Solid Argument For A Las Vegas NHL Expansion Team

Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

I have been to Las Vegas and loved it. I am not a gambler or drinker! I was the prototypical “vegas strip” tourist. I have been told by many folks “real” Las Vegas residents avoid the strip. My genuine fear (unfounded as it might be) is that there is not enough “real” Las Vegas folks to keep an NHL team afloat. I’ve even admitted that if I were to go to Vegas again, I’m likely not putting an NHL game on my agenda.

ENTER DANA LANE!

A native Las Vegas businessman, he contacted me asking for a chance to voice his opinion. Ummm, WOW, after reading what he wrote my hardline stance against the NHL going to Vegas has softened. The bolded part of his responses are the punches that knocked this fighter of off his skates.

With so many to-do options in Las Vegas, sell me on how the NHL thrives in your market?

If there is any city in the world that knows how to sell themselves and their product its Las Vegas. However, the ‘Sin City’ label has been a detriment in some cases. Our image is difficult to overcome when we want the existing hockey community to take us seriously. Only true locals understand that our community is made up of Girl Scout leaders, Sunday School teachers, and little league coaches just like any other. This is the part of our community that the outside world fails to recognize when forming their opinion on the viability of the NHL in Las Vegas.

For some reason we are always compared to Phoenix when we should be compared to the market closest to us which is Anaheim. The Coyotes are a terrible comparison because that market has the NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA, and Arizona State sports. The dollar will only stretch so far when your product is less than average.

I don’t think “the Vegas Strip” competition is a difficult task to overcome considering most of the shows charge twice as much as an average Las Vegas hockey ticket, completed in half the time. We have 41 million people walking 200 yards away from the arena with 2.3 million residents with a large portion of them from East Coast cities or hockey cities. The area around the arena will also include ‘The Park’. It will be an entertainment district designed to move people towards the arena.

When you speak of the people of Las Vegas you speak of a blue collar society that is made up of hard working people that came to Las Vegas to find something better than what they had. I can’t think of a sport that embodies the ‘Blue Collar’ mentality more than the National Hockey League. The league is a reflection of who we are as a society despite the stereotypes that the city pays its bills on.

I’m sure that our friends to the North thought that Los Angeles wouldn’t be a good hockey market in 1967. The Tampa Bay Lightning certainly do not play in a traditional hockey market but fill over 96% of their building which is better than the Ottawa Senators.

A fear is that the NHL will lose it’s “novelity”, what sort of “base” do you feel Las Vegas would begin with AND would your base endure a slow start?

I feel the goal of 13,000 season ticket holders is a bit advantageous but 10,000 is not.

Passion for Hockey and Las Vegas is the quality in which the Las Vegas front office and sales staff must be assembled. It must resemble an army more than a staff. They must understand the importance of community relations both with business’, schools, and individuals. They must understand how to cultivate relationships. That is how a Las Vegas team would endure a slow start.

Do you hope for an expansion team or a moved team?

It is imperative that the new team is an expansion team. It will make it more difficult if people feel they’re getting someone else’s seconds. Locals have to build this franchise from the ground up in order to internalize it as their own.

Last thoughts….

We are a city built on the impossible becoming possible. Las Vegas needs to make promises of making this a huge event 41 times a year. If done correctly I don’t ask how the NHL can compete with the rest of the Vegas entertainment, I ask will they be able to compete with the NHL.

Thank you very kindly for your time Mr. Lane. I can now sincerely say, “good luck”.

More from Flame for Thought

Home / Editorials