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Charity Softball Game Brings Together Las Vegas’ Big League Teams Monday

   Story by Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com    Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell

They’re quite the Odd Couple, Las Vegas’ two major sports teams.

The Vegas Golden Knights and the Las Vegas Raiders shared a ballfield at Las Vegas Ballpark in Summerlin Monday.

That’s about the only thing they share. The Golden Knights were born here in Las Vegas. The Raiders migrated here from Oakland.

Like most NHL teams, the Golden Knights are run by older white men and are diversity-challenged. The Raiders have a legacy of standing up for racial justice and hiring the first Black and Latino coaches, the first woman CEO and the first Black team president.

But those differences in franchises and cultures were put aside for one night as the Raiders and Knights played softball for charity — the Vegas Golden Knights Foundation, Communities in Schools Nevada and Maximum Hope Foundation.

The Golden Knights are a team not only in transition but an NHL trying to forge a new identity entering Year 6 after cultivating a strong emotional bond with a market that never had a big league team.

The big crowd at the Triple-A ballpark in Downtown Summerlin embraced old favorites like former VGKers Nate Schmidt, Ryan Reaves and Erik Haula. The Knights, coming off their first non-playoff season, are counting on comebacks from injured players like forward Mark Stone and goaltender Robin Lehner to reach the postseason in Season 6.

 

The charity event is Battle 4 Vegas and the ballpark was packed.

Alan Snel: Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.
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