Letter: Courting a pro sports team is a waste of time

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 | 7:32 a.m.

Once again Mayor Oscar Goodman is like a racehorse champing at the bit to begin a race, but stumbling and falling before that gate opens.

He is hard at it again, pushing for a major sports team and a new arena to house it without careful thought and a detailed plan of implementation. His love affair with gin seems to be clouding his thinking processes.

My big questions for the mayor: Where is the need for a major league hockey team, or any other major league sports team in Las Vegas? How does he reconcile the desire to build a new sports arena with the fact that the current Thomas & Mack Arena, Sam Boyd Stadium and other private sports venues already in town are seldom filled to capacity and not in full use throughout the year?

In my opinion, either a new public or privately financed and supported sports facility is a wasteful folly in our city, where there are so many other appealing attractions for tourists. Mayor Goodman's dream of being the genius bringing major league sports teams and events to Las Vegas is nothing more than a pipe dream without merit or justification.

His alleged connections with financial sources willing to consider a new arena and an NHL hockey team sound like his other assurances and visions. Remember the plans for a gigantic downtown sports arena near the Spaghetti Bowl or the super world-class medical clinic research center branch of the Mayo Clinic or the Cleveland Clinic?

Virgil A. Sestini, Las Vegas