LVSportsBiz’s 2020 Year In Review: A Stadium Is Born, Coping With COVID-19 And Different Paths To Racial Justice
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
A highly-contagious worldwide virus shut down sports in Las Vegas for several months in 2020 and the year-in-review was all about the sports industry pivoting best it could to new conditions, restrictions and financial hardships. There was no shortage of sports-business news in Las Vegas this year. Amid all the COVID-19 shutdowns and adjustments Las Vegas saw its biggest, most expensive and publicly-subsidized sports venue open in mid-2020. Here’s the LVSportsBiz Top Ten.
ONE: Allegiant Stadium opens. There was no fanfare when this stadium project was finished at the end of July. No celebrations. No ribbon cuttings. No worker luncheon parties. But on Aug. 21, the Las Vegas Raiders took to the grass field for the very first time. Players loved the domed, 65,000-seat stadium sitting on 62.5 acres on the west side of I-15 across from Mandalay Bay. Raiders owner Mark Davis said if all the season ticket holders could not attend games then none would. So, it turned out that UNLV’s football team would inaugurate fans into the building on Halloween with 2,000 fans in the stands for a game against in-state rival Nevada. But the pandemic caused a major shortfall in hotel room tax revenues and Clark County was forced to tap the stadium reserve fund for $11.5 million to pay a $16 million stadium bond payment. The public is contributing $750 million to stadium construction.
TWO: UFC’s show goes on: Dana White would not be denied. UFC’s boss and ringmaster, his technical title is “president” of UFC, took a lot of grief to forge ahead with fights when sports leagues like the NBA and NHL were closed for business. But on May 30, White staged the first major sports event in Las Vegas when he staged a fight show at UFC’s Apex building, next to UFC’s headquarters. About a month earlier, White had put on a UFC fight show in Jacksonville, Florida, drawing a video shoutout from his pal, President Donald Trump.
THREE: Golden Knights reach conference finals in Edmonton bubble. Like all NHL teams, the Vegas Golden Knights lost millions of dollars in revenue when the NHL season was paused in March. The team advanced to the Western Conference Finals, before losing to the Dallas Stars. But the The Golden Knights were busy off the ice, opening an ice center in downtown Henderson, partnering with the city of Henderson on a new $84 million Henderson arena at the old Henderson Pavilion site and showing off the new jersey for its new minor league team, the Henderson Silver Knights.
FOUR: Las Vegas Aces piled up wins while working on racial injustice issues. The Aces played in the WNBA bubble in Bradenton, Florida, about an hour south of Tampa and made it to the finals before bowing to the Seattle Storm. The Aces’ star forward A’Ja Wilson emerged as the league’s, MVP, while the team joined the other 11 clubs in being a leader in fighting for racial justice during a summer marked by protests across the country in response to police shootings.
FIVE: No Aviators games in Summerlin. Las Vegas had no baseball in the summer because Minor League Baseball games were scrubbed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Howard Hughes Corporation, the Texas-based development company that owned the Aviators and their jewel of a ballpark hit the jackpot in 2019 when the new ballpark in Downtown Summerlin was the biggest-drawing ball yard in the minors. What’s the game plan for the $150 million baseball venue for 2021? Nobody knows yet.
SIX: UNLV cancels football and basketball games because of the novel coronavirus. UNLV had to cancel a UNLV vs Boise State football game and a UNLV vs Eastern Washington basketball game because of COVID-19 problems a few days apart in early December. But UNLV football’s team did get the chance to play three home games at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders. It included the first game ever to have fans inside the palatial new stadium.
SEVEN: Golden Knights skate For racial justice: The National Hockey League is not known for its players speaking out about social unrest and racial issues. But during the summer when games were played in the Edmonton and Toronto bubbles players did not play for two days after WNBA and NBA players refused to play in light of several police brutality cases, including the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. The Golden Knights even created a video that included footage of anti-racism protests.
NINE: Circa sports gambling sportsbook, BetMGM app take center stage. Amid the downturn of the economy was the opening of the new Circa hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas, complete with a legit wow-factor sportsbook, and MGM Resorts enlisting entertainer Jaime Foxx to pitch its sports betting platform. Everyone from the Westgate SuperBook to the South Point sportsbook welcomed sports bettors after the lockdown in April and May.
TEN: Boxing re-launched in Las Vegas via Top Rank. Las Vegas-based Top Rank created a boxing bubble at the MGM Grand hotel-casino to continue its boxing matches. It worked. The promotion staged its first event June 9 and built its bubble on the entire 12th floor at the MGM Grand.
LVSportsBiz.com contributor Cassandra Cousineau contributed to this report.
