Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

WHERE I STAND:

This city’s rally cry: Go Knights, go!

I am putting important matters on ice for a while.

Instead, I want to talk about something really important. Hockey. Ice hockey to be exact. Vegas Golden Knights’ hockey to be precise. And what has happened to Las Vegas during the last few months since Bill Foley’s team adopted a city — and vice versa.

I believe I am like most Knights fans — you know, people who had barely ever seen an ice hockey game let alone actually rooted for a home team. But, it sure didn’t take long for that to change. Not since Jerry Tarkanian’s Runnin’ Rebels captured the hearts and minds of a young city looking for something or someone to rally around more than 40 years ago has Las Vegas found a reason to cheer, scream, jump up and down and find joy in every slap shot and power play at T-Mobile Arena.

And, now? Now the impossible. Or, at least the highly improbable. And it is happening just down the street and in Washington, D.C.

Yes, the Stanley Cup Final.

No matter how many times we say those words, the fathoming of that feat of athletic ability, coaching brilliance and incomparable fan support is still beyond comprehension. For how can a first-year, expansion team in the National Hockey League even think, perchance even dream, of playing for the Stanley Cup?

And, yet, here we are. And so, too, are millions of people throughout North America and around the world who love Las Vegas anyway and now have even more reason to focus their attention on the Entertainment and now the Sports Capital of the World. And, who knows, with a potential Super Bowl at Las Vegas’ Raider Stadium just across the freeway from T-Mobile and there is no longer any question about Las Vegas’ pre-eminence in the sporting world.

Can baseball and basketball be that far behind?

That’s what happens with the kind of success the Golden Knights have already achieved. Las Vegas can dream bigger and better with no end in sight. All because Mr. Foley and a town with pent-up sports demand took the risk.

I am not certain we could even think like this if the Golden Knights didn’t achieve the kind of success we celebrate today. But, they did and we are.

So, from a fellow who knew nothing about hockey before this year and now believes deeply that the Stanley Cup is coming to Las Vegas, I will speak for all of Las Vegas and most of the rest of the world.

Go Knights, go!

Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.