NFL Tickets
The NHL is going to step three in the expansion process with Las Vegas and Quebec. These are the two cities that were able to get all their stuff together prior to the deadlines that were set. They showed they had a legitimate fan base in their cities and they feel they could sell enough tickets to maintain a team. Now, one of those cities is definitely capable, while the other is questionable at best.
Las Vegas has been an intriguing city for all sports. The NFL, at one point (and it seemed fleeting at best), thought about it. Every expansion league for football (the AFL, XFL, etc.) always goes to Vegas. Right now, the Las Vegas Outlaws are in the Arena Football League. Out of 12 teams, only one has worse average attendance than the Outlaws. They also had two minor league hockey teams, which both folded. While they both folded due to issues with arenas, neither had great attendance. The Las Vegas Wranglers averaged around what the league averaged, around 4,500 every game. Obviously, a professional team would average more, but how much more?
The Vegas team is claiming that they have deposits on over 9,000 season tickets. If the team is able to hit the ice in 2016-17, then there will be no refunds on those deposits, which are anywhere between $150 and $900. The arena is being built behind the New York, New York casino right on the strip. It will have just over 17,000 seats during hockey games. It is in the middle of Vegas, which sounds like a good thing.
Here is the thing — the arena is set to open in April, 2016. That means there is only about a five-month cushion between the proposed open date and the start of the hockey season. If, for some reason, the arena isn’t ready, or the NHL isn’t ready, or anything isn’t ready for the 2016-17 season, full refunds will be given to all deposits that want them. General impulse will fall for a lot of people in the next three years. Some people will be in different financial situations. The rapidly declining stock market could be a scary sign of things to come. That would really hurt the new franchise.
The other issue is putting an arena in the middle of the strip, some of the people who live in Vegas hate the strip. It is too hard to get to. There is too much traffic. Throwing another 10,000-15,000 people there every game night will only make that worse. There needs to be a better public transit system to make that work. Madison Square Garden, the home of the New York Rangers, is in the middle of Manhattan, but it has Penn Station literally in its basement. Vegas needs to find a system for people to make it to the arena.
Vegas looks great on paper. These deals tend to get done based on how they look on paper. Vegas may not work in execution, especially since the Maloofs are involved. They have shown they shouldn’t have their hand on any part of a sports team, but they will be owning 20 percent of the new Vegas franchise if it goes through.
How Seattle dropped the ball on this is astounding. They couldn’t find anyone who would commit an arena without a basketball team, but do they not understand what city they are going to? Seattle is the same city that gets over 43,000 people per game for American soccer. They are the 14th biggest media market, compared to 42 for Vegas. It seems like these fans will follow a hockey team consistently.
One would think visitors alone would help a hockey team in Vegas. They had more than 41 million people visit last year. Unfortunately, people who visit Vegas can visit one of the over 21,000 conventions that come each year. Or they can go see Britney Spears, Elton John or Celine Dion. There is literally a million things to do in that general area. Will visitors be thinking about going to a hockey game?
If it happens, hopefully it works. It would be a great landmark for the NHL, the first professional league to make Vegas work. That would be a great mark for a growing league. Hopefully, these are just bumps and not fatalities. Sometimes, hope isn’t enough.
Nick Villano is the NHL feature writer for RantSports. He also adds to the site’s NBA, MLB and NFL content. You can follow him on Twitter or add him to your Google circle.
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