By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — How many major league sports teams can this growing market of 2.3 million people support?
The NFL Raiders sell out 62,000 seats, the NHL Golden Knights’ sell out at nearly 18,000 and the WNBA Aces have sold out their season at 10,000 a game.
The MLB Athletics are building a stadium on the Strip for 33,000, while the NBA might have a team in Las Vegas for the 2028-29 season.
Now Major League Soccer has entered the sports team arena in Las Vegas, so to speak.
The LVSportsBiz.com has confirmed with a spokesperson that the 30-year-old grandson of the cofounder of Public Storage has submitted a proposal for his investment group to buy the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer and move the MLS team to Las Vegas.
Spokesperson Jacqueline Peterson issued this statement to LVSportsBiz.com today: “Las Vegas is known the world over as a welcoming destination for millions of people each year and has a growing, passionate community of soccer fans. An investor group, led by Grant Gustavson, submitted a bid for consideration to the MLS League Office. The investment group will privately finance this endeavor and is not connected to any of the recently announced arena ideas in Las Vegas.”
Grant Gustavson is the son of Kentucky billionaire Tamara Gustavson. He’s also the son of B. Wayne Hughes, who cofounded the storage unit company, Public Storage.
LVSportsBiz.com learned that the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium was considered as a possible home and ideal landing spot for the potential new MLS team, but that’s far from finalized. And the deal could involve Gustavson’s group building a soccer-specific stadium, which is typically in the 20,000-30,000 range for MLS soccer. Some teams, though, do play in bigger NFL stadiums like those in Atlanta and Charlotte.
In 2021, MLS Commissioner Don Garber said Las Vegas was in the running to become Major League Soccer’s 30th team hot, with Milwaukee Bucks owner Wes Edens and fellow billionaire Nassef Sawiris in talks with MLS to create an expansion team in this market.
But that plan never materialized. Even downtown Las Vegas has been mentioned as a posssible location for a MLS stadium. But those stadium ideas never got off the ground.
The Gustavson-led group will have more details in the coming weeks, Peterson said.
“In the coming weeks and months, we look forward to the opportunity to share more, however, out of respect for the league’s deliberations and community stakeholders, we are refraining from sharing details of our proposal. We look forward to continuing to work for a positive outcome for the game, the fans, the league and Las Vegas.”