Columnist Dean Juipe: Goodman says NFL is doable

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4084.

With Oscar Goodman seemingly only a month away from being elected mayor of Las Vegas, his campaign platforms will come under increased scrutiny between now and the June 8 general election.

After all, his government "for the people" is about to become reality if his excellent showing in Tuesday's primary is any indication. And among the many goals he has set for his administration is one that pertains to sports, and that's bringing a National Football League franchise to Las Vegas.

If he had said the city should court a Major League Baseball team, it would be a strike against him. Las Vegas does not have the population base to support such an endeavor.

Las Vegas is also marginal in terms of being able to support a National Basketball Association or National Hockey League team, in the event one wanted to move here.

But the NFL is another story. While baseball would require an average of 25,000 fans at 81 home games every year, and both basketball and hockey would need to average 15,000 for some 40 home games per season, the NFL is eight games -- 10 with exhibitions -- and that's something Las Vegas and its 1.2 million population could, and would, handle.

Nonetheless, there are people in this town who are skeptical to the point of belligerence when it comes to discussing the NFL.

But they're not thinking clearly. They overestimate the league's reluctance to do business in Las Vegas, and they underestimate the potential ability of the city's gaming-mogul financiers to get the job done.

"I can absolutely tell you that there are people in this city who are having discussions with the NFL right now," Goodman said during a break in his campaign Thursday. "These are major players and businessmen on the Strip."

Beyond gauging the NFL's interest, the first step, of course, would be building an appropriate stadium. Something in the 60,000 range would be required and Goodman said it would have to come from private funds.

"Even though the city would benefit greatly (from an NFL team), I would never burden the taxpayers with paying for a stadium," Goodman said. "The money would have to come from the private sector."

The private sector -- specifically, Dallas businessman Paul Tanner -- once envisioned an elaborate, maybe even magnificent, domed stadium near downtown. Tanner's plans, which included adding an NFL team, fell apart a couple of years ago when a pivotal local businessman dropped from his roster of supporters.

While Tanner's stadium was too big and too state-of-the-art expensive, he already had his foot in the door with the NFL. He maintained -- and seemed believable saying it -- that he could have had the Los Angeles Rams before they moved to St. Louis and part of that transaction was his promise to relocate the Rams in Las Vegas once a stadium was constructed.

The point is, the NFL has no inherent objection to placing a team here, aside from the fact there would be no betting on that team's games in the city's legalized sports books. The NFL is a business that follows the money, and money is flowing freely in Las Vegas.

You would be blind to not recognize as much. And the incoming mayor is not blind.

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