Goodman: Arena depends on NBA chief

Erin Neff

Friday, Sept. 17, 1999 | 11:37 a.m.

Before Las Vegas can even get to the over-used line from "Field of Dreams" regarding its possible downtown sports arena, Mayor Oscar Goodman wants one man's OK.

Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn and Gov. Kenny Guinn are important, he says, but Las Vegas can forget about an arena if NBA Commissioner David Stern says no to a team.

"You know if David Stern says thumbs down, that's it," Goodman said Thursday during his weekly City Hall press conference. "If he says thumbs up, we'll go for it."

San Diego Padres Chairman John Moores will fly Goodman and a local delegation to New York in a private plane on Sept. 27 to meet with both Stern and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman the following day.

Goodman and Moores will be joined by Clark County Commission Chairman Bruce Woodbury, County Manager Dale Askew, Las Vegas City Councilman Gary Reese and City Manager Virginia Valentine.

"We're either going to be hit over the head or we'll be flying high," Goodman said.

Although both Moores and Wynn have previously been granted assurances from Stern that he saw no inherent problem with a Las Vegas franchise, Goodman said he wants to "look him in the eye and have him tell me myself."

The National Football League seems the most strict of professional sports leagues when it comes to gambling. But professional basketball has already proven more at ease with the issue by allowing the Maloof family to own the Sacramento Kings. The Maloofs own the Fiesta hotel-casino in North Las Vegas.

But nobody has asked Stern and Bettman about their feelings toward sports books and whether lines could be offered to bettors on a Las Vegas-based team.

"It's a very serious issue," Goodman said. "The sports books I've talked with do not want to lose the opportunity to book an NBA game.

"My feeling is that the books should be able to accept bets on the team because anybody who's honest will have to admit that if the books, which are highly regulated and controlled, don't accept the bets, there will be plenty of other people willing to take the bet," he added. The ad hoc committee studying the feasibility of a sports arena and performing arts center will also have to wait for the answers to such fundamental questions before undertaking specific project planning work.

"The first level of information needs to be whether we can move forward at all," Woodbury said during Thursday's committee meeting at the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.

Even as private sector and public officials struggle with the daunting task of assessing an arena's feasibility, Moores is "seriously" interested in developing an arena or owning a team here, Goodman said.

But he is not alone in wondering if the movie line, "If you build it, they will come," is really true.

Several other unidentified players have surfaced in recent weeks with inquiries about the possible site and team ownership.

Great American Capital approached the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on Thursday about its interest in the downtown site for a planned arena project.

Great American's Noam Schwartz had planned a media center, 10,000-seat arena and movie lot development in Henderson and is now looking to see whether his company's plans fit in with the goal of the arena committee, according to Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President Manny Cortez.

Goodman said he has been talking with interested parties, but has also been listening to others for help.

During last weekend's NHL exhibition game at the MGM Garden Grand Arena, Goodman sat with Los Angeles Kings owner Ed Roski to "pick his brain."

Roski and his team will be one of three professional teams moving into the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles this coming season. The Kings and the NBA's Clippers and Lakers will all play home games there.

Although Las Vegas can certainly learn lessons from the naming rights deal at the Staples Center and the financing breakthroughs and heartbreaks around the country, Stern's blessing must come first.

"We'll know then whether it's a real project or smoke," Goodman said.