Vegas to bid on ‘07 game

Dan Kulin

Friday, April 15, 2005 | 10:54 a.m.

Las Vegas may be home court for the 2007 NBA All-Star Game.

NBA representatives were in Las Vegas Thursday checking out possible venues for the 2007 All-Star week events and game, which the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is expected to bid for, Rossi Ralenkotter, president and chief executive officer of the LVCVA, said Thursday.

"This is one of the most exciting events in sports," Ralenkotter said. "And with the national and international coverage and attention it brings we're very excited about the possibilities."

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who is also chairman of the LVCVA, said, "I'm very hopeful that it will take place."

"It would be wonderful for Las Vegas, probably the greatest," he said.

Ralenkotter said the NBA, LVCVA officials, and the Maloof family have been involved with "discussions going back and forth for the last few weeks."

The Maloofs own the Palms casino and the NBA's Sacramento Kings.

NBA spokesman Tim Frank said the league is looking at other cities too, but would not name them.

Frank said for the game to come to Las Vegas, the casinos would have to take the game off their sports books.

George Maloof said he has spoken with a majority of the local casino operators and they have all said they would be willing to give up taking bets on the All-Star Game if it came to Las Vegas. Because of the Maloof's ownership of the Kings, the Palms does not take bets on any NBA games.

Goodman said, "I spoke to all the big casino owners and they are excited about it coming here and there was no hesitancy on their part to take the game off the books."

Maloof said his brothers came to him a few weeks ago with the idea of Las Vegas hosting the game.

"It's a great event and would be great for our community," Maloof said. "The All-Star week, there's nothing like it."

The game would be played at UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center. Other All-Star week activities could be at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Mandalay Bay Convention Center, and/or the Sands Expo Center, Ralenkotter said. NBA officials visited all of those sites on Thursday, he said.

Las Vegas and the NBA are not total strangers. The city has been the scene of preseason games for several years and in 1992 when the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles forced a move, the Portland Trail Blazers came to Las Vegas to finish off a first-round elimination of the Lakers. And on April 5, 1984, Las Vegas witnessed one of the most historic NBA events when Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar launched a hook shot against the Utah Jazz in a game at the Thomas & Mack Center. It gave Abdul-Jabbar the all-time NBA scoring record.

Ralenkotter said hosting the All-Star Game would come at a price, but said it was too soon to say how much the LVCVA might offer for the game. The LVCVA board would ultimately have to approve any agreement, he said.

"We're very excited about the possibility of what we feel we could put together," he said.

Ralenkotter said the NBA has not given them a time frame for turning in a proposal or a possible decision on where the game will be held.

Ralenkotter said he did not know what other cities are vying for the 2007 game. The 2006 All-Star Game will be in Houston. Typically the NBA's All-Star Game is in cities that have a team.