amount of money on something that has only been depicted through generative AI, and that’s before questions about what specifically is being depicted arise. After all, weird, uncanny valley-style renderings of future stadium designs precede the AI era, but even if the AI usage were less conspicuous, what exactly is the vision for the ballpark or, at the very least, these amenities?
They can’t possibly be for baseball fans, since the imagery that evokes an upscale hotel lobby and high-end cocktail bar only makes polite nods to the fact that a baseball team plays nearby. The Athletic Club itself looks like a secluded hideaway, almost as if it’s intentionally meant to separate the fan from the action, and there’s hardly a television in sight. The venue’s purpose appears to be more about people being seen in a luxury setting without having to inconvenience themselves with thinking about the ballgame they ostensibly paid for. The sport, and the experience of watching it, is almost an explicit afterthought.
At least the A’s have a bit of time to turn the spaces in this AI video into reality, since the target date for the stadium’s opening is before the 2028 season.