Sports drive dollars for ticket broker

Will there be a Ronda Rousey-Holly Holm rematch in Vegas? Will Floyd Mayweather Jr. come out of retirement? Will a hockey team and a second NASCAR race be announced for 2017?

These questions are on the mind of Ken Solky. As owner of LasVegasTickets.com and 1-800-Las-Vegas, he's one of the few people who sells tickets for every type of action in town, so he hears most things before the rest of us, and more importantly, he talks openly to the press.

Sports boom 2015

Usually, Solky and I spend the early new year discussing musicians and show headliners.

But he said the biggest overall money-making ticketed event of 2015 (the gate, pay-per-view and overall impact) was the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao boxing match, obviously.

"We sold seats in the first few rows, ringside, for $75,000-plus, per ticket" to famous athletes, movie and TV stars, and nonfamous wealthy people, he said. (He wouldn't name names, but the fight drew stars such as Magic Johnson, Sly Stallone and Tony Robbins.)

The year's next-biggest ticketed event was the UFC fight starring Irish pounder Conor McGregor and Jose Aldo, which drew 9,000 people just for the weigh-in.

Sports 2016

Solky hopes and kind of expects Mayweather to leave happy retirement, since "retired boxers have come out of retirement before," but that could be wishful thinking.

Meanwhile, everyone expects the Rousey-Holm rematch to happen July 9 at UFC 200 in the new Las Vegas Arena, which would be "the biggest, most anticipated UFC fight probably of all time," he said, reiterating, "Capital B.I.G.G.E.S.T."

Solky would bet on an expansion pro hockey team being announced in 2016 to begin in 2017; some NCAA regional basketball games going to the Las Vegas Arena; and another NASCAR race announced for 2017.

Higher ticket prices

The new Las Vegas Arena opens April 6 with the hometown Killers. After that, Solky expects the 20,000-seater to consume all major sports and concerts, taking them away from MGM Grand Garden Arena. Its construction will have to be paid for.

"Ticket prices will probably be up," Solky said — and not just higher prices at the new Arena but at venues across the valley, as a result, not excluding the upcoming new 5,000-seat Monte Carlo theater.

Clubs waning but staying

Dayclub pool parties will continue to lure younger revelers during spring, summer and early fall. Nightclubs will change.

"There's starting to be a little bit of a wane in the popularity of just how much people will spend, and how long they'll wait" in treacherously long club lines, he said.

Clubs will not go away. They will morph and stabilize.

"Sometimes," Solky said, "a cabana can be more difficult to get than a seat in the first 10 rows of a concert. It's prime real estate."

Oh right, music

"The headliner talent, both in the way of residencies and touring acts, in 2015, made it a stellar year," he said, giving respect to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Las Vegas Events, the resort properties, and AEG and other promoters for making an unfathomable amount of sports and entertainment happen in 2015.

The wild cards

Millennials, who are "more economically conscious," will change Vegas' target demographic "in the very near future," he said.

"That includes gambling, nightlife and live-ticket events," Solky said.

The jury is still out on how many events maturing Millennials will be willing to pay to experience.

"That's why people are pumping a lot of money into virtual reality," he said.

Wait, what?

"I've talked to some producers and promoters who are talking about the realistic possibility — and probability — of producing virtual reality entertainment that you can sell to millions or tens of millions, as opposed to live events you can sell to thousands or tens of thousands."

How realistic is this?

"This is all theory. It doesn't have much to do with today's reality," he said.

"But the Millennial is less likely to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a limo, the bottle service, the table, the booth, the cabana, the front row seats. They're more likely to stay home with their computer."

Does this mean everybody is going to forget about Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers?

"Ask me that in two to five years," Solky said. "Millennials still haven't taken over the entertainment dollar. They've taken over a certain amount."

New Year's Eve sightings

Taylor Swift and actress/Wynn DJ Ruby Rose danced at Omnia nightclub in Caesars Palace while Swift's apparently-still-boyfriend Adam Wiles (aka Calvin Harris) DJ'd.

Halle Berry hung around Bruno Mars' VIP booth in Marquee nightclub at the Cosmopolitan. Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles (who just underwent stem-cell treatment for a torn ACL) danced with his wife in the club.

Actor Omar Sy ("The Intouchables," "Jurassic World," "X-Men: Days of Future Past") partied with friends at Drai's nightclub in the Cromwell while Nicki Minaj was onstage.

And UFC legend Tito Ortiz and his girlfriend/former UFC "Octagon Girl" Amber Nichole Miller ate at Bazaar Meat by Jose Andres.

Doug Elfman can be reached at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman. On Twitter: @VegasAnonymous