June 16, 2016
Peter Solari
Almost out of nowhere, Las Vegas, Nevada has supplanted itself smack in the middle of the sports world.
After years of failed stadium talks with the city, Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis is completely serious about moving his fabled, though unstable, franchise to Las Vegas, and many around the league, including his fellow owners, are coming around. While it's anything but a done deal, A Raiders move to the Silver State seems far more realistic at this points, than any of the San Antonio, Los Angeles, etc. relocation rumors that have surrounded the team for years.
On Tuesday, the NHL announced that Las Vegas was selected as their next expansion city. Major professional ice hockey is expected to make it's debut in Nevada in the 2017-2018 season. The unnamed Vegas franchise will play their home games at T-Mobile Arena, a state-of-the-art facility that opened on the Las Vegas strip in April.
On Thursday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver got in on the fun too. When asked about the possibility of a franchise in Sin City, Silver told The Dan Patrick Show he's "keeping his eye on" Las Vegas. "I am keeping a close eye on it, "I've been to the new arena that AEG just built there. I think it's a great market," Silver said. "We're not in expansion mode, so it's not something that we're even thinking about right now. But based on what I've read the NHL is on their way, and even our old owners the Maloofs seem to be involved - the old owners of the Sacramento Kings. I know the people of Vegas love their sports."
The people of Vegas are no strangers to the NBA. The league holds it's annual summer league there every July, and back in 2007, they held the All Star Game at The Thomas and Mack Center, on the campus of UNLV.
And poof, just like that, Vegas went from having no major professional sports, to the possibility of having three, in the blink of an eye.
How far behind could Major League Baseball be? After all, the Oakland Athletics have been involved in the same failed stadium talks as the Raiders, and are just as, if not more, anxious to leave the Bay Area than their gridiron counterparts. Why not Vegas?
For years, Las Vegas was a pro-sports' no-man's -land because mixing 20-something-year-old millionaires with the temptations of Sin City, can be a very dangerous cocktail. Not to mention all the gambling influences that the city is famous for. But times have changed, and we're living in a much smaller world. Sports gambling is a reality all across America, not just in Nevada. So are drugs and prostitutes.
According the the 2010 census, the Las Vegas metropolitan area was home to more than 2 million people, with millions more visiting each year. The bustling city has the potential to be a real money maker for professional sports teams who call it home. Nowadays, the bottom line is really all that matters, which makes Vegas a strong candidate for expansion or relocation in any major sport.
Maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself here because in actuality, Las Vegas is currently the home of zero major pro sports teams. Even the NHL deal isn't set in stone yet, but it's close. And if it becomes a reality, it will open doors across the sports world.
That isn't to say that "as the NHL goes, so goes the rest of the sporting world," because nothing could be further from the truth. The last time hockey expanded, they went to Columbus, Ohio in 2000. Since then, no major pro teams, from any league, have expressed interest in moving to Ohio's capital, but Vegas represents something different, and the NHL's success there could be vital to the Raiders and any other franchises hopes of moving there.
If the NHL expands to Vegas, and establishes a footing there, then, all of a sudden, A Raiders move, or NBA expansion, or an Athletics move, to a city once avoided like the plague, becomes much easier sells, and far more realistic possibilities.
