VGK President Declares Sports Can Be Added To Las Vegas’ Entertainment Capital of the World Title

By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

The Vegas Golden Knights unexpected success during its inaugural season just appears to be scripted by some higher mystical source (or maybe by cyborg VGK GM George McPhee).

 

So, when team president Kerry Bubolz took the stage Tuesday morning at the 38th Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance perspective forecasting session, it just happened to come a mere 12 hours after the team’s vital 3-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets to knot the Western Conference Final at a game apiece.

 

Good timing by Bubolz? It’s been good timing ever since the NHL awarded the Bill Foley/Maloof family group a franchise for the Las Vegas market.

 

Before Bubolz began chatting about the impact of sports on Las Vegas’ economy and economic development prospects, he was given an intro by none other than the team’s drumbots group — the LED-decorated drum corps that played for the 650 business folks assembled into the room at the newly rebranded MGM Park.

 

Bubolz used a slide show to offer some newsy nuggets on the Golden Knights economics:

 

^ VGK was in the NHL’s Top 5 for overall gate revenue (and continues to pack T-Mobile Arena and generate millions of dollars of income during the postseason.)

 

^ VGK was number one in retail per capita sales.

 

^ VGK was number one in jersey sales in the NHL.

 

^ As reported by LVSportsBiz.com several weeks ago, the team licensed merchandise has been purchased by people in more than 90 nations.

 

^ During the playoffs, average retail sales is up 69 percent over sales during the regular season.

 

^ During the playoffs, the average food and beverage sales are up 51 percent over the F&B sales from the regular season.

 

^ The team went all in on in-game entertainment, going for the sword-in-stone pregame ceremony, two DJs, celebrity appearances and the drumbots over the traditional NHL organ. Bubolz noted the team checked out the organ in Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia and went with the drumbots instead.

 

^ He expects an NHL All-Star Game in Las Vegas.

 

Bubolz even had a quip about country music singer Carrie Underwood’s offer to sing the national anthem before the Golden Knights’ home playoff games at T-Mobile Arena during the Western Conference Final.

 

He mentioned the VGK do have a singer by the name of Carnell Johnson and that Underwood’s husband, Mike Fisher, happens to play for another Western Conference team, the Nashville Predators.

 

“We haven’t gotten too big for our bridges,” said Bubolz after the Knights declined Underwood’s anthem offer.

 

“What if she got boos? That could have happened,” the team president observed.

 

But during the Stanley Cup Finals, the “NHL may decide to bring her in,” Bubolz noted.

 

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Bubolz’s main message was that the Las Vegas narrative is about the LV market hosting the sports and entertainment capital of the world — not just the entertainment part.

 

He said 300,000 visitors went to Minneapolis for the most recent Super Bowl in Minnesota and Bubolz pointed out that the same number of visitors hit Las Vegas for Super Bowl weekend, too.

 

Bubolz also showed renderings of the $1.8 billion Raiders stadium (opens in 2020) and the $150 million 51s ballpark in Summerlin (opens in 2019.)

 

Las Vegas had the hotel and restaurant infrastructure, he said, and “now we’ll have the (sports) facilities.”

 

The new Raiders stadium is expected to bring a Super Bowl to Las Vegas every four to five years, Bubolz said.

 

The Golden Knights and Winnipeg Jets play Game 3 Wednesday at 6 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena and Game 4 is set for Friday at 5 p.m. in Las Vegas.

 

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