Friday, Oct. 29, 1999 | 10:53 a.m.
Plans for a downtown sports arena may be riding on today's expected news from the National Basketball Association, but the odds seem more favorable to lure a pro sports team from Canada.
The National Hockey League's Ottawa Senators have requested a tax break from Ontario Province that has left them literally skating on thin ice and considering a move to one of several U.S. cities, including Las Vegas.
Senators owner Roderick M. Bryden threatened the Ontario government with moving his team south if a deal can't be reached to create a special property tax that would put private and municipal stadiums in the same class.
"Apparently the Ottawa Senators are looking for a new home," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said Thursday at his weekly press conference.
But Goodman's admitted infatuation with pro basketball has narrowed his vision to a size akin to the goalie's five hole -- an opening through which only the most adept forwards can score a goal. Goodman hopes that a two-day meeting ending today among owners of NBA teams will produce news that Las Vegas has the potential to become home to a team.
When the mayor led a delegation to New York last month to meet with NBA Commissioner David Stern and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, he was greeted with higher hope from hockey than from hoops.
Bettman told the delegation of local leaders that a hockey-only arena could survive without doubling as a home facility for basketball.
Some members of the ad hoc arena and performing arts committee, including Polo Towers President Stephen Cloobeck, would like Las Vegas to court a hockey team and have them play in the Thomas & Mack Center until a state-of-the-art arena can be built.
But several groups elsewhere in the United States have already made verbal offers to buy the Ottawa Senators for between $122 million and $130 million, according to the Canadian Press (CP) wire service.
Investors in Oklahoma City, Portland, Ore., and Houston have already expressed a desire for the team. But a report Goodman received said Seattle or Las Vegas could also provide a future home for the team.
Bryden said he is not presently discussing moving the team, but he will entertain offers if government negotiations about the tax break fail.
"When this issue first gained public notice early this year, there were a number of unsolicited inquiries to which we provided no substantive response," Bryden said in a statement. "I have not had discussions with any potential buyer to move the team from Ottawa."
Bettman has thus fielded the offers and has told would-be investors he expects the Senators to be up for sale by Christmas, the CP reported.
Ontario Premier Mike Harris on Wednesday announced he would consider creating the special property tax class for sports arenas. But the provincial and federal governments are still disputing use of lottery money to help bail out teams.
Canadian media is so concerned about the potential move of the Senators, one columnist dubbed last night's Hockey Night in Canada's game between the Senators and the Calgary Flames as potentially the last time the two could meet in Ottawa. The Flames won the game in overtime 4-3.
"You don't want to even think about it, but the reality is, this could be the last Calgary-Ottawa game in this city," Senators defenseman Chris Phillips told columnist Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun.
Canadian teams in Calgary, Ottawa and Edmonton all face uncertain futures -- in part because of higher Canadian taxes coupled with a weaker Canadian dollar. Both factors make many players seek American teams, which offer higher salaries. Those better offers often lead to stalled contract talks and hold-outs when players negotiate with Canadian teams.
Ottawa center Alexei Yashin, a 100-point scorer who has helped the Senators to recent league success, is still holding out for a new contract weeks into the season.
Ottawa ranks 23rd out of 28 teams in the NHL with a payroll of $21.7 million. Calgary is 24th with a payroll of $21.6 million, according to the league.
The New York Rangers lead the league with a $58.8 million payroll.
Before any team can move to Las Vegas, the arena study committee has a host of questions that have to be sorted out. Financing and design of the arena are as critical as questions of sports betting and competition from existing Las Vegas arenas like Thomas & Mack, the Mandalay Bay Events Center and the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
That committee will next meet Nov. 23, giving it plenty of time to digest whatever news Goodman hears today from the NBA's Stern about whether team owners have a problem with a team based in Vegas in light of the gaming industry.
Bettman has already told Goodman his league wouldn't have major concerns with sports betting, but would likely require a UNLV-type rule in which no bets could ever be accepted on the Las Vegas-based team.
The NBA had previously suggested removing all pro basketball games from the board -- a move casinos statewide would likely reject.
Although the NHL's Flames, Edmonton Oilers and New York Islanders may soon all be ready to move, the Senators have the most direct ties to Vegas.
Several Senators spent time playing for the International Hockey League's Las Vegas Thunder. Yashin played for half a year in Las Vegas during his first holdout several years ago.
Radek Bonk, now 23, was drafted third overall in the 1994 draft but had to start his career with the Thunder, because at age 17 he was too young to enter the NHL.
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