Columnist Jeff German: Is Las Vegas ready to hit a homer?

Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2004 | 11:10 a.m.

Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and .... Las Vegas? Are we ready for this?

I'm willing to bet the majority of Las Vegans are longing to have the kind of good old-fashioned family entertainment that a Major League Baseball team brings to a growing metropolitan area like ours.

We're in the ballpark when it comes to being large enough to handle a big league franchise. Our population of 1.6 million is about the size of the Milwaukee area, which is baseball's smallest market. We have the added benefit, however, of access to 35 million tourists a year.

And although we aren't in a top broadcast market (we rank 51st in the country) and wouldn't be able to provide a major league team with stellar television revenue, we have the financial resources at least to put a team together. We also all know that beyond the glitz of the Strip we are a family town.

But is baseball -- and gambling, the state's chief industry -- ready for big-time sports in Las Vegas?

I'm not convinced the answer to that question is yes, though I like to believe in miracles.

There are encouraging aspects to this latest fledgling attempt to bring a quality professional team to Las Vegas.

Baseball is looking for a new home for the Montreal Expos, and members of the league's relocation committee actually have visited Las Vegas twice in that quest, which means the league may be willing to listen to an offer from us. That is a change in attitude on the part of baseball, which has been reluctant to give Las Vegas a chance to compete for a team in the past because of gambling.

The competition, however, is stiff. Other cities, such as Norfolk, Va., Portland, Ore., San Antonio, Washington, D.C., and even San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Monterrey, Mexico, are in the running for the Expos.

What is also heartening about the Las Vegas effort this time is that a respected casino company, Caesars Entertainment Inc., is spearheading the move. In the past the casino industry has feared that a professional sports team would compete with gaming for tourist dollars and hasn't supported the idea.

But gaming has a broader approach to business today. It has figured out that there also are profits in giving tourists access to world-class shopping, dining and entertainment. Baseball is a logical extension of that strategy.

Caesars and its partners are willing to build a stadium on available land in back of Paris, which is owned by the gaming company. Assuming traffic and other environmental concerns can be worked out, that would put the stadium on the Strip and give it easy access to tourists as well as locals. Like everything else on the Strip, it would be a recipe for financial success.

Before that can happen, however, gaming may have to show baseball that it's willing to disallow betting on baseball or at least on games involving the Las Vegas team. A reluctance by the gaming industry to give up betting on professional sports has generally been a deal-breaker.

Baseball is not a big breadwinner for the sports books, so letting it go would be a small price to pay for the greater good of the community.

Beyond that the industry would have to overcome the perception among many who run professional sports that gambling is a bad thing. The NFL, for example, still won't allow Las Vegas to advertise during the Super Bowl.

One way to chip away at that perception is to go back to marketing Las Vegas as something more than Sin City.

Let's face it. Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and sin don't mix unless you're name is Pete Rose and you're selling a book.

Still, I can't help but feel excited about this latest bid for a professional franchise, however stacked the deck is against us. It's a chance for Las Vegas to be accepted as one of the nation's dynamic metropolitan areas, far beyond anything Bugsy Siegel could have imagined.

It's a chance to prove to the country that we're a major league city.