LAS VEGAS – The Madness starts early here.
It used to be that the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament was the time when hoteliers, restaurateurs and the rest of the hospitality and gambling industries looked forward to the third weekend in March, when fans bored with office pools descended on the hotels and their casinos and sports books to watch (and bet on) college basketball.
How far we have come, from the days when the NCAA was so terrified of any association with gambling that it gave ‘Vegas the hands-off treatment. Now, not only has conference tournament time transformed this place into the mecca of college hoops in the West, but the West Regional Sweet 16 will be back here in two weeks. And the 2028 Final Four will take place in Las Vegas, at Allegiant Stadium.
What changed? It’s hard to tell, although when the Orleans Arena landed a 2006 game between Kansas and Florida it may have softened college administrators’ resistance to playing within walking distance of a casino. And the Supreme Court’s decision in 2018 to strike down state laws against sports betting may have convinced NCAA and individual schools’ administrators that it was foolish to continue to demonize Las Vegas.
The effect is clear: Five Division I conferences based in the Pacific and Mountain time zones now hold their conference tournaments on or near to the Strip. The Big Sky, which plays its conference tournament in Boise, is the only conference in this region not represented here.
When you think of it, should we maybe blame Wayne Gretzky?
Seriously. When Gretzky’s Kings and the New York Rangers played an outdoor exhibition game in September, 1991, in a temporary arena in the Caesars Palace parking lot usually used for boxing, it’s safe to say the conditions weren’t ideal for hockey. The aftereffect, however, was that a number of casinos began construction of their own indoor events centers, which ultimately led to the construction of T-Mobile Arena and the…
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