Those rumors stem from the fact that they played 6 games there back in 1997 or something when McAfee was finishing renovations. The minor league field there is not big enough for MLB, and they can't support both.
Anyway, here's the thing with Las Vegas:
We're talking about a city with a population, albeit growing, of under a million. The tourism is what keeps the city full, but people are not there to go to a baseball game. They're there to sit in casinos, eat, and see shows. And it's not as if there are a lot of suburban folk that can make up for the smaller urban population. There's Henderson and a few other small towns, but that's it. It's sand. And a large majority of the population works in the entertainment business, which means they're sorta busy nights.
Then there's the issue of a stadium. There's obviously no room on the strip. So you're asking people to venture off into the desert, away from all of the glitz and glam, to see a baseball game for a likely fledgling team? Plus, you're going to need a roof, because players aren't going to play day games in 125 degree heat, nor will they play night games in 100. I went to Phoenix this summer and can say that it is impossibly hot there, but they were lucky because the people support baseball from their Cactus League past. You don't have that history in Vegas.
Getting 35,000 people a night to support a franchise in the desert away from the strip is not feasible. Sorry, but until the population doubles and a lot of it isn't in the entertainment biz, they're not going to be able to support an MLB team. An NBA team, requiring 15,000 people and no new arena (UNLV has a perfectly good one), might be a good option to try, and they'll see what support there is in the 2007 All Star Game. But it will be a long time before we see baseball on Vegas. And you can bet your bottom dollar on that.
