Columnist Jeff German: Las Vegas trying to show NFL the love

Friday, Dec. 17, 2004 | 4:44 a.m.

Jeff German's column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.

WEEKEND EDITION

December 18 - 19, 2004

There are a lot of things that don't mix in this world -- al-Qaida and Western civilization, Hollywood and the religious right and, yes, Las Vegas and the National Football League.

When I asked NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy the other day to assess the relationship between Las Vegas and pro football, he responded, "What relationship? We don't have a relationship."

In a few words McCarthy summed up the dilemma facing this city and its gambling and tourism industries.

We are craving for a relationship with the NFL, but constantly find ourselves being shunned like an unrequited lover.

We need pro football to fill up our sports books every fall and winter. We need the Super Bowl to fill our hotel rooms for one magical (and lucrative) weekend. And lately we've decided that we need our own NFL team to help us market the city.

But the NFL keeps turning its back on us, afraid to be associated with gambling's tainted image.

It won't let us advertise during the Super Bowl on the network televising the game. It says we violate its Super Bowl broadcast rights when we host huge parties with large-screen televisions in casino ballrooms.

And it can't stand the thought of giving us our own franchise as long as betting on NFL games remains one of our economic staples.

So every year at this time, in anticipation of the Super Bowl, we are reminded of the relationship we don't have with the NFL.

The last couple of years we've acted like a spurned lover.

In 2003 the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority attracted national attention when it criticized the NFL's refusal to air its ads during the Super Bowl. It was a planned attack. The LVCVA was told weeks earlier that the NFL wasn't going to allow the ads to run, and the agency decided to wait to make noise about it until just prior to the game. The LVCVA then rode the wave of publicity and launched its edgy "Vegas Stories" campaign.

In January the LVCVA needled the NFL again. It produced a television spot suggesting football fans would have more fun watching the Super Bowl in Las Vegas than in the host city of Houston. Then it went around the host network, CBS, and bought air time during the game directly from CBS affiliates around the country.

The NFL responded by clamping down on the lavish Super Bowl parties some Strip casinos were hosting.

This year we're back to wooing the NFL with love.

The casinos now understand that the NFL has the ability to stop them from infringing on the Super Bowl's broadcast rights. They seem prepared to tone down the partying.

The city's No. 1 NFL basher, Mayor Oscar Goodman, also has offered an olive branch to the league, hoping it will one day open a dialogue to land a team here.

Even the LVCVA is taking a gentler marketing approach.

Ad man Billy Vassiliadis says he's been negotiating with this year's network host, Fox, to buy air time before and after the Super Bowl. There are no plans to run ads during the game through Fox affiliates.

"Everything's been very positive," Vassiliadis says.

But one big happy family we're not, and it's going to take loving from both sides to make us one -- which, believe it or not, isn't out of the realm of possibility.

Here's a little secret the NFL doesn't want you to know.

The NFL needs gambling just as much as gambling needs the NFL. The tens of billions of dollars wagered illegally on football games across the country each year is proof of that.

Without gambling, pro football simply wouldn't be as popular as it is today.

Just visit NFL.com and look at the emphasis the NFL places on fantasy football, maybe the fastest-growing form of gambling in the country.

The more gambling proliferates, the more likely the archaic barriers the NFL has thrown up against it will come down.

It's just a matter of time before the love Las Vegas feels for the NFL is reciprocated.