By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com Photos by LVSportsBiz.com photographer J. Tyge O’Donnell
The Las Vegas market’s newest professional sports franchise made its debut Saturday night.
Its owner is a familiar name — Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley, who bought a minor league team in San Antonio, Texas and moved its to Henderson to serve as close geographic feeder for the parent VGK club.
The former San Antonio Rampage club was re-branded into the Henderson Silver Knights, though they are playing temporarily in Las Vegas at the 7,700-seat Orleans Arena.
Much of the marketing message from the Golden Knights owner and his management brass was that the Silver Knights would be an affordable alternative to the big club, which produces a product that requires an expensive ticket to attend.
But the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 450,000 Americans, has wiped out the notion of fans attending Silver Knights games at Orleans Arena, the former home of a Las Vegas minor league hockey team, the Wranglers, of the East Coast Hockey League.
While the NHL Golden Knights play in a privately-built venue, T-Mobile Arena, the American Hockey League Silver Knights will play in a publicly-subsidized $84 million-dollar arena in the city of Henderson, which is footing $42 million for half of the costs. The 6,000-seat Silver Knights arena is being built out of the old Henderson Pavilion, which will be used for city events, too.
Silver and gold seat coverings adorned the seats at Orleans Arena for the inaugural regular season game. The Silver Knights train at Lifeguard Arena, a two-rink community ice center in downtown Henderson about seven miles from the $84 million Henderson Event Center. Lifeguard Arena resembles the VGK headquarters and training center at City National Arena in Downtown Summerlin.
While there are no fans watching in the building here at Orleans Arena, there are TV viewers catching the action on LVTV. Henderson Silver Knights play-by-play voice Brian McCormack will handle play-by-play duties while Vegas Golden Knights analyst Mike McKenna will handle the primary color analyst duties. McCormack will be the Silver Knights radio voice, too.
The Silver Knights are playing the Ontario Reign, the Los Angeles Kings’ AHL affiliate. The Kings are also in Las Vegas this weekend, playing the Golden Knights, which defeated the Kings, 5-2, Friday evening. The VGK play the Kings Sunday at 12 noon.
The Silver Knights do have a DJ playing music inside the arena, but there is no canned crowd noise like at Golden Knights games at T-Mobile Arena, only two miles down Tropicana Avenue off the Strip. The Silver Knights PA announcer is Matt Marks, who has a booming voice over the Orleans Arena sound system. He’s solid and not as dramatic in delivery as VGK game announcer Bruce Cusick, who handles the PA announcing duties at T-Mobile Arena.
The Silver Knights have an in-game host, Las Vegas radio personality Bojo Ackah who also was the hype man for the Las Vegas Lights of United Soccer League. After a Silver Knights goal, a dude in a Henderson Silver Knights outfit plays a long horn and then announces the goal in a medieval times accent, and then a horse neighing sounds comes over the arena sound system. The medieval town crier shtick is pure minor league sports, offering some light-hearted fun you don’t see in major league sports.
For the record, the horsemen of Henderson defeated the Reign, 5-2, to notch the win.