By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The new Bill Foley arena in Henderson has its first event scheduled for March 2022 — a college basketball conference tournament in March.
The $84 million, 6,000-seat venue, officially called Dollar Loan Center and home to Foley’s Henderson Silver Knights minor league hockey team, will host the Big West Conference college basketball tourney in March after the arena opens.
The Big West, dominated by California universities, held its conference hoops tourney last season at the arena in the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino, the Michelob Ultra Arena.
Las Vegas is College Basketball Tournaments R Us every March as the Pac-12 (T-Mobile Arena), Mountain West (Thomas & Mack Center), West Coast and Western Athletic (both Orleans Arena) all stage their conference tourneys here.
The Big West (not to be confused with Mountain West and West Coast) includes California schools like Santa Barbara, Bakersfield, Cal Poly, Davis, Riverside, Fullerton, and Long Beach. The conference used to hold its conference basketball tourney event in Anaheim in the Los Angeles area.
Foley, the multi-faceted business man who is majority owner of the NHL Vegas Golden Knights, is partnering with the city of Henderson to build the Dollar Loan Center arena. Foley is also joining forces with Dollar Loan Center founder/CEO Chuck Brennan to buy an expansion indoor football franchise in the 14-year-old Indoor Football League. It will be the 18th team in the football league.
Foley and the city have torn down the old Henderson Pavilion and built the new arena on its site off Paseo Verde and Green Valley parkways. The city of Henderson also hopes to have cultural events there, too.
From the Golden Knights:
The 2022 Big West Basketball Championships, presented by the Hawaiian Islands, will christen the arena as its first publicly ticketed event. The five-day tournament will run March 8-12 featuring 10 women’s and 10 men’s teams vying for conference championships and automatic bids to the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships.
Donning hard hats today at the arena construction site, Big West Commissioner Dan Butterly held a joint press conference with Kerry Bubolz, President of the Golden Knights, and Henderson Mayor Debra March in front of a contingent of local representatives and Big West CEO’s and athletic directors.