from John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Sun,

Can the Las Vegas market support a major-league sports team?”

That last question is the magic one, sports fans. This is what I am asked about most often in my regular canvassing of the city. Can we support this team?

As I said to our Canadian friends: Yes, in Season 1. Yes, in Season 2. Season 3 is the real test.

Novelty is fickle, and Las Vegas is a fickle city. This is especially true for locals and tourists figuring out how to spend their entertainment dollar. Las Vegas is unique not only as the largest metropolitan outpost in North America without a major-league franchise, but as a destination with so many different entertainment options.

Is it the Las Vegas Black Knights — the name most often attached to the NHL team — or a Cirque show? Hockey or Celine? Pucks or dinner at Wolfgang Puck? Nowhere else do people with disposable income face such impressive options. And you can’t do it all. The city’s contracting entertainment market has led to the closing of a popular stage show, “Jersey Boys” at Paris Las Vegas, in September. Nothing is in line to replace it, and I’m sensing that even more ticketed production shows won’t be around by the end of this year. If you expect that an NHL team won’t further challenge Vegas resident shows, or even the subscription business at such venues as downtown’s Smith Center for the Performing Arts, you’d be mistaken.

Still, from my conversations over the past couple of years with tourism officials and those familiar with how professional expansion teams perform, I am confident of early momentum for the Las Vegas team.

read on