Thankful For Life On Thanksgiving

By ALAN SNEL

 

It’s Thanksgiving Eve and I bicycled across the Strip to T-Mobile Arena, where I locked up my fat-tire Surly Pugsley bike to a bike rack a mere minute walk from the venue’s door.

 

Best parking in Vegas.

 

But I’m thankful for more than supreme bicycle parking at T-Mobile Arena courtesy of Rick Arpin, the MGM Resorts International arena guy who thought an arena on the Strip should accommodate multiple modes of transportation for arena-bound fans.

 

I’m thankful for being alive and the chance to report on and write about a phase in Las Vegas history that will be historic — the construction of an NFL stadium that will change the big-event entertainment landscape in this tourist-based market; the launch of the market’s first professional major league team in the NHL Golden Knights; the 2018 debut of Las Vegas’ first downtown pro soccer team; the new WNBA team courtesy of MGM Resorts International; a second NASCAR event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, UFC’s growth into China and Russia and UNLV’s attempt to stay relevant and draw fans in this newly competitive market.

 

In early March, a distracted motorist fumbling for his inhaler drove his car into me as a bicycled in Florida. The driver smashed his car into me from behind in St. Lucie County, where apparently you can drive your car into a bicyclist with criminal immunity. The driver didn’t even get a ticket for his negligence.

 

Welcome to St. Lucie County, Florida, where you can drive injure a bicyclist and walk away scot-free without accountability. The sheriff’s deputy didn’t give the driver a ticket, but he did assure me the crash was his fault. Thanks so much.

 

I survived. And for that, I’m grateful.

 

I could have been just another statistic in Florida.

 

Florida is notorious for the high number of motorists who kill bicyclists.

 

Only a few weeks after I was creamed by the motorist in March, a former Florida state legislator who also was also his city’s ex-mayor and county’s former commission chairman was killed on his bicycle in central Florida. A motorist hit him from behind, too. (If Florida lawmakers won’t improve conditions for bicyclists after one of their own was killed on a bicycle, what chance would they do anything for any bicyclist to make the roads safer?)

 

I’m so thankful for the many friends who helped me recover. But I was not going to stick around Florida. I would return to Las Vegas, where I worked for the Las Vegas Review-Journal where I covered the business of sports for 3 1/2 years.

 

So, on Thanksgiving here in Las Vegas I’m thankful to be breathing and pedaling again and writing news on where business converges with sports in Las Vegas.

 

These are amazing times in Las Vegas and I’m thankful that LVSportsBiz.com has gained traction, and that the website’s page views, readership and relevance in this market is trending upward.

 

LVSportsBiz.com is breaking news and reporting sports-business stories with innovative angles, context and analysis you will only read here.

 

Put simply, I’m thankful to be here and to be purveying sports-business information that LVSportsBiz.com believes in helping Las Vegans understand this dynamic time in their city’s history.

 

I’ve only begun this new journey with LVSportsBiz.com. And I give thanks for that.

 

Contact LVSportsBiz.com founder/writer Alan Snel at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com