I'll say this, I was skeptical of Vegas and major league sports for a long time but man the Golden Knights have been an absolute hit in that town. The NHL struck gold in that market and it didn't hurt that the team was competitive from the get-go, and still is. It's another "non-traditional" market that will provide NBC with some eyeballs during the playoffs. I'm happy the NHL became the first league to break ground into Las Vegas.
That said, I am a little skeptical of the NBA, NFL, MLB, and MLS going there too. Maybe eventually yes but this seems very sudden, and perhaps it would be in the cities best interest long-term to let the Knights and Raiders gain some footing in the community before they go off and expand more.
But if the powers that be are convinced it will work right now with no issues, then rock on.
Vegas had the all star game and i hear the NBA wasn't happy with it.
That reminds me, I was listening to a podcast about 3 years ago in which a former NBA player (think it was Rafer Alston) was a guest on the show and spoke about that weekend. Said he never stepped out of his hotel that weekend because the atmosphere on the strip was not safe and several other players who were attending did the same thing. He also mentioned that many of the players who went or participated told David Stern straight up that they were not going to participate in the next ASG which was in New Orleans unless more security was provided to them.
It was a good listen and of course I can't find it anymore. I had no idea there were so many arrests that weekend (apparently the most in the history of the city for a weekend). The National Sports media didn't talk about it and instead focused their attention to the possibility that the NBA was going to expand into Las Vegas, which at the time seemed like it would happen within the next 5 years or so.