Incredible growth and media exposure for women’s professional sports has been running parallel to the recent pro sports boom in Las Vegas. And now two-time WNBA champs the Las Vegas Aces will be joined by another women’s team in Southern Nevada—the Vegas Thrill, which will help launch the inaugural season of the Pro Volleyball Federation next month before playing its first home game at the Dollar Loan Center in Green Valley on February 15.
Las Vegas volleyball legend Ruben Herrera, longtime coach and club director of the Vegas Aces volleyball club, has joined the Thrill as team president. His history with the fast-paced sport tells him this is the right time for this game to explode. “We want to put out the best product we can, and obviously we want to win,” he says. “But community support is so important. We can’t do this on our own.”
The Vegas Thrill is ready to hit the court.
How long have you lived in Las Vegas?
Since 1994. I’ve traveled a ton but I would consider Vegas my home for sure, and I’ve always kept my residency here. When I went to work for Red Bull as vice president of marketing when those offices were in [California], this was my territory and I came back and forth, but the regional offices were eventually moved and it was at the District at Green Valley Ranch. So now when I’m around the Dollar Loan Center, I can go to the District and walk around and see what used to be my little office up there.
Women’s sports are surging so much right now. It seems like an ideal time to launch this new Pro Volleyball Federation.
I would like to think everybody planned it perfectly, but I think it’s a coincidence that we’re coming in at the right time. The founders of the league have been working on it for the past couple years, and we’ve all seen the growth of the sport taking off. It’s the fastest growing female youth sport in the country, and after this past year’s volleyball season when you have a record-breaking 92,000 fans inside Cornhusker Stadium in Nebraska and people watching it on TV like never before, we know this is an opportunity.
One of the biggest factors was during COVID, there were people watching [college] volleyball on TV with no fans in the stands. So many people needed to do something, to watch some sort of sports programming, and there was nothing else. [Volleyball] was able to play games in stadiums but without fans, and ESPN picked it up and pushed it through, and I think it was eye-opening for them to say, wow, there’s real viewership here.
What can fans expect, if they haven’t seen this sport in person before, from the experience of Vegas Thrill matches at the Dollar Loan Center?
TV doesn’t do it any justice. To put it in perspective: Hockey, in person, it’s mind-blowing, even if you don’t know the rules. I watch it on TV and I can’t get the same feel. It’s the same thing in volleyball. These women are so athletic, they play so high, it’s dynamic, it’s physical, and you can’t feel that through the TV. You have to be there in person, especially at this level. When people come to watch the Vegas Thrill and the six other teams in the league this year, they’re going to be amazed. We’re going to have players just drafted out of college, 21 and 22 years old, and women who are 30 to 33 years old who have children and have experience playing overseas. And I love the Dollar Loan Center for its size and how fans are going to be so close. It’s going to be amazing.
Until now, what kind of professional volleyball opportunities were out there for American athletes after college?
They’d have to go overseas and play in Europe or other places. It’s very demanding and some get paid really good money, but at the highest levels only. Once these athletes realized that in this league, they’d be around their communities and families, something after college and club volleyball here in the United States where they can make a living wage, that’s when it gets really exciting. Each team has two franchise players making $100,000 for the six months, and the other 12 players make $60,000, with two practice players making $45,000. So this is legacy stuff for these women and young athletes because they couldn’t even aspire to actually do this in the United States.
Do you think the success of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces might somehow help this team’s momentum, even though it’s a different sport?
100% yes. When we did our brand reveal, we invited them to come out and they did. They’ve done a fantastic job here winning back to back championships and it would be foolish for us not to try to build on that momentum. And our coach Fran Flory was at LSU for 26 years, and the president of the Aces Nikki Fargas was coaching [basketball] there when Fran was there. They have a history. There’s connection there.
Find more info about the new pro volleyball team at vegasthrill.com.
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