By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
It’s this simple — Las Vegas became a major league team sports town because of new venues packed with pleasant amenities for fans, modern sound and visual systems and built-in opportunities for revenue streams.
So when Las Vegas marks the fifth anniversary of the opening of T-Mobile Arena this week (April 6), keep in mind the Vegas Golden Knights would not be here unless a fancy, contemporary venue like this building shoehorned between two hotel-casino parking garages and Park MGM had opened April 6, 2016. The Golden Knights’ first regular season home game in the building was Oct. 10, 2017.
I reported on the construction of this building when I worked for the local newspaper in town. But I moved to Florida in February 2016 for a new job and missed the opening.
So, I remember the first time I entered the venue when I returned to Las Vegas to launch LVSportsBiz.com in June 2017 and attended the Golden Knights expansion draft in the arena to create the team’s first roster that same month.
Perhaps you recall that Marc-Andre Fleury and others were selected in June 2017. Here’s Fleury’s presser inside the arena after he was picked by the Golden Knights.
It was only a month later in July 2017 when I reported a story on Garry DeLucia, executive chef of Levy, the building’s food and beverage contractor.
Not only is T-Mobile Arena the official home of the Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas-based UFC is also an official tenant. UFC President Dana White marked the occasion with this chat:
There have been lots of talk about fancy sports venues being built in Las Vegas through the years. But the partnership of MGM Resorts International and Los Angeles-based Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) was committed to building the $375 million arena — a venue that was built completely with private dollars.
Former MGM Resorts International executive Rick Arpin was a guest speaker at a Review-Journal luncheon more than seven years ago and left no doubt that this arena project would be built.
“We’re building that sucker,” I recall Arpin telling the luncheon crowd in February 2014.
Founding partners of the Vegas Golden Knights, brothers Joe and Gavin Maloof, lobbied NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman that Las Vegas was worthy of an NHL franchise, citing the new arena as one of the main reasons.
Indeed, Bettman was impressed with the arena and showed up a few times for announcements like the NHL coming to Las Vegas for its awards show.
T-Mobile Arena was more than just hockey. UFC held some of its biggest events in the building as an official tenant. In fact, White said he will not have a fight show unless 100 percent attendance capacity is allowed as America rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic. Both UFC and the Golden Knights are both known for putting on sports spectacles in the arena.
So, Happy Fifth Anniversary, T-Mobile Arena. Your construction paved the way for other sports venues in Las Vegas like the Las Vegas Aviators’ new ballpark in Summerlin in 2019 and the Las Vegas Raiders’ new stadium just a mile away in July 2020.
The fact is sports venues drive sports teams to cities and T-Mobile Arena elevated Las Vegas to its sports industry status it enjoys today.