By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
They came to Las Vegas in force, filling bottom bowl sections at Thomas & Mack Center Friday evening. Then again, those San Diego State Aztecs fans know all about the sojourn from Southern California to Southern Nevada to follow their basketball and football teams to Las Vegas for games here.
San Diego State is a national power with a sterling 29-1 record and a number five national ranking. And their fans will likely stay overnight in Las Vegas, filling Las Vegas hotel beds.
To fuel the coffers of the Mountain West Conference, which is staging its season-end hoops tournament at The Mack, and two other college basketball conferences holding tourneys at T-Mobile Arena and The Orleans, the Las Vegas Events promotion and organizer group is paying the three conferences more than a $1 million in sponsorship dollars to keep the basketballs bouncing and the heads in beds in Las Vegas this time of year.
It’s not unusual. Las Vegas Events — the non-profit arm of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) — pays the Mountain West, Pac-12 and West Coast Conference to keep the conferences coming to Las Vegas to hold their tourney championships. The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) also hits Las Vegas for its tournament championship, but the WAC doesn’t get sponsorship money.
Here’s the breakdown in public dollars flowing to the college basketball conferences: $500,000 to the Pac-12, which is holding men’s and women’s tourneys in Las Vegas including the men’s event at T-Mobile Arena; $300,000 to the Mountain West, which camps at Thomas & Mack Center for its men’s and women’s tourneys; and another $300,000 to the West Coast Conference, which includes perennial powerhouse Gonzaga. The Zags bring their 6,000 plus fans every year to Las Vegas to root on one of college basketball’s powerhouse roundball squads. Gonzaga is 29-2 and ranked second in the country.
Both Gonzaga and San Diego State have been mentioned as number one seeds in the Big Dance, so expect their legions of fans to keep traveling.
Keeping the college basketball fans coming to Las Vegas is vital for the local tourism economy right now in light of the coronavirus crisis that is leading sports fans to not travel to sports events and prompting event organizers to cancel major events like SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas because of coronavirus concerns.
The three conferences getting the six-figure payments fit well into their Las Vegas-based arenas. The Pac-12 enjoys taking over T-Mobile Arena, while the Mountain West covers up all UNLV references at Thomas & Mack and converts the UNLV arena into a neutral site.
The West Coast Conference and its smaller schools are accommodated well in The Orleans Arena, which is one of the nicest mid-size arenas in the country.
San Diego State overcame a sluggish start and defeated Boise State, 81-68, Friday night at Thomas & Mack to move into the Mountain West tourney finals. The Aztecs are 30-1, while Boise State goes to 20-12.
Meanwhile, underdog 11-seeded Wyoming battled last year’s tourney champ, Utah State, in the second half in the other semi. Utah State and Wyoming were tied at 66, but Utah State pulled away behind sharp-shooting guard Sam Merrill and shot-blocking center Neemias Queta to win, 89-82. Wyoming’s Hunter Thompson visited Las Vegas and nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer for the final score. Utah State went to 25-8, while Wyoming finished at 9-24.
It’s San Diego State vs Utah State in a star-studded final at The Mack at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
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