Mayor pleased with NHL meeting

Steve Carp

Tuesday, Sept. 28, 1999 | 11 a.m.

NEW YORK -- Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman had a smile on his face as he emerged from the 47th-floor offices of the National Hockey League today.

For local sports fans who want to see a major league franchise in the city, that was a good sign.

Goodman, San Diego billionaire John Moores and several Las Vegas and Clark County officials arrived at the NHL headquarters in midtown Manhattan just before 11 a.m. and met with Commissioner Gary Bettman for a little over an hour before heading over to the National Basketball Association's offices a couple of blocks away to huddle with league Commissioner David Stern.

Goodman and Stern were still meeting earlier today.

"It was an excellent meeting," Goodman said of his conversation with Bettman. "I'm delighted this group got to meet with Commissioner Bettman.

"My objective was that Las Vegas is being treated as a first-class city and that was accomplished."

Bettman told Goodman there were three criteria for Las Vegas being an NHL city -- ownership, an arena and the size of the market. With Moores as a potential investor, the support for a downtown arena and the city's growth, he said there didn't appear to be any deterrents to prevent Las Vegas from being considered at some point.

"I have no reason to doubt that Las Vegas can be a viable market," Bettman said. "But as I told Mayor Goodman, at the present time, we have no candidates for relocation, and we're still going through our expansion phase.

"This isn't a 'yes' or a 'no' issue. There are other cities we're talking to -- Portland, Houston and now, Las Vegas. We'll continue to keep the lines of communication open."

For Goodman, that was good enough.

"The door is open," he said. "They're interested, and we're interested and we'll keep talking."

As for the gaming issue as it relates to hockey, both Goodman and Bettman said a compromise is possible where sports books wouldn't take bets on a Las Vegas NHL team.

"It could be treated the way UNLV is in the sports books," Goodman said. "I don't think it would be a problem."

Goodman arrived in New York late Monday night, and he was up early today to do a television interview with Mike Wallace for CBS' news show "60 Minutes." Goodman said his time with Wallace went well, and he was happy.

"I think it's going to be a good piece," he said.

From there, it was on to the NHL and the main purpose of this trip.

"The game plan is the same," he said prior to stepping into Bettman's office. "I want to leave here with a definitive answer on whether or not Las Vegas can have an NHL team."

He remained optimistic that Bettman would be a fan of Las Vegas.

"I hope he says Las Vegas is the greatest place on earth," he said.

Moores, who owns the San Diego Padres and has expressed interest in acquiring other sports franchises, said this is just one step, albeit an important one, in an extensive process.

"This is a very long journey," he said. "We're not going to come out of this with all the issues resolved. It's more of 'Hello, how are you?' "

And now that the pleasantries have been exchanged, the opportunity to one day do business with the NHL, and possibly the NBA, has begun.