Inside College Hoops Tourney-Henderson Arena Deal: Big West, Dollar Loan Center Have Three-Year Agreement With Options In Vegas Market
Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
It’s a unique business deal. A third-party college basketball event promoter hooking up with a college conference to stage the league’s hoops tourney in a brand new arena in the red-hot Las Vegas sports market.
Then again, Brooks Downing, the college roundball promoter, knows Las Vegas pretty well by now. He has staged college holiday hockey and basketball tournaments at T-Mobile Arena such as this season’s monster Duke vs Gonzaga match (20,389 fans) , while even pulling off a unique PGA event, too.
Brooks and his bdG Sports event LLC hooked up with the Big West Conference to help put on its basketball tourney at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Ultra Arena in 2021 and started a year ago to hatch a Big West hoops tourney at the new Dollar Loan Center arena in Henderson. The Big West-coming-to-Henderson deal was announced in June.
“It’s a conference community,” Downing said during the Hawaii’s tourney final win vs UC Irvine. “It’s the perfect size. Some arenas can be too big. I don’t know what the attendance is but this has atmosphere.”
It was an ideal business convergence. The Big West’s commissioner is Dan Butterly, who worked as the assistant commissioner in charge of basketball for the Mountain West Conference, UNLV’s league that holds its annual tourney event at Thomas & Mack Center. Butterly ran the Mountain West basketball tourney for 21 years, so he knows the Las Vegas market.
Plus, Downing put on a four-team college hockey tourney at T-Mobile Arena, the Ice Vegas Invitational in 2019, so he got to know VGK owner Bill Foley’s people. Foley built this $84 million arena in Henderson, with the Big West tourney serving as the 6,000-seat venue’s first ticketed event.
The Big West tourney also enlisted several familiar local names to help put on the basketball event in Henderson, which chipped in with $42 million in public dollars to match Foley’s $42 million to build the modern venue that has lots of medieval times terminology.
For example, radio personality Chet Buchanan, who does in-game arena emcee duties for UNLV and Las Vegas Aces basketball games, is doing the same here for the Big West. Las Vegas Lights and Henderson Silver Knights game emcee Bojo Ackah is working the Big West games, too. Even the Drumbots drummers, who perform at VGK games at T-Mobile Arena, worked their percussion act at halftimes of both the men’s and women’s games.
Butterly, who toured the arena construction site a year ago, said the Big West is in the first year of a three-year agreement with options with Foley’s sports people and the new venue.
He mentioned the Big West’s previous basketball tournament home, the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, was too big and also too close to all the participating universities. The tournament games felt like just another game, but the Henderson arena has the feel of a true neutral conference championship hub.
Attendance started slow in the first days of the tournament, but more fans began going to games with attendance in the several thousand this week. It’s not a giant number, but something to build on.
Hawaii’s presence in the women’s basketball final was an ideal fit for the Las Vegas market, with the Rainbow Warriors band doing fund-raising and getting some booster help to cover the costs of 130 band members to attend the tournament. They wore their hunter-green shirts and created lots of noise to beef up the atmosphere. today
“It feels like a conference championship,” Butterly said.
He noted some other Big West-Las Vegas deals are in the works like the women’s golf championship in the Las Vegas market. The Big West volleyball championships could also be a nice fit for the Dollar Loan Center, Butterly noted.
“It’s the perfect size venue for the Big West,” Butterly said.
In the 8:30 PM game in the Big West men’s final, Long Beach State jumped out to a nice lead against Cal State Fullerton, but Fullerton led the Beach, 32-31, at the half.
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Speaking of the Mountain West, the conference’s top-seeded team, Boise State, battled San Diego State in a tough defensive fight, with Boise State edging the Aztecs, 53-52, to punch its ticket to The Big Dance.
Boise State joins UNLV’s women’s team as Mountain West tourney winners and NCAA basketball tourney participants.
Powerhouse Gonzaga defeated Saint Mary’s at Orleans Arena Tuesday in the West Coast men’s final to win an automatic bid to the NCAAs.
Over at T-Mobile Arena, Arizona won its Pac-12 conference tourney title with an 84-76 win over UCLA.
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The Dollar Loan Center is expecting 3,500-4,000 for Friday’s first Vegas Knight Hawks game in the arena, a police officer said today.
The Henderson Silver Knights will play their first game here April 2.
The Southern Nevada Hall of Fame has a nice display along the main concourse.
And Henderson Mayor Debra March (Madness) and Dollar Loan Center short-term loan business man Chuck Brennan received a basketball during pregame activities.
PSA
