One of the big mantras repeated from Bill Foley and George McPhee is that the new Las Vegas NHL hockey franchise has to connect with the community, and can’t depend on outside tourists to buy tickets. In a recent ESPN interview, McPhee predicted that “if it is easy for visitors to get tickets to the game, this franchise will struggle.”
Just weeks after its birth, the Las Vegas hockey franchise is already getting elbow deep in the local hockey community. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Las Vegas Knights – a local police hockey team, is getting some love from the franchise. Bill Foley is reported to have a soft side toward’s his old alma mater’s West Point Black Knights name.
Foley’s team is helping get the word out that the Las Vegas version of the Knights is hosting a police hockey team from Charlotte-Mecklenberg in the Carolinas for a fundraiser game at SoBe Ice Arena, this Saturday, 30 July at 3:45 pm. Game proceeds go to help FEAT (Families for Effective Autism Treatment) with tickets, running $10 each.
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The former Las Vegas Wranglers of the East Coast Hockey League (yeah, don’t get me started on why a Nevada team was playing in the ECHL) was pretty successful locally. I still have my 6″ high Wrangler’s mascot “The Duke” figure sitting on my desk. The Wranglers were very active in local amateur hockey, and among other things supported the Las Vegas Knights Police team. It does my heart proud that already Foley’s team is showing support for community hockey.
Still on that ESPN interview, McPhee noted that Las Vegas Hockey had already sold 15,000 season tickets, and he personally expected that in “two to three years it will be a tough ticket to get.” Getting involved in the community s going to put hockey in the desert on a solid foundation.