Vegas NHL advocates backing away from ‘Nevada’ team name

Members of the prospective ownership group seeking an NHL franchise for the MGM Resorts/AEG arena quickly backed away Wednesday from a comment that Las Vegas might not be part of official team name.

Bill Foley, the lead investor in the Las Vegas bid, told the Review-Journal’s Alan Snel on Tuesday that he preferred Nevada rather than Las Vegas for the team’s official name.

The comment ignited a furor, with 90 percent of about 400 callers to the ESPN 1100’s talk-show protesting the omission of Las Vegas in the team name.

Tony Guanci, one of Foley’s partners, told an Italian-American dinner gathering on Wednesday night that “the reality is that the team will be a Las Vegas team.”

Guanci was careful not to say Foley misspoke. Instead, Guanci said, “Bill wanted to make sure people were paying attention.”

Foley told Snel that going with Nevada in the team name was “more inclusive.”

“It has a lot of merit. I prefer it. We want to include everyone,” he said.

Mitch Moss, a member of the “Gridlock” show, said the fan reaction via calls and the textline was “nuts. Everybody was freaking out.”

Guanci, a California businessman and consultant, was at the event at the Italian-American Club with Gavin and Joe Maloof, who are partnering with Foley, a Florida billionaire. They hope to land an NHL team that would make its home in the MGM Resorts/AEG arena being built near the Monte Carlo. The Las Vegas NHL team would start play in the $375 million, 20,000-seat arena in October 2016, Gavin Maloof said.

The Maloofs and Guanci appeared at the dinner to pitch the season ticket deposit drive, which officially begins Feb. 10.

They hope to reach the goal of 10,000 deposits in a couple months.

Gavin Maloof told the crowd of 100 plus “If we don’t succeed with this, with the NHL, guess what? We’re not going to get another professional team here. The NBA won’t come, baseball won’t come. We have to be successful. We cannot fail.”

One of the emcees of the dinner received loud applause when he suggested the team be named the Las Vegas Paisanos.”

Norm Clarke can be reached at 702-383-0244 or email him at norm@reviewjournal.com. Find more online at www.normclarke.com. Follow Norm on Twitter @Norm_Clarke.