Goodman warms up to pitch city to owners

Dan Kulin

Friday, Dec. 10, 2004 | 10:08 a.m.

While this weekend's Major League Baseball meetings in Anaheim, Calif., will probably be dominated by talk of steroids and big player moves, Las Vegas' mayor hopes to grab some attention Saturday, as he works to fulfill his guarantee to make Las Vegas a major-league city.

As of Thursday afternoon, plans were in the works to have Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman -- flanked by Elvis and showgirls -- give a news conference at 3 p.m. Saturday at the baseball meetings, said City Councilman Larry Brown, who is also attending the meetings.

Then Saturday night, sans Elvis and the showgirls, Goodman said he expects to meet with representatives from the Major League Baseball commissioner's office, and speak with officials from major league teams.

After a visit from Florida Marlins officials Wednesday, Goodman's office was contacted by ownership representatives from two other Major League Baseball teams. They wanted to make sure he will be at the weekend meetings, the mayor said. He refused to identify those teams.

The weekend trip comes after Goodman, Brown and Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President Rossi Ralenkotter met with Marlins vice chairman Joel Mael and Marlins vice president of communications and broadcasting P.J. Loyello Wednesday. Goodman, Brown and Ralenkotter said they did not discuss the Marlins moving to Las Vegas, but did talk about potential stadium locations, the Las Vegas media market, and how tourists might affect attendance of a Las Vegas team.

Meanwhile, the city is developing a request for proposals to hire what Goodman described as an expert who will help Las Vegas officials understand what it will take to bring a major-league team here, and what the city could expect from a baseball franchise.

Brown said the city is looking for someone to "help us analyze/answer the question: What does the city have to do and what can we expect?"

Brown said bringing a team to Las Vegas will take some public funding -- but he said that would probably not come from a direct payment from the city, and instead through something like an increase in the car rental tax.

The Marlins representatives told the city leaders Wednesday that Las Vegas would need a plan to build and pay for a baseball stadium to attract a baseball team. The Marlins meeting came about after Las Vegas 51s general manager Don Logan told Brown, who is also the community relations manager for the 51s, that Marlins representatives were coming to Las Vegas. Brown then arranged the meeting.

Bringing a major league team to Las Vegas has grown increasingly acceptable with the apparent serious consideration a private group received for its proposal to bring the Montreal Expos to Las Vegas. That group ultimately lost out to Washington, D.C.

Las Vegas' case for a major league team also was bolstered by an article in Sports Illustrated, which says Las Vegas will have an NBA or Major League Baseball team within 10 years.

"If nothing else the article and meeting (with the Marlins officials) have accelerated interest in Las Vegas," Brown said.

During his Thursday news conference, Goodman reiterated his position that for the city to be involved in bringing a team to Las Vegas, the baseball stadium would have to be downtown. He said that in addition to the vacant city-owned 61 acres that was the former Union Pacific rail yards, a stadium could also fit on vacant property next to the 61 acres, or at Cashman Field, now the home field for the minor-league 51s.

Goodman said he also received a phone call Wednesday from an investor from New York City who wanted to talk about moving a hockey team to Las Vegas.

"But I told him I have baseball on my mind," the mayor said.

Goodman also said that if sports betting is legalized in Atlantic City, then Las Vegas would have an NBA team in two to three years. Goodman said that would happen because league officials' comments that they don't want a team so close to legalized sports betting would essentially become moot, as Atlantic City is so close to the home courts of Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey NBA teams.

The mayor has said he expects to have an NBA or Major league Baseball team in Las Vegas by the time he leaves the mayor's office, which could be 2007, or 2011 if he is re-elected.

On Thursday Goodman said: "We're going to have a team here. I guarantee it."