Being a Vegas loyalist, I welcomed reports of two potential sports arenas—one behind Bally’s, the other Downtown—with the same tepid anticipation I had for my first colonic. The news struck me as Vegas’ typical maturation-by-addition way of doing things. If we import enough culture, pilfer enough Broadway shows, accumulate enough Michelin stars, Mobil diamonds and AAA nods, and if we build a pro-sports stadium, we’ll cement our place among the world’s great cities.
I’m perfectly content with the 25-year-old stadium we have, for several reasons—personal memories and civic pride being chief among them.
On arenadigest.com, Dave Wright wrote: “As an arena, Thomas & Mack is more like the Four Queens Casino than, say, the Bellagio.” After last year’s All-Star Weekend, NBA officials said T&M was outdated. A boxing writer recently called it “antiquated.” I’m happy to say, they’re both right. The lack of modern accoutrements and corporate namesake-ification so rampant today (how Bostonians okayed the renaming of the fabled Boston Garden to the stock exchange-y TD Banknorth Garden is beyond me) is a big part of its charm.
New-stadium passion was stoked shortly after the NBA All-Star Game. “One of the NBA’s gripes was that we were not able to spread out 140,000 pounds of equipment to create a TV studio,” says Daren Libonati, director of the Thomas & Mack Center. “It was a difficult pair of pants to put on.”
City and county officials were only too happy to agree. Mayor Oscar Goodman welcomed REI’s plan (it beat five other proposals) for a Downtown arena. County Commission chairman Rory Reid shook the pom-poms for Harrah’s Entertainment and AEG’s proposed $500 million arena slated for behind Bally’s (it still needs county approval). The problem is that private financing for the projects seems to have scuttled important dialogue about whether the Valley can/will support pro sports and whether the venues can survive without an NBA or NHL anchor.
“There’s a cultural or social payoff, but there’s no economic payoff to a new stadium,” says Andy Zimbalist, a professor at Northampton, Massachusetts’ Smith College and an expert on sports-stadium economics. REI’s plan could need up to $11 million in public subsidies. “NBA arenas are used 41 days [a year]. That’s not a lot of days to generate revenue for local retail; it’s even less for NFL, only eight games a year. There’s a danger that there could be a net cost to the taxpayer depending on the financing [if public financing is needed]. A new arena could cannibalize events from T&M.”
Libonati isn’t worried. “In the world of professional arenas, we’re in the Top 20 every year. I don’t want to look at AEG as the enemy, and they don’t want to be seen as the enemy. If a new arena is built, it could mean more events in town. Nobody is down on the T&M.”
I’m certainly not. Nor do I think a pro stadium is a bad thing. Just bad for right now.
My loyalties are cemented by some unforgettable memories. Late ’80s: I saw the legendary Luther Vandross. April 3, 1990: I and 10,000 others watched a big-screen simulcast of UNLV’s 103-73 romp over Duke to win its only national title. June 4, 1994: I left Nation of Islam speaker Louis Farrakhan’s speech impressed by his plea for blacks to put down victimhood and pick up their communities. April 6, 2006: My first pro boxing match, Floyd Mayweather vs. Zab Judah. August 3, 2006: The U.S. Olympic team beat Puerto Rico 114-69.
The Thomas & Mack Center will always have a place in my heart.
Photograph courtesy of the Las Vegas Sun