from Michael Russo of the Star Tribune,

... Las Vegas is intriguing, Daly admits. In fact, out of curiosity, Daly queried a bunch of service industry folks — bartenders, waiters, drink servers, dealers, pit bosses — last weekend about whether they felt a professional sports team could thrive there.

“I got a variety of different responses,” Daly said. “The demographics of the market are pretty good in terms of average annual income. Las Vegas natives earn good salaries, good livings. I think they genuinely like sports. It’s a nighttime city, so it would have to be uniquely scheduled in terms of focusing maybe on industry nights as opposed to your typical Thursday-Saturday nights where everybody would be working.

“Clearly we think for a Las Vegas market to support a professional sports franchise, you need the support of locals.”

There’s little doubt casinos would gobble up tickets for customers and high rollers, but Daly said, laughing, “You can’t depend on tourists to fill your building every night — even rich ones. You really need a local fan base.

“What’s difficult on making a call on Vegas is it’s such a unique market. It’s really hard to know. The owners are going to have to be satisfied that the prospects of putting a franchise there are good and the fundamentals are solid.”

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