Goodman leaves N.Y. meetings with optimism

Steve Carp

Wednesday, Sept. 29, 1999 | 11:26 a.m.

NEW YORK -- Across the street from the National Basketball Association's offices on 5th Avenue is the league's store, which caters to the every whim of any NBA fan.

At the moment, there's no "Las Vegas" team gear at the NBA Store. But given what took place Tuesday, the possibility exists that someday there will be an opportunity to purchase such items.

It is the dream of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman to one day make such a purchase at the NBA Store. And after meeting with Commissioner David Stern, Goodman believes that his dream will one day take place, though not in the immediate future.

Goodman, heading a group that included San Diego billionaire John Moores, Clark County Commission Chairman Bruce Woodbury, Las Vegas City Councilman Gary Reese, City Manager Virginia Valentine and County Manager Dale Askew, met with Stern for 85 minutes. The commissioner told Goodman that the NBA sees the city as a viable market provided it can deal with the matter of accepting wagers on the league.

Without some major changes in the sports books, Stern said it would be hard to put a team in Las Vegas.

"The NBA has no problem with gaming," Stern said of the casino industry. "So that's not an issue. The NBA has an issue with betting on NBA games. That has been a historical concern."

But other than the betting on league contests, Stern had no problem with Las Vegas, be it the size of its market, the potential for a state-of-the-art arena downtown or its proximity.

"We informed the mayor that Las Vegas is a fine city," Stern said. "Las Vegas is a dynamic city, and there's nothing wrong with Las Vegas as a destination city for the NBA." And that pleased Goodman.

"We hoped to move forward, and we took a giant step forward," Goodman said. "We're certainly in the hunt, and I think it was a 100 percent success."

The Las Vegas contingent had met earlier in the day with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and Goodman came away from that meeting with positive vibes as well. However, he was quick to point out that the dynamics of the two leagues are different, and each league has issues to address.

The NHL's stance on gambling was vastly different than the NBA's. Bettman would be agreeable to having no betting on a Las Vegas team while permitting sports books to take action on other NHL games.

Stern is diametrically opposed to any betting on NBA games. He said while he understands the growth of gaming across the country, he pointed out there's a major difference between playing a slot machine and allowing bets on a Lakers-Celtics game.

"I myself am comfortable with the NBA's historical stance on this issue," he said when asked if there was room for compromise on the matter. "But I am only one person. I have not discussed any of this with the Board of Governors, so I have no idea what their thoughts are on this matter."

Goodman said the next step from his end is to sound out those in the gaming industry and ascertain what the economic impact betting on NBA games has and what would happen if the sports books stopped taking bets on the league.

"We need to get a sense of things with our constituents and the commissioner needs to get a sense of things with his owners," Goodman said. Both said the lines of communication will remain open, and the two plan to talk after the NBA owners meet Oct. 28.

"There will be future discussions," he said. "We go home with optimism."

Goodman also goes home with time on his side. The NBA has no plans to expand in the immediate future. The NHL is going through an expansion phase that will add a team in each of the next two years.

Stern and Bettman also informed Goodman that to their knowledge, no teams are looking to relocate immediately.

"We don't know of any teams that are champing to move to Las Vegas," Stern said. "There's no sense of tilting at windmills that aren't even turning."

Goodman said the time will be used to research the sports betting issue as well as monitor the situations involving individual teams in both the NBA and NHL.

Woodbury said resolving the issues that stand before Las Vegas will take priority over continued talk on an arena.

"We found out that there are some significant obstacles with the gaming issue," Woodbury said. "I think Mayor Goodman and I agree that we're not going to build an arena on an if-come."

Moores, who owns the San Diego Padres and tried to buy the NBA Houston Rockets a few years ago, was an interested observer to Tuesday's proceedings. He said he believes in the viability of Las Vegas as a future pro sports market. But he was quick to add it won't happen overnight.

"It's a huge market, and it's close to my home," he said. "But this is a long journey. This is not going to bear fruit next week, next month or next year. From my standpoint there were absolutely no surprises.

"Nobody should think the NBA is furiously working to have a team in Las Vegas in 2000-01. We didn't have our expectations off the chart. We didn't ask to be put on the board.

"But things can change so this was important to begin some dialogue. And I was impressed with the way the meeting went."

And as Goodman prepared to hop into Moores' limosine for the ride home Tuesday afternoon, the NBA Store just a few feet away, he left the Big Apple feeling good about Las Vegas' future for pro sports.

"It could've died today," he said. "But we're alive and kicking."