Las Vegas Aces Working On Forging Their Identity In Their New Host City, Both Off and On the Court
By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
The Las Vegas Aces are not a new team in the WNBA.
But the former San Antonio Stars franchise purchased by MGM Resorts International is new to Las Vegas this season and the professional women’s basketball product is still trying to figure out its identity amid a group of new professional sports clubs in Sin City.
Nobody knows that better than Bill Laimbeer, the Aces’ veteran head coach who chatted with LVSportsBiz.com about that very topic after Sunday’s Aces’ 92-80 loss to a more experienced and talented Phoenix Mercury team led by big-name stars like veteran sharpshooter Diana Taurasi and six-foot, nine-inch inside force Brittney Griner.
“We’re a work-in-progress, on and off the court,” Laimbeer said in a back hallway at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. “This is our launch year (in Las Vegas). Not everything is going to be perfect.”
On the court, the Aces – now three wins with nine losses — are led by talented 2018 number one draft pick A’ja Wilson, a fix-foot, four-inch center drafted out of South Carolina, and five-foot, ten-inch guard Kayla McBride out of Notre Dame.
But Laimbeer lamented the on-court product needs more practice time.
“We’re very young,” said Laimbeer, who has coached previously in the WBNA and is a former two-time world champion with the Detroit Pistons. “We’re learning.”
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Likewise, the off-court in-game entertainment product is also trying to figure out its identity.
The team’s venue — the Mandalay Bay Events Center — received a $10 million makeover complete with new seats and scoreboard and is a class-one basketball setting for about 7,500 fans. So, the venue is ideal.
“It’s a great setting,” Laimbeer observed.
But it’s difficult to identify a theme linking all the entertainment components to the game exsperience.
There’s a mascot that looks like a rabbit that has me wondering what its connection is to the WNBA team, while the game could use more live fan interaction features and more close-up, mobile camera work of fans, friends and families.
The team has many in-game entertainment parts you see at pro sports games — the loud music, the T-shirts launched into the crowd, gyrating dancers, and scoreboard features like the “Summerlin High Five Cam.” Veteran local radio broadcaster Chet Buchanan is the arena PA announcer declaring, “Aces basketball!”
The Aces also have enlisted game crowd emcees radio man Wayne “Big D” Danielson and C.J. Simpson, who are fine conducting the in-game features.
I’m just unclear about the theme or identity linking all the game’s entertainment parts.
But Laimbeer said he’s not concerned, noting it’s only the fourth home game of the season and bugs will be worked out as an identity to the team and entertainment product emerge.
“Every town is different,” Laimbeer told LVSportsBiz.com. “A song that works in one town flops in another.”
There appeared to be a few thousand fans in the arena with plenty of available seats. The team considers distributed tickets its attendance, which is why that number is higher than the turnstile attendance.
The Aces hit the road Tuesday for a game in Seattle and the return home for a game Friday, when the New York Liberty comes to Las Vegas and Pride Day will be celebrated. The WNBA is celebrating LGBTQ Pride Month in June and the gay and lesbian community has been a core demographic for the league through its history.
Laimbeer, who noted some on the kinks included getting stat sheets after the game, expressed confidence that the franchise has a good future.
“It’s a long journey,” the towering coach told a small group of reporters after the game. “I’m not discouraged one bit.”
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