Viva Las Vegas

How the house started winning

Seven years ago, the Mojave desert was a sports desert. Las Vegas did not have a single professional team.

People said it would never work. It’s a gambling oasis. The market isn’t big enough. Not enough people actually live there. It’s more of a congregation of casinos than a real city. A bachelor party with a charter. It’s got no identity of its own. All show, no substance.

How would it ever find devoted sports fans?

This week, Vegas fans rejoice.

The Golden Knights raised the Stanley Cup, the Aces are 9-1 in their title defense, and Nevada’s governor approved public funding for the A’s new stadium, the presumptive sequel in Sin City’s two-volume ransacking of Oakland.

Expansion » Expansion

Everything’s coming up Vegas. They’ve suddenly got hockey, football, basketball (with more on the way) and soon baseball.

So what changed? And moreover, how did it happen so quickly?

First and foremost, the city grew. Peep the satellite images.

At the 1970 census, around the time that many of the pro leagues were expanding, the city of Las Vegas had less than a quarter of its present population. It didn’t crack the top 100 cities in America.

Over the ensuing decades, Sin City used their crushing defeat to industrial juggernaut Evansville, Indiana as bulletin board material. Not to be denied, they surged up the rankings, chasing a dream.

Today, Las Vegas comes in at #24, and slips to #29 when you look at metro areas instead.

When you look at TV markets, it slides to #40, nestled between noted Floridian powerhouses West Palm Peach/Fort Pierce and Jacksonville, home of the mighty Jaguars (the origin story of whom is worth a read).

Even with all its progress, that makes Vegas a borderline case. Plausible — read: Jaguars — but borderline.

What else, then?

Triple Sevens

The Make Sports Gambling Palatable movement can’t be hurting. What was once considered shameful, immoral, and outright illegal is now openly courted by each and every professional league as a key driver for engaging fans. Cheers, SCOTUS!

Few places in the world are more closely associated with that fast-normalizing vice, and Sin City’s gambling ties are no longer an ick factor. They’re a selling point.

Plus, the constant rotation of shows and concerts — no one does a residency quite like Vegas — adds to one of the strongest tourism bases in the world.

It has all the events infrastructure already, and all its many draws mean Vegas doesn’t need as many local fans as most cities do to reliably fill seats.

Tourists can’t replace a loyal fanbase, but having the most hotel capacity in the country (and nearly the world) can go a long way as a supplement.

I’m unsure how to project how many Vegas trips will now include a ballgame in the itinerary, but visitors will be a factor to some degree. Right, Orlando Magic?

Bad Beats

But the final and least shocking reason that Vegas has been able to make their move is — surprise! — money.

They’re building stadiums, and the teams are coming.

We mentioned infrastructure earlier, so here’s an itemized receipt for the Las Vegas sports revolution.

2016: T-Mobile Arena — purpose-built for the Golden Knights — hosted Sweet Sixteen games in this year’s March Madness, and will graduate to the Final Four come 2028.

2020: Allegiant Stadium — purpose-built for the Raiders — is one of the most expensive stadiums ever built. It might as well be the International Space Station, and it’ll bring the Super Bowl to the Strip at the end of this NFL season.

2028: [Sponsor] Park(?) — purpose-building for the A’s — will presumably also be an impressive facility befitting its esteemed [Sponsor] whenever it’s done. It’s unclear what else they have planned, but maybe they can book the Criss Angel comeback tour or something. Anything is possible.

There’s more to say about public funding for sports stadiums — what’s been aptly described as “socializing the costs and privatizing the profits” — than we’ll be addressing today, but I feel comfortable declaring I’m not that into it. Beware the billionaire pleading poverty.

A Requiem For The Bay

Speaking of — we’ve spent all this time on Vegas, but the situation in Oakland is just plain sad.

In the space of four years, they’ve lost all three of their major franchises: first the Warriors to San Francisco, then the Raiders to Vegas, and now the A’s to Vegas too. In their stead, a city bereft.

Those are good fans being abandoned. I respect the hell out of that reverse boycott the A’s faithful pulled on Tuesday, and I regret that it won’t make any difference.

As a neutral onlooker, I’m trying to be happy for what will hopefully turn out to be good and loyal fans in Vegas.

But even a native son knows it’s not that simple. Vegas’ own Bryce Harper:

“I feel sorry for the fans in Oakland,’’ Harper told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s just not right. They have so much history in Oakland. You’re taking a team out of a city. …

Those fans are so passionate, they bleed green. I'm not sure what they're going to be, or how they're going to be in Vegas, but it won't be the same. ...

I'm going to be pretty sad they're moving because of all of that history and all of the greatness they've seen there."

Greatness indeed. There was the three-peat dynasty in the 70s, led by all-time hurlers like Vida Blue and Catfish Hunter, as well as the first iteration of Mr. October.

Then Oakland gave us the Bash Brothers, as memorable a pair of meatheads as baseball’s ever seen, and paired them with the Man of Steal and that incomparable Eckersley ‘stache. They didn’t just win. They were cool.

And how about Moneyball? Remember when Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill started the sabermetrics revolution? That was cool too.

I’d ask if all that history should matter more than a pricy new stadium in a glitzy new city, but I know what Harper would say.

Clown question, folks.