Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
Yes....and they have nothing to do with anything related to being a traditional market for that particular sport. It has always been about the gambling aspect of things but with the advent of internet sports books, it really doesn't matter that the bookies are available legally or not in any particular city. If a guy is gonna gamble...he is gonna gamble. Climate has also been a small factor as well for the summer sports.
As for the "natural geographic zone" thing, where do you think Vegas is exactly? Its less than 250 miles from Los Angeles/Anaheim. Much closer than say Calgary/Vancouver.
Also, what is it exactly that makes Vegas an "economically challenged city"? It has been the fastest growing city in the entire USA for many years. There is money rolling all over the place. Granted much of it is in the hands of few, but that is no different than any other place.
Vegas may or may not work, but it will have zero to do with geography or climate. Like most expansion teams in all sports, it will come down to the product on the ice as far as season tickets etc, but they have a bit of an advantage in this case in regards to that as well as so many of those paid for tickets will be used by casinos as perks for guests.
This situation is well worth a shot for the league and its owners.
|
I've always wondered what makes people say that Vegas is an 'economically challenged' city.
I go to Vegas about once a year and trust me, if there was a hockey team there I'd go more, but Vegas is far from economically challenged.
You make a good point, the majority of Vegas' wealth is in the hands of a few, perhaps fewer than most cities of comparable size.
But when I was in Vegas I kept hearing people talk about 'Vegas is hurting' and 'profits are down.'
Well...yeah. Imagine Las Vegas as a system, that system was built to withstand unbelievable throughput, not every hotel can be filled to capacity all the time, not every seat at every gaming table can be filled every day all the time, the system is just too big for that.
So when people say 'Vegas is hurting' and 'profits are down' they arent entirely wrong but its relative to their standards.
The Casinos are still raking in cash, they're making astronomical profits but they arent operating at 100% capacity and if thats their standard then yes, they're a long ways from it, but they're in no danger of going bankrupt or anything they're just not making as much money as they can or that their owners would like.
I wouldnt consider that hurting or challenged, thats just life.
And hell, as I was saying about hotel rooms and gaming tables, what do these businesses want? More people.
Guess what a hockey team will bring in?