Tough town for sports teams

It looked to be a blowout early. Every basket met with a deafening roar from the home crowd.

The Thomas & Mack Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas shook atop its very foundation. The school's Rebels seemed hell-bent on destroying their men's basketball rivals from across state lines, the then-12th ranked Brigham Young University Cougars.

"The Mack" was packed.

Sold out. Finally.

It was only the second time in 17 years.

The Rebels men's basketball team is perhaps the only sports team fully embraced by residents of this entertainment-saturated city. Even so, Rebel Fever's revival has taken place only in recent years -- thanks largely to the hiring of a new coach, the Rebels' reappearance in the national rankings and NCAA tournament berths for the Rebels in 2007 and 2008.

The Rebels, who earned a Top 25 ranking after beating BYU 88-74 on Feb. 6, packed the fans in again the following Wednesday for their next game against the University of New Mexico. Ticket demand for both games exceeded the Thomas & Mack's nearly 18,800-seat capacity for basketball games.

That resurgence of Rebel fan support has given Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman reason to dream big -- as in big league team. But those trying to sell other sports franchises to locals say the city is probably better suited for watching big games on big screens at sports books than hosting the games live.

Goodman long ago promised he'd bring a big league sports franchise to town before his tenure as mayor was up. That was a formidable task even during boom times.

Now, in the midst of the worst economic downturn Southern Nevada has seen since the Great Depression, he is not backing down from his pledge.

Las Vegas, the mayor maintained, would prove itself a good financial investment for a major-league sports team. Goodman pointed to the Baltimore-based developer Cordish Co., which is weighing the feasibility of building a Las Vegas home for a major-league franchise.

"I think the discussions with the Cordish Company, about building one within the entertainment area of Las Vegas Live, are very much active," Goodman said. "They believe, as I do, that once it is built, we will be getting an NHL or NBA franchise."

The Las Vegas City Council last year selected Cordish as the developer of a sports arena as part of a mixed-use development planned for 20 acres of city-owned land downtown. Cordish's partnership with Major League Baseball's St. Louis Cardinals to build the $650 million mixed-use Ballpark Village, which will eventually connect to Busch Stadium, impressed local leaders.

Goodman remains convinced ticket sales could make a Las Vegas big league team profitable.

"On any given weekend, we could have a half-million more people here, in addition to the 2 million that live in the valley," he said. "We are a great sports town, even without a major sports franchise."

Las Vegas Wranglers President Billy Johnson and Las Vegas 51s President and General Manager Don Logan disagree. Johnson's Double-A hockey team has survived seven seasons in the desert, while Logan's Triple-A baseball club is going into is 27th season in Las Vegas.

Logan is convinced that there is not enough local corporate support for sports franchises. He pointed to casino consolidation in the late 1990s and in the past decade as an obstacle.

"We don't have appreciable businesses here that will buy suites," he said. "Before MGM and the others amalgamated, you could go around and sell casinos, but not now."

Competing arenas, including the Wranglers' home Orleans Arena, MGM Grand Garden Arena, Thomas & Mack Center and South Point Events Center, would also be a challenge for an arena developer, Johnson said.

Logan's 51s franchise was barely profitable last year, making only about $20,000, the GM said.

"Last year was tough on everybody. We will do $4 million or $5 million in revenue," Logan said.

Las Vegas 51s ticket sales make up about 40 percent of that revenue. Twenty-five percent comes from advertising, 25 percent comes from concessions and 10 percent from merchandising.

"Last year, we were down about 10 percent from the year before (2008)," Logan said. "This year, we plan to at least get back to 2008 levels."

But holding your own, or squeezing out a small profit, isn't good enough when prices and expenses keep rising.

The Wranglers' Johnson would probably be happy with any profit now. As 2009 drew to a close, season ticket sales for the 2009-10 campaign were down 55 percent, a number Johnson called "atrocious."

The recession, combined with apathetic local support, meant the professional hockey club was set to have another year in the financial red, he said.

"This is the worst number of season tickets in my career," said Johnson, who spent many years working in minor-league baseball before joining the ECHL.

The season tickets lost equate to 500 seats for each of the 36 Wranglers home games. Adult season-ticket packages run from $1,260 to $428 each. Individual adult tickets cost between $38 and $12.50.

In the minor leagues, a sports team can lose some money and still be considered "viable," but that is often determined by how the owner's primary business is faring.

And Las Vegas is far from a hockey mecca.

"We are a hockey team in the desert," Johnson said. "If we call your human resource manager, and he is not a hockey fan, he is probably not going to buy hockey tickets for an employee morale night."

Contact reporter Valerie Miller at
vmiller@lvbusinesspress.com or 702-387-5286.