Attending events at MGM Resorts Arena might be a walk in the park

By John Katsilometes

Friday, Feb. 13, 2015 | 2:30 p.m.

As we begin this column jammed with news related to hockey, The Kats Report Bureau remembers the Las Vegas Thunder and its curious mascot, Boom Boom.

The Thunder were a fan favorite from 1993 to 1999 as the Las Vegas affiliate in the now-latent International Hockey League, playing its home games at the Thomas & Mack Center. The team’s arena mascot was actually a polar bear, though the team name was totally unrelated to polar bears and played in a region never famous for polar bears.

No matter. The Boom Boom-bear costume, a furry white one-piece with a Thunder jersey reading “Boom Boom” on the back and with a detachable head, was used as the mascot because it was inexpensive and available. The outfit was put up for sale by a high school with Polar Bears as its nickname but found the costume somehow inappropriate. One of the many famous stories is that the Boom Boom jersey was stolen as it was hanging at Tiffany Couture Cleaners (and because that was before I did business there, I have been cleared in the case).

The Las Vegas NHL affiliate is still a long stretch from deciding a team name and mascot. But at that famous Boom Boom suit must be hanging somewhere, ready for action …

More from the rink and elsewhere in VegasVille:

• The parking plan at the under-construction MGM Resorts Arena is thus far fairly simple to impart: Use the existing garages at the resorts near the facility.

And there are several thousand spots available, if you don’t mind the trek to the arena.

“We have a fully vetted traffic plan and traffic study, and there is plenty of parking in the area,” Mark Prows, senior vice president of arenas for MGM Resorts, said after Tuesday’s season-ticket deposit announcement at MGM Grand. The event was to celebrate the formal launch of the campaign to sign up 10,000 season-ticket commitments for a possible NHL expansion team. Parking at the 22,000-seat MGM Resorts Arena is, predictably, a concern for any events at the venue, especially 41 home games of an NHL season.

But as Prows outlined, the nearby parking garages — especially those at hotels owned by MGM Resorts — can satisfy parking needs. “We have the two parking garages that are currently there, with the Aria parking garage and New York-New York garage, which have been underutilized,” Prows said. “In the parking requirement we submitted to the county, those garages were part of the plan.”

There also are 12,000 spaces at MGM Grand and another 6,000 combined at Excalibur and Monte Carlo. Of course, it’s a fair hike from MGM and Excalibur across to the site of the arena, between Monte Carlo and New York-New York, as tourists often discover when they want to take a quick tour on foot of the Strip. But those garages are being held up as options for ticket-holders to events at the new arena.

Also in question is if, and how much, MGM Resorts will charge for parking at any of its facilities during NHL games. It is common at pro sports venues to charge an additional parking fee outside the posted ticket price. Parking at Staples Center in L.A. for NHL games is $20 to $50 depending on the proximity to the arena.

“We haven’t fully decided on whether we’ll charge for parking or not. There is a parking model we’re looking at relative to paid parking, but it hasn’t been fully vetted yet,” Prows said. “It’s possible, especially in the two garages that are closest to the arena, that we will charge.”

It is an option, and a lucrative one. I know how I’d wager on this topic: #chargingforparking.

• Las Vegas Events President Pat Christensen, who has signed on for a season-ticket package, speaks for thousands of prospective NHL ticketholders when he says, “I’m not a hockey fan, but I like the idea of big-time professional sports in Las Vegas and being a part of it.”

Christesnsen predicts the drive for season-ticket deposits easily will reach the 10,000 threshold. But often, those seats will be occupied by someone who purchased tickets in the “secondary” ticket market. Or, from a ticket website like StubHub, owned by eBay, that serves as a clearinghouse for the sale of unused tickets.

An example: At this writing, 1,255 tickets are offered for sale on the site to Saturday’s Lightning-Sharks game in San Jose, Calif. In a city such as Las Vegas, with its heavy influx of tourists, it is conceivable many of these “secondary” market tickets will be used by outside fans — fans of the opposing teams, in other words. That could make MGM Resorts Arena more of a neutral site for visiting teams with fans from all over the country.

This has become an issue at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., home of the Arizona Cardinals, where a high measure of the stadium is filled with fans of opposing teams who purchased secondary tickets from Cardinal fans who would rather golf or whatever than sit through an NFL game.

“I think what you’ll see is people breaking up their season tickets, going to 20, and the real opportunity is, if I can’t go to a Philadelphia game or even an L.A. game, there’s that secondary ticket market,” Christensen said. “So, it’s going to be difficult to get 2,000 to 3,000 fans from these outside markets when our team’s not going to have 2,000 tickets for them to buy. But there will still be a lot of demand from outside fans to come to these games, and if I’m sitting on two tickets to a game I don’t want to or can’t attend, I can put them up for sale on the secondary ticket market.”

It might mean a crowd at MGM Resorts Arena heavy with fans of, say, the L.A. Kings. But the option of reselling season tickets will allay the fears of local fans that they will be stuck with a bunch of tickets they can’t use.

“If I have that option of breaking up my tickets, and somebody in Chicago wants to spend $200 on a ticket that I spent $100 for, I do well,” Christensen said, noting that a site like StubHub allows sellers to list tickets above their face value, often at a high profit. “But what’s more important than that, I feel more confident in going out and buying all 41 tickets if I know I can sell 20 of them.”

Indeed. Maybe the team nickname should be Entrepreneurs.

• A familiar figure at Tuesday’s event at MGM seemed entirely out of context, but he was actually in his favorite environ. Mark Shunock of “Rock of Ages,” who has played the role of Lonnie since the show opened at Venetian 2 1/2 years ago, is among the Founding 50 (now Founding 83, as the Founders seem to multiply like so many Tribbles). Shunock played semipro hockey in his younger days in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, before swapping his goalie’s mask for the mullet he wears in “Rock of Ages.”

If Shunock is not vying to sing the first national anthem at what would be the Las Vegas team’s home opener, he should be.

And on the topic of vying, KLUC 98.5-FM “Morning Zoo” personality Chet Buchanan served as MC of Tuesday’s event. After a particularly energized introduction of Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority chief Rossi Rallenkotter, Buchanan said, “I’m auditioning to be the team’s PA announcer. Can you tell?”

Classic. Chet is one funny — and qualified — individual.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.