New Arena Can Bring NBA, NHL to Las Vegas

Harrah's Entertainment recently announced that is partnering with AEG, the company that brought David Beckham to the Los Angeles Galaxy, to build a 20,000-seat arena capable of housing an NBA or NHL team in Las Vegas. The arena will cost $500 million and will be built behind Bally's and Paris hotel casinos on the Las Vegas strip. The expected date of completion is 2010.

This is the first step to getting a sports franchise in Las Vegas, the largest city in America without a single professional team. Officials in Las Vegas and in professional leagues have been very reluctant to have a team in the casino-laden team due to legalized gambling.

Mayor Goodman already had plans to build an arena downtown and is still moving forward with his plans. The Harrah's-AEG Arena is outside the city limits in unincorporated Clark County.

Harrah's is currently going under new management as it prepares to be bought by two private equity firms for $17.1 billion. Harrah's owns nine properties in Las Vegas, including Caesar's Palace, Flamingo, and Bally's.

AEG, a subsidiary of Denver billionaire and Qwest Communications founder Philip Anschutz's Anschutz Co., owns the Galaxy and the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The company has previously done business with Harrah's by booking such artists as Celine Dion and Bette Midler at Caesar's Palace.

This arena not only affects if basketball and hockey can eventually move into Las Vegas, but also adds another state-of-the-art arena to host boxing and mixed martial arts.

NHL commissioner Bill Daly said that this move is positively affecting the possibility of Las Vegas getting a hockey team. However, there is no further update on the progress of that happening at this moment.

NBA commissioner David Stern was scheduled to hear Mayor Goodman's proposal on bringing in an NBA franchise, but the league was tied up with the betting scandal involving former referee Tim Donaghy. No word yet on the rescheduling of the meeting.

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