By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
Ed Bernstein is no stranger to advertising his legal services.
The lawyer who grew up in Philadelphia and has been a high-profile legal name for more than four decades in Las Vegas was the first lawyer to advertise in the local market.
But Bernstein’s advertising portfolio has included several new platforms in the past year — namely, new sports teams like the Vegas Golden Knights and Las Vegas Lights FC, plus a new deal with the UNLV football, basketball and baseball teams and women’s sports.
Bernstein estimated he spends $1 million a year on his sports sponsorship agreements. Each deal includes a charitable component that involves donating money to fight Crohn’s disease, which led to the death of his daughter, Dana, in December. She was 28.
Bernstein struck gold with his sponsorship of the Golden Knights’ penalty kill at T-Mobile Arena, where a caricature of the lawyer is in both penalty boxes and graphics give mentions to his downtown law firm on the arena’s center hung scoreboard and the digital message system that rings the arena.
Bernstein noted he was among the first sponsors to buy a deal with the Golden Knights.
And though it might look like he was a savvy sports marketing soothsayer for buying the penalty kill ad spot before the Knights’ inaugural season, Bernstein said it’s important to remember this was at a time when skeptics were wondering whether an NHL team would thrive in the Las Vegas market. Even Golden Knights owner Bill Foley went on Bernstein’s TV show — billed as Nevada’s longest-running TV show — and said he was hoping the team would be competitive and pile up 70 points during the regular season. The VGK actually had 109 points en route to the team’s Pacific Division title in its first season.
“In retrospect, the Golden Knights sponsorship looks brilliant. But at the time, it looked iffy,” Bernstein recalled during an interview at his downtown office Monday.
Bernstein said hockey fans in the U.S. and Canada have mentioned his sponsorship spots to the Golden Knights’ corporate sales rep, while he said his own friends around the country have also seen the penalty kill spots during TV telecasts of Golden Knights games.
Bernstein said he originally wanted to sponsor the Golden Knights’ power play at T-Mobile Arena. But that’s typically a spot bought by a local power company, and NV Energy locked up the power play.
So, Bernstein, who attends just about every VGK home game sitting 10 rows behind the team bench, went with the penalty kill.
“What better place for a lawyer than being in the penalty box,” Bernstein said with a laugh.
Bernstein said fans in his section cheer him on every time there’s a penalty kill and his law firm is mentioned at Golden Knights games.
The Golden Knights deal also includes his law firm on a sign along the boards at the team’s training center rink in Summerlin.
Monday was also the first day of single game ticket sales for the Golden Knights’ 2018-19 season. Ticket sales were for all 41 regular season games and four preseason games. Season ticket deals are sold out, and there’s a can’t wait list for fans who want to buy season ticket deals.
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Bernstein also bought a sponsorship deal with the Las Vegas Lights FC, the new downtown soccer team that’s playing its first season in the United Soccer League.
The lawyer has a large sign in Spanish at Cashman Field inside the walkway that leads to the stadium concourse.
Asked why he is advertising at Lights games, Bernstein said his wife is Peruvian and is a “huge World Cup soccer fan.”
Bernstein likes the fans’ passion at Lights games and said he enjoys the games’ fun, less formal atmosphere.
His purchase of the UNLV sponsorship agreement comes at a time when he’s optimistic of Rebels sports — both in men’s and women’s sports. “It’s been a rather bleak last decade or two,” Bernstein observed.
Bernstein said his sports sponsorship deals need to involve some kind of a wrinkle, not just signage. So, he said his UNLV basketball deal includes an agreement for him to donate money to fight Crohn’s and Colitis diseases every time the opponent misses a foul shot.
Bernstein said his UNLV sponsorship will also include a deal at UNLV football games to honor a UNLV alum who is also a military veteran.
With the UNLV deals, Bernstein said he has worked with Dan Dolby, a longtime local sports marketing fixture who is general manager of Learfield’s UNLV Sports Properties, which took over the university’s sports marketing responsibilities from IMG a year ago.
This is hardly the first time Bernstein has used local sports as an advertising medium. In fact, he recalled buying an outfield wall sign at Cashman Field decades ago that Bernstein said turned out to give him tons of free publicity when a Sports Illustrated magazine photo captured the outfield sign advertising his law firm during a rare Oakland A’s game at the ballpark.
Bernstein said he’s undecided about buying a Raiders sponsorship because he observed the NFL is a national brand and his law firm has a local profile. The Raiders come to Las Vegas in 2020 when their $1.8 billion domed stadium opens.
Bernstein said he’s always been involved on the local sports scene. He recalled training and sparring with Dana White before White became a household name as president of UFC.
The lawyer also remembered the grand prix auto races and tennis events at Caesars Palace, the old Thunder hockey games at Thomas & Mack Center and the preseason Los Angeles Kings games on the Strip before the Golden Knights were born.
“I’ve watched the evolution of sports in Las Vegas. It’s just a matter of time until we get an NBA team,” Bernstein said. “The success of the Golden Knights makes Las Vegas an attractive city.”
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