Goodman: All-Star festivities ‘a giant step’ for Vegas

Friday, Aug. 5, 2005 | 11:01 a.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said today's announcement of Las Vegas being the site of the 2007 National Basketball Association All-Star festivities is "a giant step" toward Las Vegas getting a major professional sports franchise.

However, Goodman said he would not support a change in laws or policies that would take every game of a particular sport off the betting boards of licensed Las Vegas sports books as a condition of getting a pro sports team.

Goodman, at his weekly news conference Thursday, said, however, he would be willing to support a change that would prohibit betting in legal books on a Las Vegas-based team. He called that a "reasonable compromise."

The announcement about the 2007 All-Star Game was to have been made by the NBA this morning at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The game will be played at the 22-year-old Thomas and Mack Center on Feb. 18, a Sunday.

It would be preceded by a week of activities that include the five-day NBA Jam Session, featuring a slamdunk contest, three-point shootout and autograph signing by the game's best players.

Also, Goodman said, NBA players would visit local schools to talk to and meet with students -- a major plus, he said, for having the game here.

Gaming regulators have approved banning wagering on the game, which traditionally does not generate much betting action because it is an exhibition.

Getting the NBA All-Star Game is "a giant step toward accomplishing my dream," Goodman said Thursday, noting that dream is not just for a pro basketball team, but also for a Major League Baseball squad, a National Football League franchise or a National Hockey League team.

Goodman noted that Major League Baseball's decision to hold its 2008 winter meeting here also may be another sign that big league sports may be looking beyond Las Vegas' legalized gambling for future events.

Goodman said that Las Vegas' securing of the 2007 NBA All-Star Game also should not be interpreted as NBA Commissioner David Stern softening his stance against putting an NBA team in a city that has licensed sports books.

Goodman said that while he believes Stern has "no problem with" legalized gambling, he is nevertheless "enforcing the NBA's historical perspective" to not allow a team to be based in a city that has legalized sports betting.

Goodman said he hopes that Stern being in town during the week of the All-Star festivities "will soften" him on that issue.

"He is a reasonable man ... and reasonable men can work things out," Goodman, an attorney who gained fame representing purported underworld figures, said, paraphrasing a line from the film "The Godfather."

Goodman said the exposure Las Vegas will receive worldwide from the All-Star Game would be tremendous, noting that when the Houston Rockets' Yao Ming appeared in an All-Star Game, an estimated 2 billion Chinese watched the game on TV. Goodman said China is a market Las Vegas wants to tap.

The 2007 game will be broadcast on the TNT cable network in 212 countries in 41 languages.

"Las Vegas is a superstar ... the whole world is looking at Las Vegas," Goodman said.