By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
Construction workers were digging a trench in the road next to the new Raiders stadium for utilities, while other workers flushed water pipes Saturday morning.
About two miles to the northeast, Columbus Blue Jackets fans were at the T-Mobile Arena ticket windows buying tickets for tonight’s Vegas Golden Knights-Blue Jackets game at 7 p.m.
About six miles to the north in downtown Las Vegas, the Golden Knights event truck was parked at the Chinese New Year parade route.
And later that morning, cement was becoming concrete on a sidewalk in front of the Las Vegas Aviators’ new ballpark that’s scheduled to open April 9.
The string tying all these sports stadium and event scenes together was my morning bicycle ride courtesy of a single-speed, steel bicycle with big ol’ fat tires.
To grasp Las Vegas’ exploding sports industry, there are days like today when I hop on a bicycle and pedal the Tour de Stadiums to appreciate the accelerated growth in this particular entertainment industry category.
T-Mobile Arena’s opening in April 2016 drove the creation of the Vegas Golden Knights. A publicly-subsidized stadium drove the Oakland Raiders’ decision to leave Oakland again for a new domed venue that opens in Las Vegas in July 2020. And a new ballpark in Summerlin drove the Triple-A Pacific Coast League Aviators to leave downtown Las Vegas for the affluent suburbs.
Come along for the bike ride to see all the scenes. First, it’s the the $1.8 billion Raiders stadium project (about $1.3 billion is being spent on the actual stadium itself.) It’s easy to chat with workers when you’re biking along the stadium site on Polaris Avenue and see the progress. Let’s take a look at the utility work, the water on the street from the pipe flushing and the cranes.
Then, it was of for a short ride to T-Mobile Arena, where fans were at ticket windows.
And when you’re on a bicycle, you get to use the NY-NY parking garage for free. The top offers some cool views.
From T-Mobile Arena it was off to downtown Las Vegas, where I headed to Fremont Street and biked literally into the Chinese New Year parade, where the Vegas Golden Knights were a sponsor and their VGK event truck was in front of Container Park right along the parade route.
The bicycle is a Surly Pugsley, a tank of a two-wheeler that can handle Mount Charleston’s snow and Fremont Street’s downtown pavement.
Then it was off to the hardest part of the Tour — biking the 1,000 feet in elevation gain back to Summerlin and the Aviators’ new ballpark site.
It’s time to get ready for the Golden Knights-Columbus Blue Jackets game. LVSportsBiz.com will be at the Top of the Escalator, so see you there.
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