Can Proposed New Arena South Of Strip In Las Vegas Survive Without An NBA Team? Hoops Promoter Brooks Downing Has A Thought On That
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
LVSportsBiz.com reached out Friday to Brooks Downing to discuss the proposed $3 billion entertainment district/arena proposal for Las Vegas Boulevard and Blue Diamond Road, south of the Strip. Downing is a college basketball and sports promoter who arranged events like the massive Duke vs Gonzaga college hoops game at T-Mobile Arena in November and the Big West Conference basketball tournament at the new Dollar Loan Center arena in Henderson last month. He has a good handle on the Las Vegas market and made these observations.
On the proposed $1 billion, 20,000-seat arena have an NBA as a tenant: Downing of bd Global thought the venue will need to have an NBA team as an anchor for the arena to be financially viable, especially when it will competing for live music programming against T-Mobile Arena and the MSG Sphere, a music-only 17,500-seat venue behind the Venetian that is scheduled to open in the second half of 2023.
On MGM Resorts International’s interest on getting an NBA team for its T-Mobile Arena, which is also owned by co-partners Anschutz Entertainment Group and Golden Knights owner Bill Foley (who owns 15 percent, with MGM Resorts with AEG splitting the remaining 85 percent): While MGM Resorts has pushed in the past for an NBA team to play in T-Mobile Arena, Downing thought that interest now might not be as intense as it was in past years.
Downing noted it’s common for NBA and NHL teams to share the same arena like in cities such as Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit, New York, Denver and Boston. But it’s always easier for event scheduling when there’s only one major sports league tenant in the arena instead of two. For example, Downing said he had to work with T-Mobile Arena on the scheduling of the Duke vs Gonzaga game last year. The announced attendance for that college basketball game at T-Mobile Arena was 20,389.
On more arena space for college basketball tourneys in March: Downing said Las Vegas, which already hosts five college hoops tournaments every March, might even need more space for all the college basketball action, so this proposed arena might just come in handy for that.
On the uniqueness of UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center: While this arena may not host big concerts like it used to, there are few university arenas capable of accommodating 17,000 fans a night for National Finals Rodeo performances over 10 days and the animals like bulls and horses that hang out on the UNLV campus grounds. It’s a very unique arena for a college campus, Downing said. And it is also home of the annual NBA Summer League.
Tim Leiweke’s Oak View Group proposed the arena/entertainment district/hotel project this week and aims to break ground in 2023. Leiweke’s group rebuilt old Key Arena into the NHL Seattle Kraken’s new hockey arena and is a partner in the NHL Islanders’ new arena. Leiweke is also former CEO of AEG, the part-owner of T-Mobile Arena just off the Strip.
PSA
