October 14th 2016 mark it in your calendars ladies and gentleman because on this day Las Vegas took one gigantic step closer to becoming a full fledged member of the National Football League. The Nevada Senate passed an amended stadium bill, what was amended there would be a tax hike but it will be in the form of a Clark County (which is the County that Las Vegas is in) hotel room tax. This along with the fact the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) will be charged with paying the stadium rent. Along with the exciting news that the Oakland Raiders could possibly moving here, now UNLV football will get a huge boost in recruiting and exposure what a brand new state of the art facility where they will play there home games. Who would have thought a year ago that Las Vegas would have not only professional hockey but also professional football on the Las Vegas Strip. Owner of the Raiders Mark Davis statement today on raiders.com:
“I would like to thank Governor Sandoval, the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee, and the members of the Nevada Legislature on this historic day, All parties have worked extremely hard to develop and approve this tremendous stadium project that will serve as a proud new home for the entire Raider Nation.”
Let us first debunk a couple of myths about the city of Las Vegas and take a look at how Las Vegas went from the entertainment capital of the world to now the home of professional sports teams.
Las Vegas More Than Meets the Eye:
Anyone who has seen the movies; Casino with Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone or if you have seen the movie Bugsey, with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening the legends or myths are true, Las Vegas was once a mobsters paradise. Now in 2016 Las Vegas is a major metropolitan city with approximately 600,000 residents which means Las Vegas is one of the top thirty cities in America. Many Las Vegas locals do work on the Las Vegas strip as dealers, cocktail waitresses, and casino workers(everything from front desk to janitors to housekeepers). Las Vegas has way more to do than gamble such as hiking Red Rock Canyon, multiple parks for kids and families, plenty of other things to do recreationally. So for Las Vegas locals unless we work on the Las Vegas strip very rarely we go to the Las Vegas strip.
Now for some myths prostitutes and brothels are all over Las Vegas, legally no. Prostitution is illegal in Clark County Nevada however, in Nye County which is about an hour and a half southwest of Las Vegas it is legal there. For help and understanding the state of Nevada has received approximately 2.0 billion dollars in gaming taxes from Las Vegas casinos however, the state of Nevada is one of the few states that has a fixed budget, which means once the money received for gaming taxes is gone it is gone until the next fiscal year. This is one of the leading reasons why Nevada public school systems consistently rank as one of the worst in the United States. For these reason and many more is why bringing in professional sports to Las Vegas has been more important than ever.
The Importance of Professional Sports in Las Vegas:
Finally what does professional hockey and football mean for Las Vegas, in one word:revenue. The revenue that will be generated by having these Las Vegas sports teams means Nevada can start focusing on improving public schools statewide as well as statewide infrastructure such as roads, electrical power lines etc. The last estimate was roughly 13,000 brand new and permanent jobs for the Las Vegas valley area.
The real importance of Las Vegas finally having professional sports teams is finally some of the best sports fans in the world finally have a team in there own city of there own to pull for. Tina Kunzer-Murphy, UNLV Director of Athletics, today said that the passage of stadium bill is,
“a giant step forward for the UNLV Football program.”
Within the last month UNLV Football is breaking ground on a brand new state of the art Fretitta Sports Complex and now the potential of every UNLV Saturday home game will be played in an NFL stadium on the Las Vegas strip can now be used to market new recruits. Possible recruits that thought that UNLV was not serious about football will now have to take a really long look if UNLV is recruiting them. Because now a football recruit can envision creating a legacy at UNLV that includes playing home college football games in a professional stadium can now be used to entice future college recruits. Also the new stadium can be used to entice the NCAA to potentially host a National Championship game in the new stadium. Can you image College Football National Championship game being played on the Las Vegas Strip. The possibilities for both college and professional football in Las Vegas are practically endless. Let us also not forget that this is similar situation the UNLV Mens Basketball team having home games at the brand new just opened T-Mobile arena as well as starting in 2017-2018 hockey season a brand new expansion team. The NCAA Mens Basketball Final Four or even the NCAA Hockey Frozen Four can now also be played on the Las Vegas Strip. If you cannot see why it was important to start landing professional sports teams in Las Vegas now it is pretty clear, these last several months have been extremely exciting times for sports fans here in Las Vegas.
What Happens Next:
Now we wait, Mark Davis will need 75% of the NFL owners in the NFL to vote in favor of moving the Raiders from Oakland to Las Vegas. However, one of biggest hurdles have been clear because up until 1:42 pacific time Las Vegas did not have a viable stadium to house a professional football team. What needs to happen next is lets see if Las Vegas can get a Major League Baseball or wait maybe even a team from the National Basketball Association, NBA Summer League is in Las Vegas, the Olympic National Team works out and practices here. What is next as far as professional sports in Las Vegas; look up because the sky is the limit.