By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
Joe and Gavin Maloof chatted with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman for years about the virtues of bringing the major leagues of hockey to Las Vegas. And then the Maloofs met a businessman named Bill Foley. And these founding partners of a team that would become the Vegas Golden Knights deserve the credit for creating the first major league sports team here in Southern Nevada.
But the NHL would not be here either if not for the combo of another business power couple — MGM Resorts International and Los Angeles-based Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG). MGM Resorts and AEG teamed up to privately build a $375 million arena on a small piece of land shoehorned behind the NY-NY hotel-casino parking garage and in front of the re-branded Park MGM Las Vegas. Neither MGM nor AEG asked for a nickel in public money to build the venue and the arena — along with Foley-Maloofs — pushed an NHL franchise in Las Vegas into reality.
And now we’re learning that the arena is paying off.
A week ago Wednesday at a sports-business summit, there was a slide showing that T-Mobile Arena was the world’s top grossing arena for a 12-month period in the category of arenas that had capacities of 15,001 and bigger.
T-Mobile Arena’s 12-month gross was $164.4 million, topping well-established arenas such as Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, NY ($158.6 million); 02 Arena in London ($147.1 million); The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. ($100.2 million); Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY ($80.52 million); and AEG-owned Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles ($80.5 million).
On May 27, 2015, iron workers placed the final beam into place for an arena that would open April 6, 2016. Sometimes with all the excitement about the construction of the Raiders stadium and the Aviators ballpark we lose sight that the creation of T-Mobile Arena ushered in this new era of sports growth in Las Vegas.
Even with the fact that T-Mobile Arena was the world’s top grossing arena for venues of 15,001+, MGM Resorts International is hardly resting. It’s no secret that MGM Resorts CEO Jim Murren craves an NBA franchise for the arena to generate 45 more dates. And MGM Resorts is always looking for more programming for the arena.
USA Basketball calls T-Mobile Arena home, too. This was tweeted Wednesday.
The building hosts a variety of entertainment acts. Besides the Golden Knights and UFC serving as the arena’s two sports tenants, the venue hosts big-time boxing matches and singers ranging from Michael Buble, Pink and Justin Timberlake to Ariana Grande, George Strait and Bruno Mars. Capacity is 20,000 for combat sports and officially 17,367 for Golden Knights hockey.
It also shows that the Las Vegas market can include two major arenas — T-Mobile Arena and Thomas and Mack Center, a 36-year-old arena that received a $72 million upgrade in 2015. Thomas & Mack hosts multi-day events like the National Finals Rodeo in December and the NBA Summer League in July while being the home of the UNLV basketball team.
And those Golden Knights? Well, owner Foley ended up buying a 15 percent share of T-Mobile Arena. MGM Resorts and AEG now each own 42.5 percent of the venue. LVSportsBiz.com will be at Wednesday’s VGK-Calgary Flames game at T-Mobile Arena, and look for our “Top of the Escalator” pregame segment at 5:45-6:30 pm on Facebook Live.
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