Sunday, July 04, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

MAJOR LEAGUE SPORTS TOWN: Is it in the cards?

Pursuit of Montreal Expos has opened eyes, but city's readiness has been questioned

Las Vegas has become a viable contender to land a team in one of the four major sports leagues, as evidenced by positive reaction from baseball officials to the city's pitch to land the Montreal Expos.

However, Las Vegas also is widely viewed as a city whose time has not yet come. Washington and Northern Virginia are favored to get the Expos when the decision is announced by the end of the season.

If Southern Nevada is bypassed, does the attempt, and baseball's apparently serious response to it, enhance Las Vegas' chances the next time a team looks for a new home?

"Everyone at (Major League Baseball) has been impressed with Las Vegas' effort," MLB president and chief operating officer Bob DuPuy says. "If Las Vegas were not selected, it would no doubt be given serious consideration in any future discussion of relocation."

While those behind the effort to bring the Expos here insist the city is ready, others say the population base needs to grow well beyond the current 1.6 million.

"The reality of all that is Vegas, in my mind, is quite a ways away from being a major league town," says Don Logan, president of the Triple-A baseball Las Vegas 51s.

But the bid for the Expos at least created discussion nationwide about Las Vegas and major sports. For the first time, writers, broadcasters and sports officials discussed the issue seriously.

When the time is deemed right, which sport might be the first to put a team here?

Forget the National Football League. It is trying to return to Los Angeles, and other cities don't appear to be receiving much consideration.

The National Hockey League is facing a threatened lockout by owners that could wipe out part or all of the 2004-05 season. Instead of adding teams, the league faces the real possibility of losing some.

Because of the success in the early 1990s of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas men's basketball team, many have thought the National Basketball Association would be a natural fit. However, commissioner David Stern is against placing a team here until all NBA games are taken off the board at sports books.

Even with an NBA summer league coming here, Stern's stance has not softened.

"The summer league is too different; it's apples and oranges," NBA spokesman Tim Frank says. "The summer-league event has no gambling. David is consistent that as long as there is betting on basketball, there is no interest in bringing a team there."

And don't expect the casinos to change.

George Maloof, part owner of the NBA's Sacramento Kings, also is a Las Vegas casino owner.

"The door has been opened, but I think there are certain conditions that have to be put on for Las Vegas to ever have a team here," Maloof says. "It's taking the NBA off the board. I don't think the casinos will go for it. That's the problem."

Which leads back to baseball, Expos or no Expos.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig recently toured Tampa Bay's Tropicana Field and said the Devil Rays need a new stadium. If they don't get one in the next five to 10 years, observers say the team could look to move.

Of more immediate interest are stadium issues facing the Oakland Athletics and Minnesota Twins.

The A's have explored moving to San Jose, Calif., but the city's territorial rights belong to the San Francisco Giants. The team is concentrating more on the East Bay.

A's vice president Louis Wolfe, who is heading the effort for a new stadium, says he should have a better idea about the situation in a few months. If the East Bay doesn't work out, perhaps Las Vegas would be a possibility.

"I don't know if it's a potential site for the A's, but with the growth of Las Vegas, you would hope it would be considered by Major League Baseball one of these days," Wolfe says. "The A's are not focused on that."

The Twins' hopes for a new stadium were dashed this year when the Minnesota Legislature shot down a bill in committee. But Twins president Dave St. Peter says the club will try again next year and isn't considering Las Vegas.

"The Pohlad family (the owner) is really committed to keeping Major League Baseball in Minnesota," St. Peter says.

Even if a team is interested, the Southern Nevada market might have several barriers to overcome.

There's size. While the region's population steadily climbs toward 2 million, the Las Vegas TV market is the nation's 51st largest.

Also, Stern isn't the only pro sports commissioner nervous about the potential taint of a sports betting scandal. The fear goes back to 1919, when eight members of the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series because they were involved with gamblers.

Such jitters didn't deter the Arena Football League, which relocated the Gladiators here from New Jersey in December 2002.

"Clearly, it's traditionally looked at as a gambling center, but these days our view after being there for two years is gambling is more regulated in Nevada than anywhere else," AFL commissioner David Baker says. "The Internet and offshore are more likely to be (negatively) affected than Las Vegas."

Most, if not all, local officials and business executives agree. Their skepticism lies with any deal that would see the local government float bonds and provide tax breaks to lure a team.

"Here in Las Vegas we expect developers and business owners to come and put their own capital down and not look to government for support," says MGM Mirage senior vice president Alan Feldman. "In Nevada, we are a risk-taking society, where we believe capitalism is alive and well and working marvelously."

The group trying to bring the Expos here says no new taxes would be raised, that the only costs to the public would be for infrastructure changes around a new stadium, some sort of tax break and a return on the extra revenue generated by the club's presence.

Local conventional wisdom also holds that any sports team immediately loses a share of its potential customer base because Las Vegas is a three-shift town. The city's casinos demand that tens of thousands of potential ticket buyers work the blackjack tables, serve cocktails and grill steaks.

So the head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority carefully chooses his words when discussing the prospects for success of a major league franchise.

"Well, sure we would be excited. There would be residual effects, the media coverage, the newspaper coverage," Rossi Ralenkotter says.

He speaks of the need for any pro sports franchise to conduct comprehensive research on the market to gauge the demand, and the necessity of a solid business plan.

"Las Vegas is a fast-growing marketplace," Ralenkotter says. "The population is increasing. If they do an aggressive plan that's based on research that's targeting those of us who live here and execute it properly, those are the things that lead to success."

Mike Shapiro, a consultant for San Francisco-based Centerfield Management Group and a key figure in the movement to attract the Expos, says such homework has been done. He says studies have shown a Las Vegas team can draw 2.3 million fans a year, with 35 to 45 percent of them tourists.

He said that by 2007, when a stadium would be opened for the Expos, the city's population would be at about 2 million.

Shapiro sent in a massive proposal to baseball officials May 14 that backed up his claims that the city's time has come.

"(Baseball officials) have been unwavering in the way they have been very serious in looking at Las Vegas as being very viable," Shapiro says. "Whether we wind up with the Expos or not, we've been taken very seriously."

Homebuilders and casino operators might understand the changing nature of the city as well as any business operator. Both benefit from the estimated 5,000 people who move here monthly. They've witnessed a jump in the earnings and education levels of newcomers, one that is reflected in the surges in housing prices and the construction of new neighborhood casinos.

Station Casinos chief financial officer Glenn Christenson is optimistic that Las Vegas will have a major sports franchise. He's just not certain when.

"We have so many entertainment options in Las Vegas," says Christenson, pointing to the failure of past minor league franchises. "Whoever came in and bought (a team) would have to have their eyes wide open."

Developer Bill Hoover is more optimistic. The president of Pageantry Communities agrees that any group seeking a local franchise will need deep pockets and a willingness to spend, but he looks at the success of high-end homebuilders and retailers locally and believes Las Vegas is ready. "I think there's critical mass here now," Hoover says.

A Las Vegas team might have to be marketed like no other. After all, this is a city that is considered a laboratory for hotel, restaurant and retail design, a place marketers crave for the estimated 37 million people who visit annually.

For instance, the owners of the St. Louis Cardinals have seized upon a successful marketing formula that keeps the team's annual attendance among the top in Major League Baseball. Yet, that same formula might not work here. Instead, Las Vegans may crave a showmanship reminiscent of legendary baseball owner Bill Veeck, the man who once had "a midget" pinch hit in a major league game.

A successful Las Vegas stadium could demand a celebrity chef-operated food court; a Western version of the Baseball Hall of Fame; a massive hotel reminiscent of Toronto's Skydome that has rooms ringing the outfield. All of it could be televised nightly via a nationwide superstation, such as the Atlanta Braves' WTBS.

"It's going to take a different formula, a different look at this," says MGM Mirage's Feldman.

The 51s' Logan looks at other teams that have come and quickly gone and even at those that remain.

He says he would love baseball to come here, but is it realistic?

"Why would an intelligent person put a team here?" Logan asks. "We will support a NASCAR event. You can put the NASCAR in Pahrump and it's going to work. You can put the NFL in Pahrump and it's going to work. Those aren't fair judgments. We don't support college football, Rebel basketball. What we've got now is not supported to the level that it should be supported for a community that thinks it's a major league town."