Pac-12 considers making new basketball venue call to T-Mobile Arena

Why mess with a good thing?

That’s the question Pac-12 Conference commissioner Larry Scott is wrestling with.

The league is back in Las Vegas for the fifth consecutive year as its men’s basketball tournament tips off Wednesday at the MGM Grand Garden. The move from the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles has proven to be the right one as sellout crowds and a great atmosphere have been the norm at the Grand Garden, which seats 13,000 for basketball.

On Tuesday, the conference announced the entire four-day tournament is sold out for the first time in league history.

But the Pac-12 is looking at moving its event across the street to T-Mobile Arena, which has 6,000 more seats, including luxury boxes and club seats. It is also a state-of-the-art facility and from an infrastructure standpoint, it will make putting on the tournament much easier.

A move would allow the conference to have more entertainment options than it has at the Grand Garden, which opened on New Year’s Eve in 1993 and lacks all luxury amenities of a 21st-century arena.

“We’ve been looking at parallel tracks,” Scott said Monday. “Simply put, it’s hard to imagine being in a better situation.

“There are some who don’t want to change what we currently have at the Grand Garden. With T-Mobile, we have a chance to step up and bring more fans and hold our event in a state-of-the-art facility.”

Right now, the Pac-12 tournament is a tough ticket. At least on the weekend. Selling several thousand more tickets is no guarantee. Scott risks having lots of empty seats for his title game and his semifinals.

Will it lose some of the atmosphere it currently enjoys in a smaller facility? For the fans who currently attend, the MGM Grand is essentially one-stop shopping — you park your car in the garage and leave it there because everything you want to do is on the property. Lodging. Shopping. Gambling. Dining. Nightclubs. The pool. And oh, yes, the basketball.

If the tournament moves to T-Mobile, everyone will have to walk to the arena. Since parking is limited at Monte Carlo and New York-New York, out-of-town fans who drove to Las Vegas are ultimately going to likely have to park at the MGM anyway and walk across the Strip to get to the games.

“We get feedback from people who like it the way it is,” Scott said. “But there are feelings to go to a bigger and more modern building.”

Obviously, the Pac-12’s corporate sponsors as well as its presidents and chancellors will have a nicer place to schmooze and hobnob with a move to T-Mobile. Plus, the T-Mobile suite-holders would get a nice event while the MGM tries to add dates for the new arena, which opens April 6.

Scott said the Pac-12 has not been pressured to move to T-Mobile by the MGM because of the suites.

“We haven’t felt any,” he said.

The Pac-12’s presidents and athletic directors will tour T-Mobile Saturday morning. Scott said he hopes once he gets more input from them, the conference can make a decision soon on its Las Vegas future.

“We have great relationship with the MGM which we expect will continue,” Scott said. “We’ve been talking for several months and we have both expressed what our needs are. But we also have to be fiscally responsible and do what’s best for the conference. You never want to lose money with one of your showcase events.”

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj