By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Just two weeks after Golden Knights owner Bill Foley said he is partnering in a new indoor football team for the new Henderson arena, the National Lacrosse League announced that NBA Brooklyn Nets/WNBA New York Liberty owner Joe Tsai will be the owner of the lacrosse league’s 15th franchise in Las Vegas.
You might recall that LVSportsBiz.com reported in January 2020 that Las Vegas was under consideration for a pro lacrosse team.
On Wednesday, National Lacrosse League Commissioner Nick Sakiewicz confirmed that Tsai will own the Las Vegas franchise. Sakiewicz, a former soccer player and ex-MLS league executive who built MLS stadiums in New York and Philadelphia, has seen the lacrosse league expand from nine to 15 clubs under his watch that began five years ago. He noted the NLL reminds him of the early stages of MLS, where owners had control of more than one team.
Tsai already owns another team in the lacrosse league — the San Diego Seals. Sakiewicz said the Seals and Las Vegas franchise will be completely separate with separate managers and employees.
The National Lacrosse League had two existing franchises sold (New England and Saskatchewan) during the pandemic, expanded with two teams (Fort Worth and Las Vegas) and signed Fanatics as the league’s e-commerce merchandise sales vendor. The Las Vegas team will start in December 2022 for a 2022-23 season that lasts to May. An arena home is unknown for the new Las Vegas expansion team at this point.
Many of the National Lacrosse League teams are owned by NBA and NHL team owners, which use the lacrosse the teams to generate revenues in arenas they also control.
The new Las Vegas team will likely play in a mid-size venue like the new Henderson arena being built by Foley and the city of Henderson or a venue like Orleans Arena. Foley’s minor league hockey team, the Henderson Silver Knights, will play in the 6,000-seat arena called Dollar Loan Center. The Silver Knights are playing in Orleans Arena temporarily.
In early 2020, lacrosse league attendance varied from team to team.
The league was averaging just more than 8,700 paid attendance per game, a little more than five percent over 2019.
It’s the third highest attended arena league behind the NBA and the NHL. The average ticket price in the National Lacrosse League is just over $25 — which is about what it costs for a WNBA Las Vegas Aces game and slightly more than UNLV basketball, Las Vegas Aviators and Las Vegas Lights games.
A new pro lacrosse team costs in the $10 million range — about twice the amount of the last team that was added to the NLL.
In January 2020, Sakiewicz told LVSportsBiz.com, “We’d love to see Vegas be one of the our next two teams.”
It’s done.
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