Discussing “Madden 2004” with a friend of mine the other day. We were talking about the feature that lets you relocate your team to another city.
Since I’d never done it, I decided to move the Arizona Cardinals to Vegas. The Interest-O-Meter was fairly high, which indicates the city is willing to pony up the dough to get a team.
In discussing this, my friend made this offhand comment:
“Never happen. Baseball’s been trying to get into that market for awhile, and the League office won’t approve it. There’s too much temptation for corruption.”
This got me thinking – as one of the fastest-growing communities in America, why couldn’t Vegas support one of the Big 4 (baseball, football, basketball, or hockey) teams? Is it still a stigma regarding legalized vice, or for other reasons that teams won’t move there?
I also found this article online, which basically mirrored what my buddy said.
So what’s the verdict? How come there aren’t any pro teams in Vegas yet?
Not sure that this is a question with a factual answer. Most of the responses will probably be of the IMHO variety.
I don’t think the corruption issue is at all valild. I do think, however, that the article you linked to has some good points about competition for the entertainment dollar. There’s so much other stuff to do in Vegas that people might not be able to maintain sufficient interest in a sports team.
I think that the best chance for a major pro sports team would be for a football team. They only play 16 games in the regular season, so it’s somewhat easier to sustain the sort of interest that large attendances require. Also, it would be more likely that away-team supporters would fly in to watch their team play against the Vegas team. But that sort of thing is much less likely during a 40 home-game basketball season, or an 80 home-game baseball season.
As the article also points out, game attendance isn’t everything. They would also need to consider things like TV earnings and merchandising.
While Vegas is, as you say, “one of the fastest-growing communities in America,” it’s still a relatively small one in absolute terms. Maybe another ten years of growth would make it a more viable candidate. Furthermore, many other sporting cities rely on fans making the journey from outside the city limits. For example, while Baltimore City’s population is only about 700,000, it is smack in the middle of a sprawling urban and suburban region containing millions of people. We get people coming from PA and NJ and NY and DC and VA to watch the Ravens and the Orioles. Vegas, on the other hand, is pretty much stuck out there in the desert by itself.
Actually, they do have a (sort-of) pro baseball team. It’s the Dodgers’ AAA farm team, the Vegas Gambling Addicts, or whatever they’re called. They used to be the Albuquerque Dukes, but they got sold out and moved to make more money. I’m not looking it up at the moment, but I think they’re having a hard time attracting attention amid all the glitter. But since the team is an actual MLB property, it would seem that the casino business is not a factor.
The team is the “51’s”, after the vaguely nearly Area 51. http://www.lv51.com/ The alien head on the caps is cute. (BTW, Albuquerque got a minor league team back and they named them the Isotopes, after the Simpsons episode.)
Whether or not the corruption element is real or not, I think it is enough of an issue to make Vegas a less than desirable option to almost anywhere else when you are thinking expansion team placement/franchise relocation. The owners would surely be required to have no contact with casinos and in a town like Vegas, that might be difficult.
The only place the NFL is interested in moving to (or back to, rather) is LA. The NFL is also the biggest pro sport for the Vegas bookmakers, so football would seemingly be the sport most likely for a scandal to occur. Then again, UNLV has never had a problem with their football team…
The legacy of the UNLV basketball scandal of the early '90s may keep the NBA out for the foreseeable future, perhaps as long as David Stern is running the show. Similarly, I think the continuing legacy of the Black Sox scandal will keep MLB out of town, even though baseball is a virtual non-entity in sports betting.
Hockey is expanded out, the only hope there is for a franchise move. But with the upcoming lockout the NHL might look very different on the other side. I could see a hockey team in Vegas in the not too distant future. I’m not sure if the town has a NHL quality arena at the moment, but that is a lot cheaper to build than a proper modern football or baseball stadium.
Another factor is that a large portion of Las Vegas’ population growth is due to people relocating to the city from other parts of the country. Presumedly many of these people retain their old sports allegiances.
I don’t know that I’d agree with this. Stern allowed the Mohegans to purchase the Connecticut Sun and have them play at the arena on-site at the Mohegan Sun casino.
In addition, the Maloofs, who own the Palms casino, also own the Sacramento Kings (who I think could be the first franchise to play in Vegas.) In both cases, the casinos are forbidden to run an NBA sportsbook. I think there’s a definite chance that an NBA team could be moved to Vegas in 5 or 10 years, and the Kings would seem to be the most likely candidate (especially with Sacramento being a mid-level sports market.)
They used to be the Albuquerque Dukes, but they got sold out and moved to make more money. I’m not looking it up at the moment, but I think they’re having a hard time attracting attention amid all the glitter. But since the team is an actual MLB property, it would seem that the casino business is not a factor.