From In Business Las Vegas 4/20/07
Minor league, major fun
51s begin baseball season as GM Don Logan says Southern Nevada not ready for big leagues
By Richard Velotta / Staff Writer
"....In Las Vegas, the buzz has crested, then crashed over whether the city ever is going to get a major league franchise in basketball, hockey or baseball. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has made the quest of attracting the big leagues to Southern Nevada one of his rallying cries during his first two terms.
The city is on the verge of getting more news this week about its efforts to attract the National Basketball Association to town. Most are acknowledging that the news isn't expected to be good if you're one of those longing to see the likes of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns making regular trips to Las Vegas.
The NBA Board of Governors was scheduled to meet and one of the topics on the agenda is the city's proposal to house a franchise. Even the ever-exuberant Goodman is pessimistic about the prospects of getting a team this go-around, based on what he's hearing from the office of Commissioner David Stern.
But a few blocks from City Hall, there's lots of cheering and even a few fireworks.
The tradition of baseball is back and Don Logan is returning to his schedule of 15-hour workdays and managing the business of providing the national pastime in a city overflowing with entertainment options.
Logan, president and general manager of the Las Vegas 51s, helped open the team's silver anniversary season in Las Vegas with a home stand against Pacific Coast League rivals Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs last week." ...
" 'No other professional franchise has survived here, much less for 25 years,' Logan said. 'It's something to be proud of in the entertainment-rich environment Las Vegas is.'".........
"Ironically, the 51s parent company, the Mandalay Entertainment Group, has a television and film distribution subsidiary. The sports side of Mandalay owns four teams in addition to the 51s - the Dayton Dragons, the Frisco Roughriders, the Erie SeaWolves and the Hagerstown Suns in addition to managing New York Yankee team affiliates in Staten Island, N.Y., and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The company also ran the Las Vegas Thunder hockey team for seven years." .....
Logan said Las Vegas is still a relatively small television market, currently 48th in the nation. That's still higher than Jacksonville, Fla., and Buffalo, N.Y., cities that have National Football League franchises.
But Logan is leery of the stated population of Southern Nevada, estimated at more than 1.7 million.
"The stated population is larger because a lot of people have summer homes here," he said.
He also said that because Las Vegas is unusual in that it is a "three-shift town" with a potential sports fan base that is either working or sleeping when games are played. Las Vegas also doesn't have a lot of what Buffalo and Jacksonville have - nearby suburban communities.
"Jacksonville can actually draw from Orlando and along the east coast of Florida and that helps them," Logan said.
That lack of fan base and television market hurts Las Vegas in the eyes of professional sports business people more than most people realize, Logan said.
"The one sport that I think could work here is NFL football," Logan said. "It's only an eight-game home schedule. But do you think we're going to get an NFL team before Los Angeles? Besides, the NFL has articulated its stance on gambling very clearly."
The NBA also has stated an aversion to being associated with the gaming industry, which is why few were optimistic about any kind of a breakthrough in this month's NBA meetings.".....
for the complete story see: http://www.inbusinesslasvegas.com/2007/04/20/feature2.html
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