By LVSportsBiz.com Staff
If we have learned anything about the massive sports expansion in metro Las Vegas, it’s that new teams in this market are driven by new sports venues.
Take the example of the The Dollar Loan Center arena in suburban Henderson, where a new professional women’s volleyball team will play 12 home games as part of a 24-game schedule.
The team is called the Vegas Thrill, the seventh team of the Pro Volleyball Federation. The team’s first game is Feb. 7 — the opening game of that 24-game slate.
The ownership group includes Andy Abboud, who helped lobby for the $750 million in public money to help build the Raiders stadium in Las Vegas; Jon Bruning, a lawyer and former Nebraska Attorney General; the Foley Entertainment Group, the umbrella sports organization created by Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley that oversees Foley’s Henderson Silver Knights hockey team and Vegas Knight Hawks indoor football team at The Dollar Loan Center arena; and City+Ventures, a national investment organization that is investing in women’s professional volleyball in the U.S.
The ticket prices will range from $29 to $114 for a match. Season memberships are available now with a $100 deposit for tickets in that $29-$114 per match range for the 12 home contests. Those prices seem high for a new volleyball team, but perhaps there will be ticket discount deals.
A festive crowd of about 200 greeted the announcement of the Thrill team at the arena Monday. Abboud mentioned that he was a volleyball fan who was among the 92,003 fans who watched the powerful Nebraska women’s volleyball team play at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska Aug. 30.
Here are more names involved with the Thrill: the head coach is Fran Flory; analyst and consultant is Russ Rose; team president is Ruben Herrera, and the first official franchise player is Alisha Glass Childress.
Foley built the Dollar Loan Center arena at the site of the old Henderson Pavilion. Foley and the city of Henderson each paid $42 million to build the $84 million arena in the Green Valley area of Henderson.
Technically, the city of Henderson owns it, but Foley’s sports group runs the venue. It’s the Foley group’s business strategy to try and fill the building with as much programming as possible like college basketball tournament, the Silver Knights minor league hockey games, the NBA G League Ignite basketball games and the Knight Hawks football contests.
The Thrill roster includes Kayla Banwarth, Layne Van Buskirk, Alisha Glass Childress, Saskia Hippe, Molly McCage and Berkeley Oblad.