LVSportsBiz Variety Pack of News: Pop-up Retail Store at Aviators Ballpark; Levy Restaurants Goes for Grand Slam in Las Vegas; WNBA All-Star Performersrs

When news comes buffet-style in Las Vegas 

 

Buying Power at the Ballpark

Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell

 

It was a recent Las Vegas Aviators ballgame at their palatial Summerlin ballpark and Jason Weber, the Aviators retail operations director, was checking out a spot along the concourse in the left field corner beyond the foul pole.

 

Was he looking for a spot to catch a foul ball? No. Weber was scouting a potential spot for a pop-up retail store along the concourse to bolster retail sales that are already impressive for the Aviators during their inaugural season at the $150 million ball yard off South Pavilion Center Drive in Downtown Summerlin.

 

The Pacific Coast League team has already sold  more than $1 million in retail items during the team’s first year at the new venue.

 

The sales are impressive when you consider the new Aviators logo was not exactly celebrated by the locals and the team store at the ballpark wasn’t selling its smaller novelty items as it did at its former home at Cashman Field. The team store sells Aviators items, but doesn’t offer other minor league team products.

 

 

The Aviators have opened a retail spot near the ballpark pool, outdoor bar and rear entrance and exit called “Baseballism,” which sells upscale baseball-theme shirts and caps but not team logo gear.

Las Vegas Aviators, The Silver Kings/Reyes De Plata vs El Paso Chihuahuas at Las Vegas Ballpark

 

The Aviators do sell their licensed gear at a concourse location called, “On the Fly,” on the right field side of the ballpark.

 

 

 

 

The Aviators lead Triple A minor league baseball in attendance with 9,316 fans a game after 51 home dates.

 

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Levy Restaurants Going for the Grand Slam of Sports Venue Contracts in Las Vegas

 

Two Levy Restaurants workers have told LVSportsBiz.com that Levy has the food concessions contract for the Raiders stadium opening in Las Vegas in 2020. We contacted Levy and the Raiders, but they offered no response.

 

Getting the food and bev deal at the Raiders’ $1.4 billion stadium would give Levy the grand slam of sports venue contracts in Las Vegas because the Chicago-based food concessions company already has contracts at T-Mobile Arena on the Strip, Las Vegas Motor Speedway on the north end of the Vegas metro region and at the Las Vegas Aviators minor league baseball park in Summerlin through its Minor League Baseball partner, PSC, Professional Sports Catering.

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Las Vegas Motor Speedway Goes Private 

Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI), which owns Las Vegas Motor Speedway, said this week it is going private by merging with Sonic Financial Corp., which is controlled by Bruton Smith and his family. Smith is the founder and majority stakeholder in Speedway Motorsports, which owns the Las Vegas track and seven other NASCAR tracks.

Here’s background on the Speedway going private.

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WNBA All-Star Game Talent and Performances at Mandalay Bay Events Center

 

The WNBA says Teyana Taylor will perform at halftime during Saturday’s WNBA All-Star Game at Mandalay Bay Events Center. The 16th WNBA All-Star Game is set for 12:30 p.m. Las Vegas/Pacific time and 3:30 p.m. ET.

A Harlem, N.Y., native, Taylor has collaborated with Grammy-winning artists John Legend, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams and her dance performance in the music video for West’s song “Fade” became a viral sensation with more than 100 million views on YouTube and earned her a 2017 MTV Video Music Award for “Best Choreography.” The VH1 reality show “Teyana & Iman” features Taylor and her husband, NBA player Iman Shumpert.

It’s not sports event on the Strip without these performers, too. Las Vegas mainstays Cirque du Soleil and Blue Man Group will be at the game. To tip off the game, Cirque du Soleil will have casts from its Mystère and KÀ shows ready for action with special choreographed performances for the All-Star player introductions.  And Blue Man Group, which performed at the Aces Tuesday game, will be returning to offer audience interactions.

 

Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth will perform the national anthem at WNBA All-Star Game. Sorry Golden Pipes, Carnell Johnson.

 

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Mountain West Conference Goes Bowling

 

Poor Mountain West Conference. Its top football team would get a trip to Las Vegas to play in the Las Vegas Bowl every December. But the Las Vegas Bowl ditched the MWC with the new Raiders football stadium opening in 2020. The Las Vegas Bowl is moving from Sam Boyd Stadium to the palatial new domed stadium just west of the Strip and the big boy conferences cut a deal that calls for a Pac-12 team to matched against either a SEC or Big 10 team.

 

So now, the Mountain West Conference football winner will travel to Los Angeles to play a Pac-12 team in a bowl game to be named later at the new Rams/Chargers football stadium scheduled to open in 2020.

 

In addition, the Mountain West Conference will have football teams play in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, New Mexico Bowl, NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl, SoFi Hawai’i Bowl and a new bowl game in the Dallas area.

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