More voodoo economics . . . I just don't understand why city/state officials continue to succumb to the yet-unrealized lure that building stadia, for deep-pocketed owners of major league teams, is the route to economic revival or boom . . . surely due diligence or the most basic research would show otherwise. Just ask the taxpayers still paying for now empty stadia in "pick a city".
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What I've read is that the NHL was more impressed and moved by the value of the American dollar than the Canadian loonie, hence Las Vegas over Quebec City...
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WHY bother with real teams? Why not cut to the chase and have only fantasy sports and fictional teams as gambling incentives?
Universal BAseball Assn, J Henry Waugh, proprietor...
Universal BAseball Assn, J Henry Waugh, proprietor...
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The proposed stadium for Raiders is going to be partly owned by Sheldon Adelson; one of the richest in the world and the biggest contributor to the GOP. Why don't these capitalists use their own money and take the risk? They get the reward at taxpayers' expense. How does the stadium help an average citizen?The financing of sports stadium by public needs to stop.
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Capitalists such as Adelson and most other NFL owners got rich using OPM (Other Peoples' Money) and passing the risk to taxpayers, ie socializing risk while privatizing profit.
Green Bay is an (the only?) exception, and possible apologies to the Rooneys, Maras and Halases, if any of the original NFL owners are still around...
Green Bay is an (the only?) exception, and possible apologies to the Rooneys, Maras and Halases, if any of the original NFL owners are still around...
No apologies to the Rooneys, Maras, Halases are needed. They were all given public subsidized palaces to frolic in. In some cases, multiple times!
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It was 250 degrees in Las Vegas today and all the ice in Vegas could not cool a vodka tonic. Only in America can one even think of a hockey team in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
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The NHL notwithstanding, the NFL exists in its own bubble world of shameless hypocrisy. The "shield" has embraced gambling in all its forms despite its "public" stance that it is somehow harmful to the game. Greatly enhanced TV rights fees, and the continued increase in TV ratings (including those of other viewing platforms), are predicated on the tremendous expansion of gambling on all of those "platforms". How else does on explain the continued popularity of the NFL in the wake of indisputable evidence that playing the game destroys bodies, mind and soul? The NFL has always been a league of violence, but recent ratings increases has nothing to do with violence, but can be attributed to all the permutations of gambling. But the NFL will say otherwise. Putting a team in Vegas is irrelevant to the issue. Gambling is all over the place and the NFL thrives on it....that is until some major scandal comes to the fore.
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The population of Las Vegas seems too transient and too small to support an NHL team. Canadians or people from U.S. hockey cities retiring or migrating to Phoenix have not helped the Coyotes.
Hockey does not work in Phoenix, and they have tried all sorts of marketing tricks to make it work. The City of Glendale, AZ has taken a bath in red ink compliments of the NHL. Now the Coyotes are hatching their second new building to be shared with the Arizona State Sun Devils basketball team, and leaving Glendale grasping at air. And metropolitan Phoenix is much bigger than Las Vegas. What keeps the team in Phoenix is the demographics which have much more potential than less populated Quebec City, for example.
On the other hand, in Quebec City the franchise would be the only game in town, and here the Coyotes have to share mind space with the NFL Cardinals, NBA Suns, and PAC12 Sun Devils. Hence, bring back the Nordiques.
The Raiders? Well, NFL football is king. An NFL team only plays 10 dates in toto per year. In addition, the sports books do a ton of business on each and every NFL game. It's conceivable that the Raiders could lure tourists and railbirds - and sell out.
Also, Nevada could kill two or three birds with one stone by building a venue for the long-dormant UNLV Rebels football program. And the Las Vegas Bowl. A new stadium would suddenly make the Las Vegas Bowl big time.
Hence, in my mind NFL football is more viable than NHL hockey.
Hockey does not work in Phoenix, and they have tried all sorts of marketing tricks to make it work. The City of Glendale, AZ has taken a bath in red ink compliments of the NHL. Now the Coyotes are hatching their second new building to be shared with the Arizona State Sun Devils basketball team, and leaving Glendale grasping at air. And metropolitan Phoenix is much bigger than Las Vegas. What keeps the team in Phoenix is the demographics which have much more potential than less populated Quebec City, for example.
On the other hand, in Quebec City the franchise would be the only game in town, and here the Coyotes have to share mind space with the NFL Cardinals, NBA Suns, and PAC12 Sun Devils. Hence, bring back the Nordiques.
The Raiders? Well, NFL football is king. An NFL team only plays 10 dates in toto per year. In addition, the sports books do a ton of business on each and every NFL game. It's conceivable that the Raiders could lure tourists and railbirds - and sell out.
Also, Nevada could kill two or three birds with one stone by building a venue for the long-dormant UNLV Rebels football program. And the Las Vegas Bowl. A new stadium would suddenly make the Las Vegas Bowl big time.
Hence, in my mind NFL football is more viable than NHL hockey.
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I can't vouch for an NFL team, but I doubt a NHL team is NOT going to fly in a place like Las Vegas. There would be a novelty bump initially, but in the long haul it would not be self sustaining. Too much of the population there is transitory and a (under paid) services based economy- not a good mix for a stable fan base. And the tourists are not going to be lured out of the casinos for a local sports team they have no affinity with, especially hockey (and I'm a huge hockey fan).
This is all about the existing team owners divvying up that half billion dollar league franchise fee. This team will fail and will be moved to another location (maybe in Canada who deserves it) where an even larger league fee can be collected, again. It's all about the short term gains, as usual.
This is all about the existing team owners divvying up that half billion dollar league franchise fee. This team will fail and will be moved to another location (maybe in Canada who deserves it) where an even larger league fee can be collected, again. It's all about the short term gains, as usual.
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Commissioner Goodell wants to protect the integrity of the sport? What integrity would that be?
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I see the same "bread and circuses" arguments are being rolled in Vegas in order to justify the huge expenditure of public cash.
It's truly a sad day for hockey
It's truly a sad day for hockey
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If you've ever been in Las Vegas from November to April, you'll find pretty traditional hockey weather (i.e. cold), especially at night. Any excuse to go there is good to me. Go Kings Go!
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Las Vegas already hit the jackpot with an NHL expansion team, but whether it will draw anyone other than fans of visiting teams, especially once the NHL-in-Vegas novelty wears off, is another question.
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Hypocrisy, thy name is NFL.
As someone who lived and worked in Las Vegas for nearly twenty years, I always had to laugh (an ironic laugh, not a "ha ha" laugh) at the way the NFL so publicly cried their crocodile tears over the threat gambling posed to the integrity of their sport.
Gambling is a huge driver of their league's popularity and anyone who claims otherwise, including the league's commissioner, is lying. Not only that, the league encourages gambling. Why else punish teams that fail to publish a detailed, truthful account of player injuries prior to every game? In fact, more people go to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl than go to the host city. Every year.
Well regulated, legal gambling on their sport is far less likely to represent a threat to the integrity of the game than illegal betting is.
As someone who lived and worked in Las Vegas for nearly twenty years, I always had to laugh (an ironic laugh, not a "ha ha" laugh) at the way the NFL so publicly cried their crocodile tears over the threat gambling posed to the integrity of their sport.
Gambling is a huge driver of their league's popularity and anyone who claims otherwise, including the league's commissioner, is lying. Not only that, the league encourages gambling. Why else punish teams that fail to publish a detailed, truthful account of player injuries prior to every game? In fact, more people go to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl than go to the host city. Every year.
Well regulated, legal gambling on their sport is far less likely to represent a threat to the integrity of the game than illegal betting is.
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Why not Las Vegas for the N.F.L.? This will be a perfect environment for the current gangster lifestyle, tattooed, drugged up, spouse abusing, and intimidation over sportsmanship mess that this league has already become.
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There are several large city in the United States that don't have a professional sports team including: Columbus, Ohio and Austin, Texas. Some may argue that the Ohio State Buckeyes and UT Longhorns are a fine substitute but I'm not going to be crying any tears for Columbus, Austin or Las Vegas if they don't end up with professional sports team.
Who needs a professional sports team when they end up costing city taxpayers 100s of millions to build outrageously expensive stadiums to subsidize rich egotists? I was flabbergasted when I visited Detroit a few weeks ago, and looked at their brand new baseball stadium - Comerica Park, Ford Field (built in 2000) for the Detroit Lions, and observed my mouth open in shock at the construction of a new NHL ice hockey venue, while over half of Detroiters live below the poverty line (that's 350,000 people). Its sheer lunacy to be spending millions of dollars on these white elephants, which are loss leaders to the city tax payer, while people live in squalor.
Who needs a professional sports team when they end up costing city taxpayers 100s of millions to build outrageously expensive stadiums to subsidize rich egotists? I was flabbergasted when I visited Detroit a few weeks ago, and looked at their brand new baseball stadium - Comerica Park, Ford Field (built in 2000) for the Detroit Lions, and observed my mouth open in shock at the construction of a new NHL ice hockey venue, while over half of Detroiters live below the poverty line (that's 350,000 people). Its sheer lunacy to be spending millions of dollars on these white elephants, which are loss leaders to the city tax payer, while people live in squalor.
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Columbus actually has an NHL team, the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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Columbus Blue Jackets, anyone?
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Are the Columbus Blue Jackets not a professional team? Since you chose to exclude the BJ's, i would add that Ohio State and UT sports are "professional".
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If other sports fans are anything like the fans that came to town when Las Vegas hosted the NBA All Star game, people who actually live in the region want nothing to do with it.
If a sports team is as profitable as proponents claim, they can build it themselves. Las Vegas has children to feed and educate. Alternatively, name one city where tax-payer assistance in stadium construction actually paid off financially.
Of course, there are no end of Las Vegas politicians willing to misuse taxpayer money for private purposes. Unfortunately, some of them may already be in jail. Funny that.
Las Vegas has better things to do with our tax money than provide 100's of millions of what amounts to corporate welfare to people who don't pay taxes anyway. Whose business model is privatize profits/publicize losses.
You want a sports team, you build your own stadium, control your own fans, and be liable when they bring drunken, boorishness, guns and aggressive behavior to our streets.
Deal?
If a sports team is as profitable as proponents claim, they can build it themselves. Las Vegas has children to feed and educate. Alternatively, name one city where tax-payer assistance in stadium construction actually paid off financially.
Of course, there are no end of Las Vegas politicians willing to misuse taxpayer money for private purposes. Unfortunately, some of them may already be in jail. Funny that.
Las Vegas has better things to do with our tax money than provide 100's of millions of what amounts to corporate welfare to people who don't pay taxes anyway. Whose business model is privatize profits/publicize losses.
You want a sports team, you build your own stadium, control your own fans, and be liable when they bring drunken, boorishness, guns and aggressive behavior to our streets.
Deal?
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