LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 6, 2026--
The Athletics (A’s), world-renowned restaurateur Will Guidara, and Aramark Sports + Entertainment (Aramark; NYSE: ARMK) today revealed the vision for the Athletic Club: a first-of-its-kind, all-inclusive hospitality experience that will be located directly behind home plate in the A’s new Las Vegas ballpark, set to open in 2028. Tickets will go on sale later this month to individuals on the Priority Access List.
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Designed to transform the traditional game-day experience and completely reimagine baseball hospitality, the Athletic Club has been meticulously crafted by Guidara –- author of Unreasonable Hospitality, former co-owner of the Best Restaurant in the World, and Co-Producer on the Emmy Award-winning series “The Bear” –- and marks the first time he’s implementing his pioneering hospitality principles within a professional sports venue.
“What we set out to build here is something a little different — a space built around a simple idea: what if getting to the stadium early became one of the best parts of the night?” said Guidara. “Some of the best moments in life happen around a table. It’s where people slow down, share a drink, tell stories, and settle into each other’s company. We wanted to bring that spirit into the ballpark and create a place where gathering together is part of the experience, not just a stop along the way to the game.
Every part of the space was designed with intention — the food, the service, the atmosphere, the details you might not notice right away but feel the moment you walk in. At the center of it all is a commitment to thoughtfulness and genuine graciousness. Our hope is that it pushes the conversation forward about how people come together before a game and opens the door to a new kind of ballpark experience — one that begins long before the first pitch.”
The Athletic Club is designed to be the most exclusive space in the ballpark, with access reserved for A’s premium season-ticket members seated behind home plate. Members will enjoy a private restaurant and supper club offering a multi-course, table-service menu, as well as an upscale lounge featuring small plates and a full bar with craft beer, curated wines, and premium cocktails.
Every game will feature personalized, high‑touch hospitality delivered by maître d’s, sommeliers, and dining concierges who anticipate needs, honor personal preferences, and create memorable moments. The experience has been designed to extend throughout the length of each game, sustaining a vibrant energy with special grab‑and‑go offerings, in‑seat beverage service, surprise culinary moments, and a dramatic signature candy wall.
Diamond Club Joins Lineup of Elevated Premium Spaces
To further amplify the stadium’s premium hospitality program, Aramark and Guidara have also developed the Diamond Club, an all‑inclusive social hub for premium ticket members located adjacent to the Athletic Club behind home plate. Diamond Club members will enjoy a food and beverage experience featuring Vegas-inspired food stations inclusive of locally curated dishes, chef’s specials, and a bold selection of elevated game day favorites.
Aramark Sports + Entertainment President and CEO Alison Birdwell said that Las Vegas inspired their premium approach from the start. “Vegas is a truly one‑of‑a‑kind market, and we set out to introduce an entirely new level of hospitality that matches the energy and spectacle of the city,” she said. “We’re creating a ballpark environment where service and food redefine the way fans enjoy baseball. Partnering with Will ensures that we deliver a Vegas‑worthy experience that creates memories for guests that will last a lifetime.”
Ticket Information
The Athletic Club and Diamond Club will go on sale later this month to those on the Priority Access List. Fans interested in learning more or securing seats must schedule an in-person appointment at the Ballpark Experience Center at UnCommons, with availability offered on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, visit athletics.com/vegas.
“The Athletic Club is about providing fans with something innovative and unique that exists only in Las Vegas,” said A’s President Marc Badain. “By partnering with Will and Aramark, we’re setting a new standard for baseball hospitality, delivering exceptional food and service in a way that feels right at home in this city.”
About Aramark Sports + Entertainment
Aramark Sports + Entertainment serves more than 150 award-winning food and beverage and retail programs in premier professional and collegiate stadiums and arenas along with convention centers, cultural attractions, performance venues, and unique entertainment destinations across North America. The company has received accolades for industry innovations including autonomous markets and dining concepts powered by artificial intelligence and has provided hospitality services at high-profile sporting events like the MLB World Series, MLB at Rickwood Field, NBA All-Star, and Indianapolis 500. Visit Aramark Sports + Entertainment's website to learn more or connect on LinkedIn and X.
About Aramark
Aramark (NYSE: ARMK) proudly serves the world’s leading educational institutions, Fortune 500 companies, world champion sports teams, prominent healthcare providers, iconic destinations and cultural attractions, and numerous municipalities in 16 countries around the world with food and facilities management. Because of our hospitality culture, our employees strive to do great things for each other, our partners, our communities, and the planet. Learn more at www.aramark.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and Instagram.
Renderings: Athletic ClubandDiamond Club
The Athletic Club, located directly behind home plate, will feature a private restaurant and supper club, lounge, and unique game-day experiences.
CAIRO (AP) — The Trump administration is confronting mounting discontent from allies in the Persian Gulf who have complained they were not given adequate time to prepare for the torrent of Iranian drones and missiles bombarding their countries in retaliation for strikes launched by the U.S. and Israel.
Officials from two Gulf countries said their governments were disappointed in the way the U.S. has handled the war, particularly the initial attack on Iran on Feb. 28. They said their countries were not given advance notice of the U.S.-Israeli attack and complained the U.S. had ignored their warnings that the war would have devastating consequences for the entire region.
One of the officials said that Gulf countries were frustrated and even angry that the U.S. military has not defended them enough. He said there is belief in the region that the operation has focused on defending Israel and American troops, while leaving Gulf countries to protect themselves, and said that his country’s stock of interceptors was “rapidly depleting.”
Like others in this story, the Gulf officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing a confidential diplomatic matter.
The governments of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates did not respond to requests for comment.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in response: “Iran’s retaliatory ballistic missile attacks have decreased by 90% because Operation Epic Fury is crushing their ability to shoot these weapons or produce more. President Trump is in close contact with all of our regional partners, and the terrorist Iranian regime’s attacks on its neighbors prove how imperative it was that President Trump eliminate this threat to our country and our allies.”
The Pentagon did not respond.
Official reactions by the Gulf Arab countries have been muted, but public figures with close ties to their governments have been openly critical of the U.S., suggesting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dragged President Donald Trump into a needless war.
“This is Netanyahu’s war,” Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former Saudi intelligence chief, told CNN on Wednesday. “He somehow convinced the president (Trump) to support his views.”
Pentagon officials conceded this week in closed-door briefings with lawmakers they are struggling to stop waves of drones launched by Iran, leaving some U.S. targets in the Gulf region, including troops, vulnerable.
The Gulf countries have emerged as valuable targets for Iran, well within the range of Iran’s short-range missiles and filled with targets, including American troops, high-profile business and tourist locations and energy facilities, disrupting the world’s flow of oil.
Since the start of the war, Iran has fired at least 380 missiles and over 1,480 drones targeting the five Arab Gulf countries, according to an AP tally based on official statements. At least 13 people have been killed in those countries, according to local officials.
In addition, six U.S. soldiers were killed in Kuwait on Sunday when an Iranian drone strike hit an operations center in a civilian port, more than 10 miles from the main Army base. The husband of one of the slain soldiers, who was part of a supply and logistics unit based in Iowa, said the operations center was a shipping container-style building and had no defenses.
In briefings for members of Congress on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers that the U.S. will not be able to intercept many of the incoming UAVs, especially the Shaheds, according to three people familiar with the briefings.
In one of the briefings, Caine and Hegseth did not offer any details when pressed by lawmakers why the U.S. did not seem prepared for Iran to launch waves of drones at U.S. targets in the region, according to one of the people.
That person, a U.S. official who is familiar with the U.S. security posture in Gulf region, said that the U.S. did not have widespread capabilities throughout the Gulf region to effectively counter waves of the one-way drones coming to places outside conventional targets or bases outside of Iraq and Syria.
Drone attacks this week at the embassy in Saudi Arabia caused a limited fire at the embassy in Riyadh, and another drone attack the United Arab Emirates sparked a small fire outside the U.S. consulate in Dubai.
The U.S. and its allies in the Middle East on Thursday even sought help from Ukraine, which has expertise in countering Iran’s Shahed drones, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. When asked about Zelenskyy's comments, Trump told Reuters on Thursday, “Certainly, I’ll take, you know, any assistance from any country.”
Bader Mousa Al-Saif, a Kuwait-based analyst with Chatham House, said the U.S. appeared to have underestimated the risk to its Gulf Arab allies, believing American troops and Israel would be the primary targets of Iranian retaliation.
“I don’t think they saw that there would be as much exposure to the Gulf,” he said, saying the lack of a plan to protect the Gulf countries “speaks to U.S. short-sightedness.”
The frustration in some of the Gulf nations is driven in part by the relative success that Israel has had knocking down drones and missiles compared to some of their neighbors, according to a person familiar with the sensitive diplomatic matter who was not authorized to comment publicly.
Their air defense systems are hardly as robust as Israel’s, but according to the person, U.S. officials have been somewhat perplexed that the Gulf countries are still not showing an appetite for delivering a counteroffensive by launching missiles at Iranian targets.
Elliott Abrams, who served as a special representative for Iran and Venezuela at the end of Trump’s first term, said that U.S. national security officials and their Gulf allies were aware that Iran had the capability to carry out significant strikes.
“And the neighbors knew it and were afraid of it. But it was never clear that Iran would actually do it, because they have a lot to lose,” Abrams said. “These attacks will leave long-term enmity, and if they keep up, the Gulf Arabs may start attacking Iran.”
Michael Ratney, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said that while the Gulf countries have an interest in seeing Iran weakened, they also have key concerns about the ongoing war — including the economic damage and instability it is causing and its open-ended nature.
Ratney, who is now a senior adviser in the Middle East program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: “What comes next? The countries of the Gulf will have to bear the brunt of whatever that is.”
Price and Madhani reported from Washington. AP reporters Seung Min Kim, Konstantin Toropin, Ben Finley and Matt Lee in Washington, Danica Kirka and Susie Blann in London and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, speak during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Konstantin Toropin)
President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war during an event to honor the 2025 Major League Soccer champions Inter Miami CF in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
