MGM Resorts Int'l CFO Dan D'Arrigo on Thursday acknowledged that the company has "held discussions with a group" looking to bring an NHL team to Las Vegas, but he noted that the talks "were preliminary," according to Howard Stutz of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. The casino operator is building a $350M arena and event center behind New York-New York Hotel & Casino on the Strip in partnership with AEG, which owns the NHL Kings. D'Arrigo "didn’t go into details on the talks and whether the group was looking to move an existing NHL team to Las Vegas or seeking an expansion franchise." He said, "We’re highly interested and we have been in discussions with a group." Stutz noted MGM Resorts "will have three arena-type facilities on the Strip; the new project, the MGM Grand Garden and the Mandalay Bay Events Center" (REVIEWJOURNAL.com, 10/30). THE HOCKEY NEWS' Adam Proteau wrote of MGM partnering with AEG, "If you want to get a foot in the door of the NHL, this is one of the ways you do it. Networking matters in this league." But Proteau asked, "With all the glitz and glamour of the Vegas Strip fighting for the eyeballs and pocketbooks of tourists, what exactly can the NHL do to stand out from the rest of the pack?" The attraction "can’t be the players on the roster, who will be the flotsam and jetsam of the league in an expansion draft." There is also "every chance the franchise will be mismanaged for years, if not decades." There "will be a certain amount of hype and happiness in Vegas if the NHL became the first professional sports league to operate there, but once that giddiness fades after a few years, there is next to no grassroots/amateur hockey scene in the area." Even if MGM "gives away tickets to its casino patrons, there’s no guarantee those tickets will be used" (THEHOCKEYNEWS.com, 10/30).
