The city of Las Vegas is having a moment right now, sports-wise. You know about the Vegas Golden Knights winning it all in 2023 by beating the Florida Panthers in five games. But they're not the only team riding a wave of success.
The Little League Baseball team from Summerlin made it to the championship round in the Little League World Series. On Saturday, the Vegas Knight Hawks (Bill Foley's other team... and they're actually in Henderson) won their first IFL Championship by edging the Green Bay Blizzard, 64-61. When I say "edging," I mean they squeezed by them.
Still, a win's a win.
The wealth isn't don't being spread, though. There are the Las Vegas Aces, who've won 10 straight games and stormed (not from Seattle) back into the championship conversation. Mind you, this is a team that has won back-to-back championships recently.
Hats off to you, ladies. Angel Reese would never.
That leaves a couple of outliers. First, the Las Vegas Raiders haven't done much since moving to Sin City, aside from one playoff appearance (2021). Then, there are the Las Vegas Athletics of Oakland by way of Sacramento. They're dead last in the AL West and John Fisher's chomping at the bit to sell off more players (Rob Manfred would probably let him since he's a goober).
So, what does this have to do with Las Vegas as a sports city (particularly with the Vegas Golden Knights)?
For starters, Las Vegas wouldn't have become a bona fide sports city without the Golden Knights. Sure, you can point to the UNLV Runnin' Rebels of the 1990s and say they put Sin City on the map. After all, Jerry Tarkanian deserves his flowers for creating one of the best college basketball teams ever.
But it was the Golden Knights who got the ball rolling professionally. An underdog Stanley Cup run in 2017-18 combined with a value-based approach turned them into a legitimate threat. But that mindset carried over from a tenured stigma about the city.
You see, not many people thought fondly of Las Vegas as being a sports city. There was the whole reputation of "tarnishing the sports world with gambling" and all sorts of scandals that ruined its sterling reputation. Nobody would dare touch this town with a 10-foot pole 20 years ago.
Now? That reputation has evaporated. Now, every league wants to come to Las Vegas in hopes of making it, whether it's baseball or indoor volleyball. Even with tourism numbers cooling off because of greed and gluttony, the city is still experiencing an influx of interest from other leagues.
Overall, that's a great thing for Las Vegas. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and it's only going to grow. It doesn't matter if it's bull-riding fans coming to town, boxing fans ready to watch Canelo Alvarez fight, or hockey fans watching their favorite team face the Golden Knights. Sin City has become "the city with sex appeal," with the future possibilities being endless.