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Originally Posted by New Era
Visibility is a big issue here. How bad does it look having pictures and stories plastered everywhere of your players being in Vegas?
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But your original point was gambling in Vegas itself. Now you're talking about the optics of players partying there. Two separate scenarios. Players go to Vegas quite often already, so I don't think it's anything new, but I would agree that it's something that the NHL is a bit weary about.
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Think of NHL teams recently. The Oilers wunderkids were just photographed partying in a Vegas club and it lead to questions and a mini-controvery.
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I never heard anything about this. What happened?
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What do you think is going to happen when you have a team located in the gambling center of North America and these young men, mostly uneducated and with type A personalities, have gobs of disposable income available to them and casinos five minutes away?
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Two things. You're going to have to elaborate on players being 'uneducated'. How so?
And every major city in North America has casinos that could lure young players with gobs of money.
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Really? What natural travel corridors exist that make them even a natural geographic rival?
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L.A./Anaheim to Vegas is approx. 250 miles. That's less than L.A. to San Jose, Vancouver to Calgary, and roughly the same as Miami to Tampa and Ottawa to Toronto. Vegas isn't in Alaska, it's quite close to L.A., Anaheim, Colorado, San Jose and Phoenix.
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What natural rivalries exist between Las Vegas and Anaheim or Los Angeles?
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A rivalry has to start somewhere. You don't just stay away from a potentially solid franchise because they don't have other sports teams that play each other. There would be a rivalry between those teams in less than one season.