You Can’t Wynn in Vegas
Las Vegas is the most romantic of the choices. Sports writers and crap tables. High rollers lighting Cuban cigars with $50 dollar bills in million dollar sky boxes owned by Caesars and the Sands. It sounds good to the talking heads over the morning coffee at the local name-your-call-numbers ESPN affiliates.
The problem is gambling. No, not the Chicago Black Sox, Pete Rose kind of gambling problems that haunt major league baseball. Baseball is entertainment with revenue in which the gambling establishment, the dominant entertainment moguls of Vegas, can’t really participate.
Big gambling and hotel outfits take a piece of the action out of anything entertainment on the Strip. Hotels, shows, restaurants and tawny strip malls full of brand shops are either directly owned or the companies are their landlords.
Baseball’s much-prized Federal anti-trust exemption means that the sport must be above reproach. That means that the casinos can’t have a direct participation in the stadium or the club.
Even indirect participation through holding companies might expose baseball to further scrutiny and sanction. After the steroids mess of the last few years, no one is anxious to return to Capitol Hill to testify.
If Mr. Wynn gets a piece of the action, or shows any active encouragement of bringing MLB to Vegas, maybe someone will start blessing Las Vegas mayor Oscar B. Goodman’s delusions of grandeur.
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Major League baseball doesn't really work into the Las Vegas mode of entertainment.
Cirque du Soleil is a nice distraction for an hour or two for the tourists. The doors open up right to the casino floor, where the business of Sin City continues. A five or seven game home stand blocks from the strip may be a bit too much distraction for high-rollers.
Fighting Vegas strip traffic regularly may be too much trouble for the locals, and would cause some very unwanted drag on the already bad traffic flow for tourists and casino patrons.
Las Vegas has been a good college sports town, and it |
currently supports minor league baseball, basketball, and hockey. They’re nice diversions for the locals interested in sports. The Las Vegas 51s, the Dodgers farm club, had a total attendance in 2004 of 306,628, drew an average 4318 per game, average attendance for a minor league club at the AAA level.
Historically, pro sports have been a complete bust for big events. The Triple-A World Series was held in Las Vegas for several years. The thinking was that the town would help lift the event with traveling fans. The Series was cancelled for poor attendance after 2001. Major league events might do well in Vegas, but day-to-day operations would be challenged by the host of other traditional distractions on the Strip.
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