Wally Backman remembers many nights driving back home from Cashman Field after managing a Las Vegas 51s game, the desert heat still sweltering even after the sun went down over the Pacific.

“The thermometer would still read 101-degrees,” said Backman, the former New York Mets second baseman and now the Long Island Ducks manager in the independent Atlantic League. “There were some tough days, no doubt, where the temperature would get up to 115, 120 (degrees) in the summer.”

Backman said the oppressive hot weather is one adversity that the Oakland A’s franchise will face if the club moves from the Bay Area to Sin City in the next few years, as expected. Oakland A’s owner John Fisher still needs to get approval from the other Major League Baseball owners on a relocation, and a new Vegas baseball stadium still has several financial hurdles to clear, including resolving the public financing plan.

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But it seems a foregone conclusion that the storied baseball club — which started in Philadelphia, later moved to Kansas City and then Oakland — will have its fourth iteration starting in 2028, when the team is expected to play home games in the proposed $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat baseball stadium. The venue will reportedly feature a partially-retractable roof, and the ballpark will be located near the Vegas Strip.

Backman, 63, said he has confidence a major league team in Vegas will not only thrive, but will also create a strong fanbase.

“Five years ago, I never would have thought that, but I think now a team will do well,” said Backman, who managed the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate 51s for four seasons, 2013-16.

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Backman added that Don Logan, the president and COO of the Las Vegas Aviators — the A’s Triple-A affiliate — has had a significant impact on the Vegas professional baseball scene the last 25 years, and that both the 51s’ and now the Aviators’ successes and popularity should rub off on a new major league club. It doesn’t hurt the Oakland franchise’s cause that the NFL Raiders and NHL Golden Knights have already established solid roots in Vegas, and both teams have generated excitement among the local sports community.

The current A’s, meanwhile, are making records of the most cringeworthy kind. The team’s 12-45 record through Tuesday is the worst in the majors, and the team is already more than two dozen games behind the American League West division leader Texas Rangers. Attendance at Oakland Coliseum for games averages less than 10,000 fans this season.

“John Fisher has made an unprecedented commitment of personal resources to get the As in a major league facility and to make the team more competitive,” baseball commissioner Rob Manfred told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in an email earlier this month.

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Beyond soaring temperatures and putting fans in seats, one other challenge — and a major one at that — is how to keep the A’s players’ focus on the field in a city where temptation is around every corner. MLB’s business partnerships with sports wagering companies like FanDuel and DraftKings, and sportsbooks attached to big league stadiums adds another thorny layer to the equation.

But Backman’s Vegas managing experience was anything but rife with player scandal.

“That was my biggest concern, was how players would react to living and playing in Vegas,” said Backman. “But I never had a single problem with any player all four years I was out there. I enjoyed the whole experience.”