Las Vegas Mayor Confirms NBA Expansion Franchise Heading to Strip
Las Vegas owns the Stanley Cup. Now Vegas' next goal is to own an NBA team. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman basks in the glow of Las Vegas Golden Knights' first NHL title and says NBA expansion team It was only a matter of time before we arrived in Las Vegas.
Goodman expects the desert-conquering Las Vegas hockey champions to speed up the process for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who has not fielded a new NBA team during his tenure since 2014 . The last expansion occurred in 2004, when the Charlotte Bobcats became the league's 30th team.
If this happens, Las Vegas will have a professional sports team in all four major sports leagues, assuming the Oakland Athletics receive approval for a new stadium in Las Vegas.
"Did Adam tell you how many times he heard from Mayor Carolyn Goodman and heard from Oscar before what Mayor Goodman said Thursday about when we put together the team? thing?" "He'll tell you, yes, he hears us. Yes, he sees us.
“We firmly believe we are next,” she added.“It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.”
It's now
Goodman, who has been mayor for 12 years after succeeding her husband Oscar, believes now is the time.
Silver said during the NBA Finals that there would be no serious expansion discussions until a new television plan was worked out. That could happen in the spring, but not soon enough for Mayor Goodman.
"He's wasting his time," Goodman said. "He's really wasting his time because we're so excited here. This really is the best time for the franchise to be here. Our (NBA) Summer League has proven itself. Despite COVID, they can't wait We want to come back and enjoy everything - our entertainment, our food. "We are now globally renowned in top sports. "
I can confirm that Mayor Goodman did inform Commissioner Silver that there is an NBA team in Las Vegas," Bass said."Las Vegas is a great basketball market , but expansion is not currently on our agenda. "
In their six seasons, the Golden Knights have reached the Stanley Cup Finals twice and defeated the Florida Panthers in five games on Tuesday for their first title. The parade is scheduled to take place on the world-famous Las Vegas Strip on Saturday.
“The glitz in Las Vegas is endless,” said Goodman, a Manhattan native. "You can see us in Japan, China, Alaska and Greenland. People all over the world are saying, 'What is that bright light coming from the American Southwest?' We are hot. "
Times are changing
After the 2007 All-Star Game wreaked havoc in Las Vegas, the chances of an NBA expansion team coming to Sin City diminished, with then-commissioner David Stern rejecting the idea.
Stern remained skeptical of Las Vegas during his lifetime and once told former Mayor Oscar Goodman that as long as there were sports betting in the city, he would field a team “over His body".
The 2007 All-Star Weekend turned chaotic as Stern began to change his mind.
More than 400 people were arrested. Bouncer Tommy Urbanski was reportedly raped outside Minxx Gentleman's Club, including by former NFL star "Pacman" Jones He was shot by his entourage and paralyzed from the waist down.
In addition, traffic congestion from the Las Vegas Strip to UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center caused a 90-minute delay.
Now, there's a new Silver Commissioner and a new arena on the Strip - the Golden Knights' home at the T-Mobile Center. Additionally, unlike Stern, Silver has been a supporter of legalized sports betting.
Mayor Goodman said the impasse over expansion in Las Vegas had more to do with the 2008 recession than the 2007 shootings.
"I can guarantee you, Adam knows, that for the past 24 years, when Oscar got that first call and Stern came on (commissioner), we were all salivating," Goodman said. "We met him and he treated us with great respect. Adam Silver has been taken care of. "When David retired (in 2014), it was natural for us to continue to meet with (Silver), whether it was in New Orleans, New York Still at the All-Star Game. "
The Golden Knights have proven to be their flagship expansion team, and the Las Vegas Raiders entering their fourth season have also found success.
The Goodmans have watched the city go from having no sports teams to potentially having a full team and even trying to attract an MLS team.
Vegas Success, Calling
Mayor Goodman has been a sports fanatic since his childhood in New York. She attended Yankees games in the 1950s, Rangers, Knicks and Globetrotters games at the old Madison Square Garden, as well as Columbia-Cornell football games.
While the new Athletics Stadium still has some hurdles to overcome and the governor to oversee, Goodman thinks an NBA team is perfect because of its global audience and the success of the NBA's annual summer league, which runs for two weeks in July. In this tournament, all 30 teams came to the city to compete with their young talents.
"We have 40 million visitors a year, and they have to find a place to sleep," Goodman said. “We have 150,000 hotel rooms, are 20 minutes from the airport, and have many direct flights to Vegas from around the world.In a lot of cities that don’t have NBA teams, that doesn’t happen. "
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