Monday, April 23, 2007 | 7:37 a.m.
Because the Seattle SuperSonics couldn't cut a deal to extend their lease at Key Arena last week, Las Vegas is back in business with the NBA.
Of course, it's possible this sudden about face by The Association, as the hipsters at ESPN like to call it, is more complicated than that. But I doubt it.
Last week, as he was packing his bags for New York to be lied to by NBA commissioner David Stern some more, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman was told not to bother. The Commish told Hizzoner he was no longer interested in minting a bobblehead doll featuring the mayor's likeness and NBA logo because the mayor was not successful in talking local bookies into taking the NBA, or at least games involving the proposed Las Vegas Oscars, off the betting board.
The local news media reacted swiftly in sounding the death knell for the Oscars. Quasimodo should have rung the bells at Notre Dame Cathedral with such gusto.
But, on the bright side, at least all bets were literally on.
Now, if you believe the rhetoric coming out of Stern's office in New York, all figurative bets are still on, too. Apparently he's back to letting his owners determine Las Vegas' viability as a late-night strip club shooting gallery - er, NBA city. He said he will appoint a committee of his henchmen to further study Las Vegas as a potential final resting place for the Sacramento Kings.
Wonderful. Wake me up when these boys stop crying Timberwolves, will ya'?
This is crazy. All this talk about betting on the NBA is more ludicrous than referee Joey Crawford challenging Tim Duncan to a fistfight.
Las Vegas' fate as an NBA city hinges on one thing and one thing only, and that's putting a shovel into the desert floor to break ground on a new arena.
If and when that happens the "if" is currently minus-1200 on the big board because if the mayor really had five or 10 or 15 legitimate proposals for a new arena, it would certainly enhance his credibility by leaking one or two to the press - then somebody's gonna have to decide who runs it.
But as daft as this sounds, perhaps instead of building an arena for Ray Allen and his pals, we should build one for Rodrigo Pessoa and his.
"Who's Rodrigo Pessoa?" you may ask. Well, he can't shoot the "J" like Jesus Shuttlesworth, Allen's alter ego in "He Got Game." But the Brazilian can clear the fences like Barry Bonds. Only he does it on a horse. Pessoa was one of the featured performers at this weekend's Rolex FEI World Cup show jumping and dressage finals which attracted sold-out crowds to the Thomas & Mack Center.
That's right, Wilbur. Sold-out crowds. To watch horses prance around and jump over fences.
"In four days, we'll do 85,000-plus people," said Daren Libonati, who runs the T&M for UNLV and is the man primarily responsible for paying off the football team's massive debt. "How many games would it take to do that in the NBA, especially if the team was losing?"
That's why Libonati, one of the few guys in this town who knows a little something about the arena business, says if and when we build one, it should be for special events such as world class horse jumping.
To be more specific, he says we should build it for the fans of these special events, which, in this case, come from all corners of the world to drop some serious American dollars in our casinos, hotels and restaurants. Not to mention the local grain and feed shops.
With an NBA team, it's different. OK, so Rashed Wallace would continue to frequent the grain and feed shops. But even if we had an NBA team and it was winning and filling the arena, most of those buying $80 tickets and standing in line for $7 beers would live here.
Despite the mayor's crazy claim about tourists flocking to town to support an NBA team, Libonati's best guess is that no more than 1,500 would flee that "major league city" (to use the mayor's favorite term) known as Cleveland, or wander away from the "21" tables long enough to watch LeBron James hoop it up here.
And that's being generous, when you consider 1,500 spectators constitutes about seven charter flights booked with nothing but pro basketball fans.
Let me put it another way: If you have a good job and actually can afford to take the wife and kids to an NBA game, how many are going to stop to play baccarat or do some fine dining on the way out?
"With special events, you don't worry about (the arena tenant) winning and losing to fulfill and gratify your customers," Libonati says.
It's certainly something to think about as that NBA committee Stern spoke of gets ready to make yet another series of fact-finding missions to our sometimes fair city.
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