Goodman: No team, no arena

Erin Neff

Thursday, Sept. 30, 1999 | 11:17 a.m.

This week's meeting in New York with professional sports executives made one thing very clear to Mayor Oscar Goodman -- there will be no arena if Las Vegas can't land a team.

And the news from National Basketball Association and National Hockey League commissioners Tuesday turned cautious optimism into a very guarded outlook for Goodman and a local delegation who went to the Big Apple.

"I'm out of the project if somebody wants to build an arena based on what happened back in New York yesterday," Goodman said Wednesday on Point of View Vegas, the Las Vegas Sun's nightly half-hour news magazine show.

"Forget it," he added. "I mean that would be absurd. That would be ridiculous to (financially) expose even a private entrepreneur.

"We have a long way to go," Goodman said. "We have to have a team first."

Goodman, Clark County Commission Chairman Bruce Woodbury, City Councilman Gary Reese, City Manager Virginia Valentine and County Manager Dale Askew met with the commissioners of the NBA and NHL in New York on Tuesday.

NBA boss David Stern told them that historically his league had a strict anti-betting philosophy. In fact, the league signed a contract with its two Canadian franchises that would force the team to move if the province in which they played enacted any form of gambling, including a lottery.

"I had the sense that there wasn't going to be a problem (with gambling)," Goodman said. "I went back a little too confident, too cocky because of what I had been told."

Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn had previously told Goodman that Stern saw no problem with a team in Las Vegas. The news Tuesday put longer odds on a chance for a professional basketball team.

Goodman said his staff is contacting race and sports book directors around town to determine whether any type of compromise could be made regarding a Las Vegas-based hockey team, and how significant an impact taking all pro hoops off the books would have.

Even if the gambling issue can be resolved, there's still the matter of courting existing NHL or NBA franchise, since the leagues have no plans for expansion.

Goodman said the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs -- which have threatened to leave Texas if a new arena isn't built -- would be a "dream franchise" to get. If a team moves here, Goodman said it could play in the Thomas and Mack Center until an arena is built.

Stern told the mayor he would "put up a trial balloon" at the Oct. 28 NBA owners' meeting to find out what they really think about Las Vegas.

"I may be obnoxious enough to call the commissioner and say, 'Why don't you have Oscar come back?' " Goodman joked.

Goodman also seemed to find humor in the media feeding frenzy over possible Metro deconsolidation that has swept City Hall's 10th floor.

"I think it's the greatest, myself," Goodman said on POV. "I think it's humorous."

He said he can't understand the swell of media attention, Metro's defensive stance and the residents' concerns over a report he has never seen.

"There's nothing on paper that I've been shown," Goodman reiterated.

Goodman also said he couldn't make any sense out of the rally Metro's officers held Tuesday night.

When POV host Mark Shaffer said Metro's own study of a deconsolidated police force found no cost savings, Goodman said, "If that's true, then why are they having rallies?"

In related deconsolidation news, Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald has posted an open letter to residents about the issue on the city's Internet website.

She pledged support for Sheriff Jerry Keller and his area commanders, adding, "Therefore, to suggest that I have already made up my mind or that my vote has already been secured by those in favor of a Metro split is simply inaccurate. But as a Las Vegas Councilwoman, it would be equally inappropriate for me not to ask challenging questions or to give scrutiny to agencies that serve our citizens."

The city's website is at http://www.ci.las-vegas.nv.us. The full text of her comments is found by clicking council, then Boggs McDonald, then news.