Sin City Sports

For years, Las Vegas sports and Rebels basketball have been synonymous. That may be changing soon, thanks to the determination of Nevadans to bring a professional sports team to our state. Yes a Las Vegas NFL team may soon be a reality.

Although many people in Las Vegas have longed for a professional sports team they can call their own and root for, it did not become a real possibility until January of 2016, when Sheldon Adelson met with Raiders owner Mark Davis to propose Vegas—the largest city in the country without a big league team—as a new home for the Raiders. After the Raiders’ lease expired in Oakland, the team began its hunt for a new home, exploring locations ranging from San Antonio, to Los Angeles suburb Carson, to San Diego. Adelson is determined to put Las Vegas at the top of that list.

Until now, locals have had to satisfy themselves with minor league baseball games and arena football. According to Investopedia, this is surprising, considering that there are nearly two million residents in the metropolitan area, putting it in the same league as cities like Kansas City and Cincinnati, which already have football teams. In the same article, they go on to cite three primary reasons that the major sports leagues have been reticent to make the Valley their home:

1. Shift work at casinos and in the hospitality and entertainment industries leave fewer people available to attend Sunday games.
2. With so many options, a major sports team would have too many events to compete with for people’s discretionary spending.
3. There is potential for innumerable scandals that could bring problems for the players and the league. The NFL has already been plagued by such crises, dealing some serious blows to their brand.

What has changed? It seems that the perfect storm of events and people have come together to make the dream of an NFL team a reality for Las Vegas:

January 2016
In January of 2016, Mark Davis, the owner of the Raiders, met with Sheldon Adelson, the fourteenth richest person in America—according to Forbes— and president of Las Vegas Sands Corp. to discuss his proposal to build a domed stadium near the Strip.

May 2016
In May of 2016, Davis expressed his optimism for a move to Las Vegas in an NFL owners meeting.

June 2016
In June of 2016, the location of the proposed stadium was narrowed down to four potential locations.

August 2016
In August of 2016, Forbes announced that the Raiders had filed a trademark for the name “Las Vegas Raiders”.

September 2016
In September of this year, Governor Brian Sandoval received a proposal from the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee, asking for $1.9 billion to build 65,000-seat domed stadium. The proposal included a hike in hotel room tax, as the stadium will require $750 million in public money.

October 2016
In October of 2016, things got serious: The Nevada Senate and Assembly approved financing for a 65,000-set domed stadium in Las Vegas, nine days after Governor Brian Sandoval called a special legislative session to address financing for the stadium. The Bay Area Council told SFGate, “This vote changes nothing. We’re not giving up on keeping the Raiders in the Bay Area.

On October 18, Mark Davis told the other owners of NFL teams that he was more determined than ever to move the team to Las Vegas. He urged the NFL to move forward with the plan; “Las Vegas has already done what it is supposed to do. We just have to present it to the NFL and get the approval to move to Las Vegas.

Mark Davis has received support for his proposal to move to Las Vegas from other NFL owners, including Jerry Jones, of the Dallas Cowboys, and Robert Kraft, of the New England Patriots, who believe that the move would be “good for the NFL”. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has expressed some remaining reservations.

Vegas has been successful in its past hosting experiences, including: the National Finals Rodeo, the USA Sevens—the largest rugby event in the United States, and the Las Vegas Bowl—an NCAA bowl game. In October of 2017, Las Vegas will become the proud home of the Las Vegas NHL team.

The potential impact that professional sports offer the Las Vegas economy is tremendous. The New York Times predicts that major league teams and other developments in the area could make the city less reliant on the gaming industry. Other potential financial benefits include: the jobs created by the construction of a new stadium and in running a stadium, the publicity that a sports team would bring the city on a weekly basis, and the tourism that visiting teams bring. Beyond that, the impact of a sports team on morale and camaraderie would bring a great deal to the Las Vegas Valley, uniting the city in a common purpose: showing the rest of the country that the people of Las Vegas are proud of their city, which has a lot more to offer than gambling. According to Sports Illustrated, if all goes well, Las Vegas will have a professional football team by 2020.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have your very own personalized Fantasy Draft Party in a private suite? What about having one with limitless drinks, food, and beautiful hostesses to handle your draft board while you sit back, pick your players, and sip on an ice cold beer? Well, its Kristy here and I am going to describe just what that is all like and tell you a little about one of our previous Draft Party Nights!

When you book with Sin City VIP and Draft Party USA you not only get the full package including the draft board, player stickers, t-shirts, lovely ladies and more, but you get to pick from one of our many packages and chose a special location to fit your groups needs. The group I am about to tell you about decided to book their party at one of the beautiful MGM terrace suites overlooking the amazing Las Vegas Strip. And not only was the location awesome, but the excitement and fun atmosphere made this Draft Party one for the books!

As soon as I got in and set everything up, I met the guys, gathered their team names and introduced them to the hostesses. Lucky for them, I actually was one of their hostesses and made sure this would be a draft to remember. We set up some fun drinking games to play through out the draft and with five minutes to game time the guys stepped outside and shotgunned some beers to get the party started!

The Draft started and already in the 2nd round one of my guys called out a player that had already been taken! So I blew my whistle, handed him a shot of fireball, and moved on to the next draft pick. By the 6th round a few of my guys were on their 3rd shot and things were starting to get rowdy. The music got a little louder, the guys got a little more relaxed, and the players getting picked were starting to go down in value.

Once the 9th round finished we took a half time break, ate some pizza, had a few more beers and started making fun of the guy who drafted a kicker in the 5th round! The Draft was going great and once the last pick of the 18th round was made the guys celebrated as we took some pictures, turned the music up even louder, and looked over everyone’s teams. I even had my own team as for one of the guys wasn’t there and did not Skype us through so the guys let me be in charge of his pics. (I must say I drafted a pretty good damn team) The night was wrapping up, draft was successful, guys were tipsy, and I am about to pack up and head out. Of course, I spoke too soon. One of my guys had just one too many shots and as he went to take a look at his draft picks he falls over, breaks the draft board, and vomits everywhere. But hey, at least I know he had a good time!

And that’s just a glimpse into what a Fantasy Draft Party is like when you book with Sin City VIP and Draft Party USA. But in order for you to truly know just how much fun this is, book your next Draft Party with us and you will never forget how much fun you had!

The kickoff to the 2015 football season also brings an end to the fantasy draft party season in Las Vegas.  The entire city felt the positive impact of the thousands of fantasy football owners who came to Las Vegas to hold their draft party, attend one of the many fantasy sports conferences and enjoy the best of the Vegas Strip.  Destination draft parties are a fantastic way to build league tradition and create lifetime memories.  As the popularity of fantasy sports continues to grow, so too does Las Vegas as the most popular draft party location in America.

2015 marks the sixth year that Sin City VIP has been the draft party provider for a number of the most popular locations on the Vegas Strip.  Owner Frank Corto has been recognized for growing draft parties into a season of events that benefits the entire Strip industry in Las Vegas.

“The growth in terms of numbers is incredible,” Corto said, “but what I really notice is the excitement and enthusiasm of the guests themselves.  These leagues are more fired up than ever; having a blast but still taking their draft seriously.”

While the traditional favorite draft locations such as Lagasse’s Stadium and Venus Pool Club stayed busy throughout the draft season it was Sapphire Pool & Dayclub that made the biggest splash on the 2015 fantasy draft season in Las Vegas.  The package at Sapphire Pool included round trip limo service, bikini draft hostess, private VIP cabana and $500 food & beverage credit.

“The energy at the (Sapphire) dayclub was unreal.  Every cabana had a draft board with 10 guys going hard.  One of the prizes for each draft was a set of jumbo Mardi Gras beads for last year’s champ.  All the guys at the pool who had the beads on were looking at each other like ‘Yeah Bro, I see you!’; so the leagues were feeding off each other and it was fun to see.”, said Sin City VIP host Billy D.

The power of the NFL has a long reach and in 2015 the Las Vegas Strip hosted fantasy football leagues from all across America and the World!  International drafters came from Mexico City, Canada, The UK and even Australia.  New locations on the Las Vegas strip are advertising as fantasy draft party locations as the growth of this new sports season increases faster each year.

“We’ve come a long way from our first draft party in 2010.”, said owner, Frank Corto.  “We setup a draft board in the middle of the Aria sports book and nobody said a word to us.  We tried it again the next week and security shut us down.  We walked that group over to The Deuce and still put together a legendary event for those guys.”

Sin City VIP received many compliments throughout the draft season and many guests have already inquired about reservations for next year.  The locations are also very excited about the success of this year’s events and details for 2016 draft party packages are already being discussed.

Pre-bookings for select locations will be available through Sin City VIP by January 1st.

Sin City VIP is a professional party planning company in Las Vegas and was recently featured on NBC’s First Look as the draft party provider at Lagasse’s Stadium at Palazzo.  Watch the segment – click here