Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Motley Crue frontman hoping to pack the arena again — for football

Vince Neil-Las Vegas Outlaws

Steve Marcus

Motley Crue singer Vince Neil at Tatuado Eat Drink Party, his restaurant in Circus Circus, on Monday, Sept. 15, 2014. Neil is bringing an Arena Football League team to Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Outlaws begin play March 2015.

The debauchery of a Mötley Crüe tour always was toned down Sunday afternoons.

For years on fall and winter weekends, Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil has shelved his infamous wild side to indulge in shouting at something other than the devil — the television.

“I’m the only guy watching football on Sundays in the bus,” Neil said. “The rest of the guys have no interest in sports. They’ll spend their days in the hotel, but I’ll be on the tour bus.”

Neil’s unlikely love affair with football has led to a surprising new vocation as he winds down the Crüe’s final tour over the next year. He’s bringing professional football back to Las Vegas as the owner of an expansion franchise in the Arena Football League.

The Las Vegas Outlaws debut next March, with the Thomas & Mack Center their expected home.

“I just love football, so it’s great to be involved,” said Neil, who has lived in the valley for 20 years. “I think Vegas needs something like this.”

It’s far from the first time the valley has gotten a team in a secondary football league. Neil even lifted the team name from the former XFL franchise that played at Sam Boyd Stadium in 2001.

The Arena Football League itself is starting a third go-around in town with the Outlaws. The Las Vegas Sting played in 1994 and 1995 before the Las Vegas Gladiators had a five-season run from 2003 to 2007.

Both experiments generally are regarded as failures, but Neil isn’t convinced.

“Of course,” Neil said when asked whether he had looked back on those teams’ histories. “There’s a lot of money involved in this team. We’re not doing this to lose money. We’re doing this to have some fun and hopefully make a buck. I know they didn’t do too well here before, but they did good enough.”

The Sting, which played their first season at MGM Grand Garden Arena before moving to the Mack, had an average attendance of 6,254 during a time when the AFL wasn’t as visible. The league didn’t have a television deal as lucrative as the one now that includes games airing live on ESPN2.

The Gladiators plummeted to 5,383 fans per game in a disastrous 2-14 season in 2007 but had attracted an average of more than 10,000 in two of the previous three years.

“That’s pretty good for Arena Football,” Neil said. “I think we can recapture that and make it even cooler. I think we can make it a lot more fun. I’m going to bring that rock ‘n’ roll edge.”

Neil even considered naming the team the Las Vegas Rocks before deciding on the Outlaws. He envisions the stands being full of families, with children dressed up like the mascot.

“I think you’ve just got to get people in the seats for them to experience one game,” Neil said. “I think after they come to a game, they’ll be hooked. It’s just so fast — touchdown after touchdown.”

The game-day experience is what sold Neil, who became a minority owner of the Jacksonville Sharks after going to a game this year. He immediately expressed a desire to bring a team to Las Vegas, and the opportunity arose quicker than expected.

Neil said he was so excited about the challenge of building a team from scratch that he turned down an offer from Westgate Resorts magnate David Siegel to purchase the franchise. Siegel got his own team, buying the Orlando Predators, while Neil went to work in Las Vegas.

Neil has been hands-on with every detail, from picking the team colors of black and gold to helping design the uniforms. He will stop short of doing a full Jerry Jones impression, though.

Neil, who grew up a Dallas Cowboys fan, won’t make personnel decisions.

“I know I shouldn’t be picking our players because I’m not that knowledgeable,” Neil said.

He will leave the expansion draft, which the league will conduct this month, to business partner Bob Hewko and coach Aaron Garcia. Hewko started at quarterback for the University of Florida in the 1980s before spending a season on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ roster. Garcia, a former Washington State and Sacramento State quarterback, retired after last season with the AFL’s all-time passing record of 62,159 yards.

The Outlaws plan to hold open tryouts after the draft to identify players with local ties. It’s one of many ways Neil wants to connect with the community.

“The main thing is, we want people to embrace this,” Neil said. “I want Las Vegas to know that the Outlaws are their team.”

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