The arrival of the Golden Knights and the potential relocation of the Raiders to Las Vegas "present enormous retail prospects for everything from T-shirts to all forms of logoed merchandise," according to Richard Velotta of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. Exhibitors and retail reps at this week’s Sports Licensing and Tailgate Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center, which about 4,000 people are attending over the course of three days, have said that the arrival of a team in the city is a "novelty many sports fans won’t be able to resist." In fact, panelists said that visitors "don't have to be fans to buy into the Golden Knights." Missouri-based Forward Sports Marketing Dir of National Sponsorships Brian Skurdal said, "Certainly Las Vegas will develop a good fan base for the NHL and the NFL, but there’s a lot of potential for those teams to be secondary favorite teams for a lot of people that travel here." He added of Las Vegas teams, "From a licensing perspective, it could be one of the top grossing licenses in each individual sport simply because everybody’s going to buy something and it doesn’t have to be your primary team." Meanwhile, Memory Co. CEO Charles Sizemore said of current sales, "With the Cubs, we saw business increase 550 percent this year. The best thing for us next year would be for the Indians to win. This year, we were hoping for the Raiders and the Cowboys to make it to the Super Bowl. That would have sold well. Now, we’re looking at the Packers because one of the nation’s biggest retailers, Kohl’s, is based in Wisconsin. It isn’t as good for a team that has been there recently, like the Patriots" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 1/19).
