New commissioner: Arena Football ‘a diamond in the rough’

Until last year, Scott Butera had never seen an Arena Football League game in person.

The man who would be named the league’s commissioner in September walked into the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., with an open mind. He left convinced there was a product worth selling.

“I left saying to myself, ‘This is a diamond in the rough,’ ” Butera said. “But it was a diamond that needed to be cut and polished.”

Butera, former chief operating officer of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and the CEO at Foxwoods Resort in Connecticut, knows something about turning around struggling entities. In Arena Football, Butera believes he has a marketable product.

“What I saw was a product that was great but needed to get its message out better,” Butera, 48, said Tuesday during the AFL league meetings at Westgate Las Vegas. “We’re not the NFL, but we’re high scoring with lots of action. We’re inside so weather’s not an issue. And we’re affordable.

“What I told our owners was if we work together, if we offer a high-quality product and we market ourselves properly, we can be successful.”

The league, which has been playing since 1987, launches its season March 27 with 12 teams, including the expansion Las Vegas Outlaws. The Outlaws, who are owned by Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil and will play at the Thomas & Mack Center, open their season March 30 at home against San Jose.

“We’ve got 12 solid ownership groups in place,” Butera said. “We have a great opportunity that if we stick together, we can accomplish great things.

“We also live in a world that loves football and I knew I was in the right sport. This was a league with a great product but hadn’t been run like a great business. I thought I could apply a lot of my business acumen to this sports league and turn it around.”

Butera said running a sports league properly is no different than running a hotel-casino.

“At the end of the day it’s all about entertainment and driving people to your property,” he said. “It’s about fighting to get the entertainment dollar. You market your product. You want people to come in and have a good time. You have retail. You have food and beverage. It’s the same with football. We have all those things. We want people to come watch our product and make sure they have a good time.”

The league will have increased television exposure with 15 games on ESPN and 16 on CBS Sports Network. Butera said the league will be launching an aggressive marketing campaign using various social media and traditional media platforms to get the word out.

As for Las Vegas supporting the Outlaws, Butera is optimistic it will work this time. The city’s first two ventures with the sport, the Sting, who played at the MGM Grand Garden from 1994 to 1995, and the Gladiators, who played at the Thomas & Mack and the Orleans Arena from 2003 to 2007, did not last.

The Sting averaged 6,413 in their first year and just over 5,000 their second year before moving to Anaheim, Calif. The Gladiators’ best year at the turnstiles was 2006 when the team averaged 10,115 a game at the Thomas & Mack. The following year, they averaged 5,383 at Orleans Arena before moving to Cleveland.

“I think times change,” Butera said. “I think the Las Vegas market is much different now than it was in the past. It’s less of a transient city than it used to be. People are putting down roots here and I think they want to have teams to root for.

“You can see there’s excitement in the city with the NHL possibly coming here. I think (Neil) and his group are committed to making this work and I think playing at the Thomas & Mack is a great move by them. It’s easily accessible from everywhere. It’s a place families are familiar with, whether it’s going to watch UNLV basketball or a family show, they know the Thomas & Mack.

“But there’s always the challenge of getting people to come out. There’s a lot of entertainment options in Vegas. But we’re offering an affordable, fun option that caters to families and I think there are enough people who have moved here since the Gladiators left that aren’t concerned with the history and they’ll give it a chance.”

Butera has a three-year contract, and said he thinks he can get the AFL’s diamond polished within that time frame.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I could make a difference,” he said. “We’re not trying to be the NFL. Our goal is to be our own sport and showcase the best possible product. I have no doubt that with the commitment of our owners we can be successful.”

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