By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
If you’re living in Las Vegas these days, it’s easy to feel like you’re an extra in a movie with a story line about a brand new NHL team that has swallowed everything in its path.
Vegas Golden Knights mania is officially sweeping through the Vegas valley like summer flood waters through desert washes, sucking up everything in its path.
Tickets on the secondary market for Friday’s pivotal Game 5 between the Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks were twice the amount of secondary market ticket prices in San Jose. The Golden Knights drew a record crowd of 18,693, packing T-Mobile Arena Friday that resulted in a VGK 5-3 win over the Sharks. The Knights lead the conference semi-final series, 3 games to two, with Game 6 in San Jose Sunday.
And you don’t need to be a sports fan to open your wallet or purse to buy anything with a Golden Knights logo on it.
I was walking down an aisle at Costco today when a Golden Knights fan with a Golden Knights shirt was pushing a cart with a framed piece of Golden Knights artwork.
A woman who looked like she could have either been the guy’s wife or mother — I can never tell in Las Vegas these days — was advising me that the Golden Knights were a lock to win tonight and grab a 3-2 game lead in the best-of-7 conference semi-final match-up.
At Friday’s game, LVSportsBiz.com caught up former Motley Crue front man Vince Neil and downtown Las Vegas hotel-casino/The D owner Derek Stevens.
Neil is a big sports fan who told LVSportsBiz.com that he attempted to be a part-owner of the Golden Knights with majority owner Bill Foley. It didn’t work out, but Neil is still a big Golden Knights fan.
Stevens and The D own the downtown events center, which hosted a Game 3 watch party earlier this week on Monday night. The D is a major Golden Knights sponsor and markets deals with visitors built around Golden Knights games.
The Golden Knights must be occupying a healthy chunk of the metro Las Vegas economy these days. I’m not just talking about hundreds of licensed Golden Knights logo gear flying out of the team’s stores at T-Mobile Arena and at the training center in Summerlin. I’m talking about local businesses hopping aboard the VGK Express Train.
A dispensary has a special discount on items if the Golden Knights win playoff games, a strip joint has dollar lap dances on game night and hundreds of bars have Golden Knights games showing on the big screens.
The national media has parachuted into Las Vegas to cover Knights-mania, and I expect the movies, books and ESPN documentaries to be released during the next 12 months.
Jon Merrill, the Golden Knights defenseman from the University of Michigan, explained it this way: “Las Vegas was looking for a major league team to call its own. Now they have one.”
It was a point that Neil made as well — that Las Vegas was thirsting for its own major league team.
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I reached T-Mobile Arena at 4:15 p.m. for the 7 p.m. game and two fans were already waiting on line. One long-haired woman had a Brayden McNabb number 3 jersey, while another woman who enjoys collecting game posters had a number 71 Knights jersey with “Wild Bill” on the back.
There’s no better place to talk with fans — the consumers of sports — than on the plaza in front of T-Mobile Arena.
I met mom Shannon Baca, wearing a Golden Knights jersey; her son, Jacob, 16, wearing a San Jose Sharks jersey; and her daughter, Brianna, 12, who said she was “confused” and didn’t know who to root for.
The family moved from San Jose to Las Vegas 11 years ago and their hockey team allegiances were a study in why fans choose teams to root for and souvenirs to buy.
Jacob was old enough to remember cheering for the Sharks in San Jose and he has continued his emotional tie to the team in Las Vegas.
But mom? Here’s her story: “I decided to switch over because I raised my children here.”
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