After just six short years, the Vegas Golden Knights – the first major sports team to come to Sin City – hoisted the Stanley Cup last night, winning the National Hockey League championship.
The Knights’ win comes nine months after the Las Vegas Aces, the city’s Women's National Basketball Association team, won its first championship, in September 2022, and while the Nevada Legislature debates a proposal to help fund a Major League Baseball stadium in Las Vegas for the relocating Oakland Athletics.
Las Vegas has had a National Football League team, the Raiders, since 2020, when the team moved from Oakland.
But the Golden Knights was Vegas’ first member of the four major professional sports leagues (including the National Basketball Association) and its championship, combined with the other exploding sports activity in Sin City, suggests the beginning of a new golden era for the entertainment mecca.
The Knights won the Stanley Cup in convincing fashion, beating the Florida Panthers 4 games to 1, closing out the series with a dominating 9-3 win. Forward Jonathan Marchessault, one of the few remaining players from the Knights' original 2017-18 squad, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the NHL playoff's most valuable player.
Tuesday’s closeout game, in Las Vegas, was sold out, with thousands more fans gathered outside T-Mobile Arena on the Strip, prompting NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to remark after the game, “Not only is Vegas a hockey town, it's a championship town.”
Partying after the game stretched deep into the evening. A victory parade is expected at some point, but no plans have been announced yet. It's anticipated the Knights' parade will mirror that of the Aces', which began its parade on Caesars Palace Drive and traveled down the Strip ending in front of the Bellagio Fountain.
The quick success of both the Knights and the Aces – the latter of whom relocated from San Antonio, Texas in 2018 – combined with the Raiders and the push for the Athletics highlights the growing importance live sports plays to Las Vegas. With conference attendance still recovering in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vegas casinos need amenities to attract visitors – and live sports appear to quickly be filling that void.
The Golden Knights draw roughly 18,000 attendees to home games; the Raiders, more than 55,000; the Aces, more than 5,000.
For decades, the major professional sports leagues shied away from having teams in Las Vegas, fearing that the proximity to gambling would impact the integrity of their games. But it was Golden Knights owner Bill Foley who broke through, purchasing an NHL expansion team in 2016 and having the foresight to seek to locate it in Las Vegas when effectively no one else would consider it.
Ironically, before the Golden Knights had even taken the ice, Foley predicted his new team would win the Stanley Cup in six years. With that kind of predictive ability, he’d fit perfectly at a Las Vegas casino roulette table.
