Dueling arena plans

Oscar Goodman must have choked on his martini Tuesday afternoon. The Las Vegas mayor has crusaded to bring a major-league sports franchise to town. And it's no secret that he wants the team to play downtown and help revitalize the area.

A month ago, with great fanfare, the city settled on a developer to move forward on a $10.5 billion project near Charleston Boulevard and Main Street that is to include a 20,000-seat arena.

But after getting off the starting line first, Mr. Goodman and the city now find themselves struggling to stay in the race.

On Wednesday, Harrah's Entertainment and AEG, which operates 50 sports venues worldwide, announced they will partner on a $500 million arena to be built behind Bally's, just off the Strip. If all goes according to plan, the facility -- built without any taxpayer contributions -- will open in three years, well before any downtown arena would be ready.

"We have never announced a deal and not built," said Tim Leiweke, AEG's chief executive officer. "We'll save our bluffing for the tables downstairs."

Mr. Goodman put on his best game face and vowed that the downtown project will go forward. We'll see. But at least the mayor can take solace in the fact that if Las Vegas is indeed one day granted a major professional sports franchise, he will have been the driving force behind that achievement -- even if the team doesn't call downtown its home.