Private companies have a history of success in sports and entertainment field

Friday, July 6, 2001 | 11:23 a.m.

The two privately held companies that want to build a new downtown baseball stadium for the Las Vegas 51s are heavy hitters in the field of sports and entertainment.

Local sports enthusiasts ought to be familiar with one of the companies, Mandalay Sports Entertainment of Los Angeles, which owns the 51s and formerly owned the now-defunct Las Vegas Thunder minor league hockey team.

The other company, Southwest Sports Group of Dallas, is new to Las Vegas but has an even bigger presence in the sports world. Owned by Texas media mogul Tom Hicks, Southwest Sports is the holding company for Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League.

Mandalay Sports, formed in 1996, is an affiliate of Mandalay Entertainment, which produces motion pictures and television entertainment. Mandalay Chairman and co-founder Peter Guber, former head of Columbia Pictures, formed Casablanca Records and Polygram Pictures.

Guber's films have earned more than $3 billion and more than 50 Academy Award nominations. His films included "Midnight Express," "The Deep," "Rain Man," "Batman," "The Color Purple," "The Witches of Eastwick," and "Missing."

He was also the subject of a critical book, "Hit and Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood." The book details the film moguls' tenure at Columbia Pictures and their dealings with Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Mandalay co-founder and vice chairman Paul Schaeffer was a former executive with Sony Pictures and an attorney specializing in entertainment law.

In addition to the 51s, the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Mandalay Sports owns the Class A Dayton (Ohio) Dragons, an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, the Shreveport (Louisiana) Swamp Dragons, A Double-A farm club of the San Francisco Giants, and the Lake Elsinore (California) Storm, a Class A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. A co-owner of the Dayton franchise is former Los Angeles Lakers basketball great Earvin "Magic" Johnson.

Mandalay Sports' also has produced videos for World Championship Wrestling and made a television film about former basketball star Dennis Rodman, a frequent visitor to Las Vegas.

Hicks, who purchased the Rangers in 1998 from a group that included President George W. Bush, made a big splash when he signed shortstop Alex Rodriguez to a 10-year, $252 million contract that is the richest in baseball history. Hicks is not likely to go broke, however, since he also owns more than 400 radio stations that reportedly generate $1.5 billion in annual revenue.

Southwest Sports also is involved in developments surrounding The Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, where the Rangers play, and the new American Airlines Center in Dallas, which will be home to the hockey Stars and the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association.