OT: MGM CEO anticipating NBA in Vegas in a few years

[LadyStanley]

Full Sportscast: Golden Knights arrive in Winnipeg, NBA headed to Las Vegas?

3rd major league to come to town?

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[gstommylee]

Full Sportscast: Golden Knights arrive in Winnipeg, NBA headed to Las Vegas?

3rd major league to come to town?

Eh Not so sure about that. Especially they'll be up against Seattle which have a current NBA minority owner involved (with the NHL group) that wants a NBA team as welll plus Tim Leiweke is involved with the arena and Mexico City has been tossed about too.

 

[snovalleyhockeyfan]

Tommy, they have an arena - T-Mobile - and they have owners - the Maloofs. The only question is whether this will be enough for them to supplant Mexico City. Seattle I expect will get a team regardless.

 

[gstommylee]

Tommy, they have an arena - T-Mobile - and they have owners - the Maloofs. The only question is whether this will be enough for them to supplant Mexico City. Seattle I expect will get a team regardless.

Why would the NBA want the maloofs back?

 

[LadyStanley]

Why would the NBA want the maloofs back?

I can think of a few billion dollars/reasons.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Tommy, they have an arena - T-Mobile - and they have owners - the Maloofs. The only question is whether this will be enough for them to supplant Mexico City. Seattle I expect will get a team regardless.

no they don't, Sno.... didn't MGM buy the SA (Silver) Stars from the portfolio of the Holts in San Antonio and renamed them the Aces and at Mandalay Bay is their new arena.....

RESEARCH the Las Vegas Aces....

aces.wnba.com

 

[snovalleyhockeyfan]

I know that, Hutch, and you're correct about that. For them, that's probably a good place for them to call home. But the Maloofs are not part of MGM, they own their own casino down there. Ever heard of the Palms??

 

[BattleBorn]

The Maloofs aren't really involved with The Palms anymore. That's a Stations property now.

If there's an NBA team in Las Vegas, they'd play at T-Mobile Arena unless MGM builds another arena for them, and they might. The Aces play at Mandalay Bay Arena because it's smaller than T-Mobile and Mandalay could use some positive national publicity. I'm sure the league will appreciate MGM taking the San Antonio WNBA team during a time of need and it will reflect nicely on the city and MGM as owners when it's time to consider a team for Las Vegas.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

That's going to be one heck of an oversaturated marked with three teams if this happens. Good thing for the NHL that they got there first, got good first, and joined at a time when they were a major civic institution at a time of major crisis and pain (obviously not suggesting that the last one is a good thing, though), so all in all they have probably built a very durable fanbase so it might be a newcoming NBA team that'd get squeezed out down the road rather than the Knights.

 

[gstommylee]

That's going to be one heck of an oversaturated marked with three teams if this happens. Good thing for the NHL that they got there first, got good first, and joined at a time when they were a major civic institution at a time of major crisis and pain (obviously not suggesting that the last one is a good thing, though), so all in all they have probably built a very durable fanbase so it might be a newcoming NBA team that'd get squeezed out down the road rather than the Knights.

The NFL Raiders would already have moved to the new stadium by the time the NBA decides to go ahead with expansion.

 

[nickp91]

One of the unintended side effects of the Supreme Court's striking down of laws against betting on sports is that there's now no reason for the NBA not to have an expansion team in Las Vegas

 

[gstommylee]

One of the unintended side effects of the Supreme Court's striking down of laws against betting on sports is that there's now no reason for the NBA not to have an expansion team in Las Vegas

Here's the issue the NBA isn't gonna expand just to expand. It has to make finanical scene for them to wait to split up the pie 2 more times.

I don't see that court ruling making a darn difference on rather NBA goes with vegas or not. The issue is its already going to have 2 Pro teams by the time the NBA expands. Can Vegas support a 3rd pro team? I'm not sure they can.

They'll be up against Seattle and Mexico City for 2 spots. I don't see them beating out Seattle who will have Donald Bonderman (current NBA boston minority owner) as one of the owners and Mexico City.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

NBA has bigger fish to fry than Vegas.

And Las Vegas experience with the NBA All Stars game has not exactly been great.

 

[mouser]

After the Clippers sale and reported Seattle $650m expansion I dread to see what the NBA would ask for in expansion fees. $1.2-$1.6 billion?

 

[BKIslandersFan]

Here's the issue the NBA isn't gonna expand just to expand. It has to make finanical scene for them to wait to split up the pie 2 more times.

I don't see that court ruling making a darn difference on rather NBA goes with vegas or not. The issue is its already going to have 2 Pro teams by the time the NBA expands. Can Vegas support a 3rd pro team? I'm not sure they can.

They'll be up against Seattle and Mexico City for 2 spots. I don't see them beating out Seattle who will have Donald Bonderman (current NBA boston minority owner) as one of the owners and Mexico City.

Barring massive population growth, nope.

 

[gstommylee]

After the Clippers sale and reported Seattle $650m expansion I dread to see what the NBA would ask for in expansion fees. $1.2-$1.6 billion?

rumors were aiming at maybe 2b.

 

[offkilter]

NBA in Vegas is kind of surprising to me after the disaster of the all-star game there. Locals were not happy with the NBA after that mini riot.

 

[LadyStanley]

Local support may be there, IF the team connects to community.

NHL Vegas succeeded in part due to the ability of the team to rally the entire city/region after 10/1 incident; players visited victims, survivors; rallying cry "We are Vegas Strong" from home opener. And city/region getting behind a truly local major league team. (Realize that team selected character players/employees.) And making practices and game day skates open to the public.

NBA owner/group will have to respond to the ASG issues. Having team select players on character and skill (emphasis on the former) may be the way to go with so many distractions. As well as public interaction.

VGK HQ is in Summerlin, a "town" in the western part of the city of Las Vegas (~20 minutes from Strip/arena). NFL is putting their HQ in Henderson (SW area of valley), ~20+ minutes from stadium.
Any future NBA team may need to put their practice facility in an area "far" from Strip as well so that players may congregate around there.

 

[Boris Zubov]

People here (myself not included) would welcome the NBA with open arms. The NBA Summer League in Vegas is a big draw & creates a huge buzz.

Even with the Knights doing well, I still have way more requests to turn on the NBA playoffs than the NHL playoffs at the restaurant where I bartend.

 

[BattleBorn]

NBA has bigger fish to fry than Vegas.

And Las Vegas experience with the NBA All Stars game has not exactly been great.

The fact that MGM, the most outspoken of the corporations against the All-Star game fiasco, is in support, and will likely be the ones to help bring the team to Las Vegas kind of eliminates that issue.

The league was satisfied with the Las Vegas All Star game, the locals were not.

 

[cutchemist42]

I didnt even know Mexico was on the NBAs radar. Who wins that race, MLB or the NBA?

 

[BattleBorn]

I didnt even know Mexico was on the NBAs radar. Who wins that race, MLB or the NBA?

The race isn't really a race.

There's a lot of issues with Mexico. Currency not being the least of them. Do you realize how much a team would have to charge to get a crowd in Mexico? How much does that bring in revenue-wise in relation to a small market MLB team? How does that pencil out paying players in US Dollars? If you put the team in the obvious market for greatest success, Mexico City (and they won't,) you've got major Denver-plus level issues with the park unless you put the walls back super far.

Mexico is not an opportunity, it's an opportunity with a ton of issues attached for any league.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

The race isn't really a race.

There's a lot of issues with Mexico. Currency not being the least of them. Do you realize how much a team would have to charge to get a crowd in Mexico? How much does that bring in revenue-wise in relation to a small market MLB team? How does that pencil out paying players in US Dollars? If you put the team in the obvious market for greatest success, Mexico City (and they won't,) you've got major Denver-plus level issues with the park unless you put the walls back super far.

Mexico is not an opportunity, it's an opportunity with a ton of issues attached for any league.

Mexico has enough middl class and up people to sustain a team, its not just poor people and drug lords down there.

 

[BattleBorn]

Mexico has enough middl class and up people to sustain a team, its not just poor people and drug lords down there.

Mexico middle class is a lot different than American or Canadian middle class.

An MLB ticket isn't going to be a middle class thing in Mexico if they're going to try to have the same amount of revenue as an American or Canadian team.

 

[Mightygoose]

Mexico middle class is a lot different than American or Canadian middle class.

An MLB ticket isn't going to be a middle class thing in Mexico if they're going to try to have the same amount of revenue as an American or Canadian team.

I know this is OT but a Mexico City based team will make it's money off TV/Media. It's broadcast territory would be the entire country with a population of 123 million.

In terms of baseball, Toronto is the biggest TV market because they have the whole country aside from a few shared parts they have a market of 35 million to themselves. Big reason why Manfred is big on Montreal. Mexico City, has nearly 4 times that audience.

Swinging this back to the NBA, Rogers and Bell do quite well for themselves having equal share in the country's lone NBA team. I'm certain the big telecons down there will bid well for the Mexico City's 'local rights'.

Bringing this back to the potential NBA in Vegas. I take it there's enough capacity at T Mobile to take on the 40+ dates, depending on the ownership, I would think they would want to control the building. There always seems to be talk of a new arena going up so maybe that will end up happening.