While Golden Knights Owner Bill Foley yesterday congratulated Raiders Owner Mark Davis on "becoming the second" pro club in Las Vegas, Foley "knows the Raiders coming to town will create competition for ticket dollars," according to Jesse Granger of the LAS VEGAS SUN. Foley: "If I had complete control of the situation, I would not have opted to have the Raiders come here. But I didn’t, so I welcome them." Foley said, "There is only a select group of cities in North America that are home to both an NHL and an NFL franchise and Vegas is now one of them." Granger notes the city is only nine months removed from having no professional sports teams, and before Foley’s efforts to bring the NHL to Las Vegas, it was "never seriously considered by most leagues." If not for Foley’s vision for major sports in Las Vegas, Davis and the Raiders "may have never considered the move." Golden Knights President Kerry Bubolz said, "I don’t want to speak for the NFL, but they had to be watching during the ticket drive and all the positive press that the city received during that." Bubolz added that the Raiders would "provide some benefits for the hockey team." Bubolz: "What it does bring is the visibility of the NFL, which gives all of us a broader platform" (LAS VEGAS SUN, 3/28).
HEAD START PROGRAM: In Toronto, Damien Cox writes having the NFL in Vegas with the NHL is like being "little old Canada" living next to the U.S. When the elephant "rolls over in bed, you will surely notice." However, by the time the Raiders "actually get to Sin City to play a football game, the Golden Knights will have had at least two full seasons to win fans, plant lasting roots in the community and establish an identity." Cox: "They’re just going to have to be an excellent organization right away and be very persuasive in their attempts to convince another non-traditional hockey market that it needs to fall in love with the sport." But even if the Golden Knights "do everything right, it will still be impossible for them to ever be anything other than the No. 2 team in town" (TORONTO STAR, 3/28).
