Will Pro Sports Ever Warm to Vegas? (Las Vegas: new home, live in)
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Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,250 posts, read 10,384,831 times
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It is possible to TIE a casino to a pro NBA team. If the casino builds an NBA stadium, you have people walking to and from the games through the casino and you set your sports book up right where they walk so that they can bet on the game they are going to see or other games around the league. Having several thousand people walking through your sports book on the way to a sporting event would be good for business. You might even be technically able to set up little betting screens on every seat in the arena and allow people to bet on things like which player will get the next 3 pointer or which player will foul out first.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,250 posts, read 10,384,831 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by thetalentedmisterdiamonte
By the way, for the posted that mentioned small market teams don't do well, not true. San Antonio Spurs a basketball team is widely considered one of the most successful NBA teams in history and NFL's Green Bay Packers with a much smaller market has a history I don't even have to talk about.
The Packers are in reality "The Wisconsin Packers". They are a statewide franchise and draw fans from Milwaukee and Madison. The only time I saw a "home" game was when they used to play some home games in Milwaukee.
It is possible to TIE a casino to a pro NBA team. If the casino builds an NBA stadium, you have people walking to and from the games through the casino and you set your sports book up right where they walk so that they can bet on the game they are going to see or other games around the league. Having several thousand people walking through your sports book on the way to a sporting event would be good for business. You might even be technically able to set up little betting screens on every seat in the arena and allow people to bet on things like which player will get the next 3 pointer or which player will foul out first.
I know this must be a joke. You can't really believe that pro sports would allow their sport to be so closely tied to gaming.
And in response to your example of two small market success stories, there have always been examples of small markets, but as a general rule, small markets don't attract big names and typically don't do as well as the large markets. Every sport has an exception, but I can't imagine a small market team doing well here. Were you here when the Rebels were a winning, ranked basketball team? This town was crazy for basketball. Once they stopped winning, there was a long dry spell where it seems no one cared about "their team" anymore. Las Vegas will only support a winner. A small market team here having a few bad years would be a disaster. Everyone would jump off the bandwagon and back on their original winning home team. We don't have the history or unity as a community to expect to be compared to Green Bay or even San Antonio.
Gulfer was right. Nearly everyone in Vegas is from some place else and continue to follow their home team from where ever they came from. I sure do.
If they did get a team of any type here it would be almost unafordable to any one but the rich. Concerts and most other shows here are 3-5 times more expensive then anywhere else. Just one little example is I paid more then $400 each ticket for Reba at the Hilton in Vegas and days later we drove our RV to California and paid less then $40 for the same seats for the same show. With the savings we paid for gas and campground fees and still were ahead. We routinely travel to Phoenix or Southern Calif. for shows and save hundreds even after paying for campground fees and gas.
This is a city of rip offs. Soon even the tourists will not be able to come here anymore. A guess is 30% of all the seats at a show are comps. That number of people would not have gone if it were not for some clown pit boss handing them the tickets.
I dont think a sports team would make it. NBA has the only chance. NHL no one even cares about but my friendly Canadian neighbors. NFL would not have a chance. I can see $500 for a nose bleed seats.
They forecasted that not enough tourists would be interested to fill stadiums of any sport in Vegas. I would try to extrapolate the ways the UNLV's rebels caught the collective popular imagination in Vegas late 80's-early 90's.....
and just run with it...
I actually have my ear close to the sports world and in Las Vegas expect 2 teams one NBA and one NHL with MLB a potential prospect. There's a 20,000 seat arena being built at Tropicana between Maryland and the LVB by Harrah's no cost to the taxpayers which's saying something when other cities are paying for the stadium not private companies. The company that's building it owns and operates several sports stadiums and arenas around the planet and is in talks with powers that be from the various sports leagues. Surprisingly, hockey had a ton of support after a poll was conducted so the NHL is watching attentively. Baseball and football each having a different avenue since there's no prospect of a stadium for either to play in being built.
While that would be nice, it's not realistic especially for MLB. Although if the Marlins relocated here there would be a few more seats filled than what they get right now in Dolphins Stadium. I remember a Nationals/Marlins game this year drew less than 2,500 at that venue which is sad. The trouble here is that people leave town during the summer to escape the heat.
I don't know if the Sonics are still looking to leave Seattle, but that would be the most likely scenario to play out in terms of Vegas getting a team right now. It would be prudent for the Sonics ownership to schedule a few games at UNLV to gauge if the town would support a team.
Being a hockey fan, I would love to see a NHL team relocate here; however, the market is pretty well tapped out right now. I would go to many Capitals games back in DC and they never got above 13,000 for a 18,200 capacity arena which included their last playoff appearance 4 years ago when the Lightning won the cup. The issue is that prices of games have gotten ridiculous, games at MCI Center start at $20/each for the extreme nosebleed where you can't hear the PA. If you wanted decent seats, they were $65/each and if you wanted the goal ends then it was $95/each with the highest being $200 for front row on the ice level. Hard to take a family for a nice entertaining hockey game without spending over $400.
A good idea would be for the NHL to schedule a regular season game (not a pre-season game) to get an idea of what support the town would give. Otherwise, I'm not holding my breath.
Many just 'borrow' LV for periods of time. They may live in LV, but still refer to the place they came from as 'home'. For that reason, the team they would most probably go out to see would be the team that was visiting from their homelands, not the LV team. Their true 'home' team would not be The Vegans.
But the fact remains, they needed to be given the chance to become sucessful. The Spurs are a fluke I believe, just my opinion. The Packers, they were concieved in a time where alot of teams were put in small markets. Football was a gamble for any city at that time. Someone needs to roll the dice for Vegas. I for one, would like pro sports. If not, oh well, LA is 2.5 hours away.
You've got to be kidding me?! The Spurs are a fluke? How so? Are you too busy playing badminton or are you actualy paying attention to NBA games? They are the 2nd winningest NBA team after the Los Angeles Lakers as measured by the overall win to loss ratio, have 15 division championships, and have 4 final championships. All this in less than 30 years. They're by no means a fluke. You're the fluke.
Many just 'borrow' LV for periods of time. They may live in LV, but still refer to the place they came from as 'home'. For that reason, the team they would most probably go out to see would be the team that was visiting from their homelands, not the LV team. Their true 'home' team would not be The Vegans.
Hmmmmm a VEGITARIAN sports team........interesting.......
I am not a sports fan. That being said, I have no problem with a major league team....preferably baseball.....certainly NOT NBA after the recent "AllStar Fiasco"
Yeh...I know...I'll get crucified for saying that.....oh well.....
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