It’s time for Las Vegas to get a sports team – just not the NHL

Gary Bettman
Gary Bettman (R) with the Stanley Cup 

The clock is ticking on an expansion NHL team in Las Vegas, but it may not be for the best.

The T-Mobile Arena opened in Las Vegas last month to a concert by The Killers. Las Vegas and investor Bill Foley have done everything possible to get things rolling for a new NHL team, but the NHL itself is delaying.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, time is rapidly running out for the NHL to announce plans for an expansion which would start in the 2017-18 season. The other NHL owners, as well as the players, would need to approve the plans by late June, and they will need time to review the plans.

But nothing has been done, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters that there were no guarantees that there would be an expansion team in Las Vegas or Quebec City at all. And while Las Vegas waits to get its first major sports team, the reality is that an NBA team would suit Vegas much better than a hockey team.

The fact is that Vegas is poorly suited for a hockey team. There is no local hockey tradition in the middle of the Nevada desert. And Las Vegas’s population is made up mostly of transients, people who grew up loyal to their hometown team and who can spend their dollars at Sin City’s more famous attractions. They’re the kind of people who’d sue over bicycle accidents in Vegas, but not the sort of people who will buy season tickets year after year.

If Las Vegas wants a professional sports team so badly, the NBA would be a much better fit, especially given the popularity of the UNLV college basketball team. The NBA also has a history of moving into cities without a team and finding success, such as the nearby Utah Jazz.

Yes, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has made it clear that the NBA has little desire to expand. Furthermore, any efforts towards an NBA expansion would target Seattle first and look at reviving the old SuperSonics.

But the Sonics are gone, and Seattle has made it clear that they have no desire to build a new arena. Why should Las Vegas be forced to wait on Seattle when Las Vegas has paid the costs for an arena?

Silver may claim that not every team is attracting fans and that he is afraid of expansion diluting the NBA’s talent pool. But there is no way that all 30 NBA teams can be good, and having more teams will increase the amount of competition as it lets more players into the NBA.

Basketball today is far more popular than it was during the expansion wave of the 1990s. There is no reason that the NBA cannot afford to add one more team, and Las Vegas has the fan base to attract and create a new, profitable team. Putting an NBA team in Vegas, and not waiting for Seattle, will put more talent in the NBA and announce Vegas as a truly world-class city that is more than a weekend’s tourist attraction. It is a win-win scenario.

Edited by Staff Editor