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Are You Feeling Lucky, Las Vegas?

By William Grigsby

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It may take more than luck for Las Vegas to acquire an expansion/relocated franchise, but things are beginning to fall into place.

Bill Daly, the NHL Deputy Commissioner, met with a potential undisclosed ownership group this past weekend.

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    • Daly toured the prospective site, and came away impressed. The $350 million arena being constructed by MGM Resorts and AEG (who owns the L.A. Kings) will seat about 20,000 fans, and be ready by 2016.

    But who are these fans, anyway? Think about it… most workers in Vegas work for the service industry, and probably work nights.

    Daly even took back with him some valuable data to evaluate the fan base for Vegas, should they get a NHL team. He asked various service industry employees if they thought a NHL franchise would survive in Sin City.

    "“I got a variety of different responses,” Daly said. “the demographics of the market are pretty good in terms of average annual income. Las Vegas natives earn good salaries, good livings. I think they genuinely like sports. It’s a  nighttime city, so it would have to be uniquely scheduled in terms of focusing maybe on industry nights as opposed to your typical Thursday-Saturday nights where everybody would be working.”"

    I’m not in agreement that when Daly stated ” Las Vegas natives earn good salaries, good livings.” According to a study done by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average hourly wage as of May 2013 in Las Vegas was $20.09 an hour, compared to a U.S. average of $22.33 an hour (Phoenix-Glendale-Mesa area = $21.96 an hour). My math says that’s a difference of $4,659 a year, and if Daly thinks most Vegas residents are going to throw down that hard earned income for NHL season tickets, I’ve got some guaranteed slots machines which pay off every time for him!

    Plus, if you really do some analysis you will see that many of these jobs in Vegas are part-time jobs, requiring workers to work two jobs to make ends meet. I hope the NHL does more in-depth research than what Daly did to evaluate if they would have a fan base there or not.

    I see lots of tourists at an NHL game, and that would add to the entertainment option there. But, PLEASE NHL- if you do decide to put a franchise there be cautious of the affects of gambling. Request that the Nevada legislature pass a law making gambling on a potential NHL team ILLEGAL. The other ramification would be having the players there for a road game (or the home team as well) being enticed to gamble. There’s lots of temptations in Vegas, and unlike the famous movie line-  for a sports team “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” CANNOT apply!

    ESPN.com writer Scott Burnside has stated some stumbling blocks a Las Vegas franchise would face:

    • No ownership group has publicly come forward with a proposal to place a team in Vegas
    • Large portions of the Las Vegas-area workforce work evening or overnight shifts, making it difficult to attend games
    • Burnside added that “the notion that Vegas casinos would buy large blocks of tickets to give away to fans runs against casino practice, which is to keep patrons in your building spending money.

    I myself would love to see a Vegas team, due to the fact it would add an instant rivalry between Vegas and the Coyotes. Back in the day after the Phoenix Roadrunners folded a Pacific League was created, and Tucson had a team. I’m telling you when Tucson played Phoenix, it was much like ASU against U of A… unbelievable games ensued, with fights galore- they hated each other!

    Only time will tell, but money will prevail as the motivating factor in whether Las Vegas gets a team. If the present teams get to share expansion fees, which seem to be as outrageous as up to $1 billion, then what’s to stop them?

    LET’S SEE… WHAT SHOULD WE CALL THE LAS VEGAS TEAM? ANY IDEAS, HOWLIN’ HOCKEY FANS? HERE’S SOME POSSIBILTIES: LAS VEGAS GAMBLERS, LAS VEGAS SIDEWINDERS, LAS VEGAS GAMBLERS, LAS VEGAS BIG HORNS, LAS VEGAS GAMBLERS, LAS VEGAS SILVER RATTLERS…

    BUT MY FAVORITE IS ONE I CHOSE: LAS VEGAS NUGGETS

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