Columnist Dean Juipe: City needs to stop and chart course

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Dec. 7, 1999 | 10:40 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

The afternoon paper with its breaking story about Las Vegas being a potential suitor for the Ottawa Senators wasn't even off the presses and a colleague was calling from Portland.

"Don't get too excited," he said. "If the Senators move anywhere, it'll be to Portland."

He then offered a list of specifics as to why Portland -- and not Las Vegas, or Houston or Cleveland -- would snag the Senators if the National Hockey League team decides to relocate next year.

Portland certainly has the credentials and the inside track toward landing a wayward or expansion hockey franchise, for two very good reasons. For starters, the team's likely owner -- Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen -- has electronic connections the NHL is dying to develop and become part of, plus he's a hockey fan who just missed acquiring the Pittsburgh Penguins through bankruptcy court last summer. And, the dagger in the heart as far as Las Vegas is concerned is the fact Portland already has an arena -- the Rose Garden -- up and in place and it was built with hockey sightlines in mind.

It's as simple as this: Portland is ready and Las Vegas is not.

This is significant for any number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact Las Vegas -- with mayor Oscar Goodman leading the bandwagon -- has, in rather short order, tried to position itself as a candidate for an NHL or National Basketball Association team even though the city is not yet equipped for a major league franchise.

This is all premature and perhaps counterproductive.

Las Vegas needs to prioritize its needs as they relate to sports and answer the serious questions of financing arena construction and restricting sports gaming before allowing itself to be used as a pawn or a bargaining chip by teams like the Senators.

What we have now is a whirlwind of possibilities, a rumor mill running amok. The Senators-to-Las Vegas report will be just one of many unlikely -- if not illogical -- missives that will surface until Las Vegas actually takes inventory and charts a course.

As orchestrator of this concerto, Goodman could put the brakes on any additional franchise-shuffling talks and allow Las Vegas' civic and business leaders time to come to grips with the substantial stumbling blocks.

An arena figures to be built at some point but a determination needs to be made on this chicken-or-the-egg question: Does the city build it first and wait for a team, or wait for a commitment from a team before constructing the building? Simple as that is, it needs to be resolved.

Likewise, while Goodman has solicited opinions from various casino moguls regarding sports gaming, he needs a definitive ruling. And there's no doubt that ruling will reflect the obvious: The city's sports books will accept a "UNLV rule" on banning wagering on a local team, but they will not -- under any conditions -- refuse to take action on a given sport as a concession for acquiring a team.

If that translates to Las Vegas being prohibited from adding an NBA team, so be it. But let's get it cleared up so everyone knows where we stand.

It's time to stop and settle these issues. The speculative rumors that prove to be unfounded are not only misleading, they portray Las Vegas as a beggar by the side of the road.