Goodman woos new NBA team

Diana Sahagun

Friday, May 19, 2000 | 11:15 a.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman continues to focus his efforts on "scoring" a professional sports team for the city.

At his weekly press conference Thursday, Goodman said he met with a National Basketball Association team owner last week who may be interested in relocating a team to Las Vegas.

Goodman said in order to prosper as a major metropolitan city, Las Vegas must lure a sports team.

"We need a major league team here. We have to have that kind of presence," he said.

Goodman would not identify the NBA owner but said it was a different owner than the unidentified owner he was scheduled to meet with in February.

Talks with the NBA owner in February were put on hold when Goodman said he needed more information before the two discussed specifics about arena sites, costs, competition and betting.

But he seemed optimistic about last week's meeting.

"I told them we would have to get the land, a plan for gaming, and we are working diligently on that," Goodman said. "My office is in the process of putting something together in black and white."

Goodman has received numerous calls from entrepreneurs interested in owning a professional basketball franchise since talk began last summer of building a sports arena and performing arts center downtown.

But the gaming issue has become a sticking point because the NBA has been the most skittish pro sports league when it comes to gaming.

Sports books statewide have had a lukewarm response to Goodman's attempts to bring the NBA to Las Vegas. Many fear the league will require a betting ban on all pro basketball games, not just games involving a Nevada team.

Goodman will also meet with representatives from the Los Angeles Dodgers Friday in hopes of selling the city as the premier spring training site for Major League Baseball.

If the Dodgers could be lured to Las Vegas for training, Goodman said, the city hopefully will build a new stadium for the Las Vegas Stars and "hopefully by 2007 Las Vegas will be the first choice for spring training. I think we're a major-league city."

He added that a major sports team would draw tourism independent of everything else the city has to offer.

"We're ready for it," he said. "Not to have it is a black mark on us."

In other news, the mayor said he remains confident that the recent delivery of a $9.6 million check to the city by Prudential will soon net an anchor tenant for the struggling Neonopolis entertainment complex downtown.

"I'm relieved we have the money in our account," Goodman said Thursday, just two days after the check was delivered.

This week Neonopolis developers wired the money to the city's account after weeks of a tug-of-war with the check that was guaranteed to the city as soon as an engineer certified that an underground parking garage built by the city was completed -- by March 22.

Goodman said he was heartened by the move, adding that hopefully the project will begin by July 15, when the notice of completion for the architect is due.

"If they had not complied, the only alternative would have been to call upon their letter of credit," which would have led to litigation, he said. "They've shown they're seriously committed to the project."

Goodman remains tight-lipped about the anchor tenant being eyed for the project, saying he promised Prudential's leasing agent, Joyce Storm, that he would not disclose the information until there is a written contract.

But he said he has been told that Prudential is in the process of drafting a lease with the unidentified company.

Eastman Kodak Co. of Rochester, N.Y., is reportedly interested in working with a theater company to test some of its state-of-the-art digital firm technology. But Kodak can't do anything until a theater tenant is signed.